Cotton mouth on Discus tank mate

[LizStreithorst]

Greg, Al has been taking good care of you with this problem so I'll let him answer. I hope that your son has an idea the lengths you have gone to to take care of his fish.

[Greg-Florida]

Greg, Al has been taking good care of you with this problem so I'll let him answer. I hope that your son has an idea the lengths you have gone to to take care of his fish.

Thank you Liz. I don’t think my son really knows the lengths but he knows I’m taking care of them and I speak to him every week and I’m not sure how appreciative he is.
If they were my fish I probably wouldn’t be as inquisitive but I’m pet sitting so extra care must be taken and there’s a steep learning curve so it’s a lot of information at once and I’m a little overloaded at work so things have been tough lately. I’m having issues with the corals as well. I appreciate you checking in, and it would be nice if others would chime in.

[Greg-Florida]

So How fast does ammonia build in a 29G with a little bit of food and waste on the bottom, are we talking hours or a day or two? I’m testing and results aren’t very revealing. I’m feeding very little of course because it’s just one fish.
Another question because I heard the only dumb question is the one not asked and the directions are very vague, so after a 25% water change after four days, are you redosing a full dose which would mean the concentration of medicine is higher in the tank?

[Greg-Florida]

Tonight ammonia is 0.25 ppm and nitrites are zero, nitrate is 0.

[brewmaster15]

A note on the ammonia..Yes ammonia will come from that little bit of food and waste in the tank but a very large source of the Ammonia in a tank is actually from the fishes Gills. Fish don't pass ammonia products out of their bodies like we do in the form of urine.. they excrete it from their gills. So if you have fish you have ammonia as a by-product of the food they eat and metabolism... it can build fast if the biofilter is impaired.

Yes your medication concentration would be higher by the reason that you havent removed it all and are adding more but chemicals break down in water and the mfg has probably factored that in..thats my thought and why many discus hobbyists tend to do large water changes daily when treating and redose.
Al

[Greg-Florida]

A note on the ammonia..Yes ammonia will come from that little bit of food and waste in the tank but a very large source of the Ammonia in a tank is actually from the fishes Gills. Fish don't pass ammonia products out of their bodies like we do in the form of urine.. they excrete it from their gills. So if you have fish you have ammonia as a by-product of the food they eat and metabolism... it can build fast if the biofilter is impaired.

Yes your medication concentration would be higher by the reason that you havent removed it all and are adding more but chemicals break down in water and the mfg has probably factored that in..thats my thought and why many discus hobbyists tend to do large water changes daily when treating and redose.
Al

Good, thanks for the explanation - that helps a lot. I think I'll give him another day or 2 in the qt since he seems to be cleared of the infection visually and then move him back to the discus tank.