Is Black Discus disease curable?

[ani_discus]

Drear friends, my 6 Blue Diamonds were very sick 2 weeks back. They were scratching their bodies frequently, their fins were contracted and were releasing slime. But after 2 weeks of medication, fortunately, I have succeded to keep them alive. Now 5 of them are doing good. Some of them are even almost cured. But 1 has turned completely black. Came to know that this is called Discus Plague or Black Discus disease. The affected one is moving normally and not showing signs of being sick. It is even coming forward. My question is, am I guessing right? Is this Black Discus disease? If yes, then is it curable? And what is the medicine and treatement process?

Aniruddha

[bluelagoon]

What was your treatment? How do you know it is Discus plague? Might be better if you fill out the questionnaire in the disease suction. It'll give folks more to go by.

[Iminit]

I doubt it’s the plaque. You probably have a cross contamination. What have you added recently to the tank and what did you treat with?

[jeep]

When discus get sick they turn dark. Blue Diamonds can turn darker than others and be almost black. It's not a disease, it's a symptom. This sounds like bacterial or parasitical cross contamination.

The first thing I would do is place your discus in a bare bottom tank and add 5 tablespoons of salt per 10 gallons and I would plan on doing 50% (or more) water changes every day with aged water.

I'm not sure what type of meds you have available to you, but this condition can usually be treated with nitrofurazone and salt. Another possible option is to use Rid Ich Plus. It's an anti parasitical med that also treats some bacterial issues.

It would be very helpful if you could fill out this form and paste it back here. This can eliminate some guesswork and really help narrow down the problem...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...lease-complete

[Discus Fever]

Without knowing a lot about your situation just by you saying there were scratching tells me it is external parasites. My personal opinion is I would use Erythromycin 1 gram for every 40 gallons. Leave it for 3 days without any water changes and on the 4th day do a 30% water change. After that you can go back to whatever water changes you were doing prior to that.

[ani_discus]

@Iminit, jeep, Discus Fever, bluelagoon, Thanks a lot to all of you for the response. I am absolutely new in Discus keeping. Its great to know that, people are there to help me. I know many of you might shout on me if I say that I am keeping Discues in borewell water that has 810 PPM TDS and PH of 7.5 (According to my PH paper test understanding). Right now I dont have the facility to provide RO or other soft water. But hopping to sort that problem out soon. I am making a setup with all the facility and it will be functional from next month I guess. Will share the details of that with you guys as well. Currently apart from a TDS meter and a PH test strip I dont have other test kit. I will get them as soon as possible. But trust me my fishes were doing just fine in that water. I was giving them home made GHM and Hikari food. all of them were active.

Actually the fault or the mistake was mine. They did show signs by flashing and scratching in the innitial phase. But I ignored that. Now I am paying the price.

2 weeks back I started medication. I used 30% formalin in 3 ml for 100 ltr ratio and rock salt in 100gram for 100 ltr ratio, with a heater, temperature set to 32 degree C. After 2 weeks of this treatment, I gave the first dose Antibiotics. After 3 days, tomorrow I will give the second dose.
As per the note I made after refering various sources on the internet, there will be a 3rd dose as well.

This is the update so far. Will share the progress/status with you guys.

Thanks again for the help. I am seriously trying to learn to keep Discus.

And yes, they are in a bare bottom tank.

[brewmaster15]

Hi,
A few notes here. Mixing salt and formalin is not a good combination..it can cause issues.

What antibiotic are you using?

The formalin you were using was the best course of action. The scratching sounds like protozoans parasites.. the classic" plague "did not cause that.

My guess is your formalin treatments were working but youdid not use it enough.. when treating a protozoan parasite with formalin you need to dose daily after a very large water change. Add extra aeration and black out the tank... if you have access to formalin with malachite green.. you can use that as well.Its more effective .

Please becareful of your sources for information.. there are far too many people out there that advise truly dangerous and ignorant things..often from second hand sourced or from sheer ignorance on how medications and treatments work.

Al

Ps.. your pH is fine ..my pH is 7.6 .. your tds
is probably okay too but really doesnt give you alot of info..its just a measure of total dissolved solids.. I would not worry about it at this point.

[ani_discus]

Hi,
A few notes here. Mixing salt and formalin is not a good combination..it can cause issues.

What antibiotic are you using?

The formalin you were using was the best course of action. The scratching sounds like protozoans parasites.. the classic" plague "did not cause that.

My guess is your formalin treatments were working but youdid not use it enough.. when treating a protozoan parasite with formalin you need to dose daily after a very large water change. Add extra aeration and black out the tank... if you have access to formalin with malachite green.. you can use that as well.Its more effective .

Please becareful of your sources for information.. there are far too many people out there that advise truly dangerous and ignorant things..often from second hand sourced or from sheer ignorance on how medications and treatments work.

Al

Ps.. your pH is fine ..my pH is 7.6 .. your tds
is probably okay too but really doesnt give you alot of info..its just a measure of total dissolved solids.. I would not worry about it at this point.

Okay, so there could be some other issues with the water it self you presume? I am little confused. But the sunny part is that, they are swiming now freely. Couple of weeks back they were almost flat. Yes I know Internet is a very risky place to deal. Infact I didn't know about this community. Anyway, I am considering this as my learning phase. Also trying to get the other test wquipments as soon as possible.

Thanks

[ani_discus]

Okay, so there could be some other issues with the water it self you presume? I am little confused. But the sunny part is that, they are swiming now freely. Couple of weeks back they were almost flat. Yes I know Internet is a very risky place to deal. Infact I didn't know about this community. Anyway, I am considering this as my learning phase. Also trying to get the other test wquipments as soon as possible.

Thanks

Sorry, missed to mention the name of the Antibiotics. Its Almox 500.
I actually mixed Formalin with Salt after asking a very famous Discus farm of US. I dont want to mention the name here. The gentleman told me that I can use Salt and formalin together.

[brewmaster15]

Sorry, missed to mention the name of the Antibiotics. Its Almox 500.
I actually mixed Formalin with Salt after asking a very famous Discus farm of US. I dont want to mention the name here. The gentleman told me that I can use Salt and formalin together.

It is best to use either Formalin or salt. If treating with formalin this chemical consumes alot of oxygen. Its also toxic. They warmer the water the water the more toxic. Its hard to find a fish more like Discus in their warm water tanks. That toxicity is going to burn gills and any raw areas that protozoan have caused. Adding a small amount of salt will probably not harm anything and can help with osmo-regulation but as the salt level is increased, its an irritant to the gills as well . If the Gills were not burned by the formalin, the salt alone would not be an issue. This is why I said A few notes here. Mixing salt and formalin is not a good combination..it can cause issues.
Its concentration dependent and depends on the health of the fish, Formalin alone is really only useful for parasites where it is highly effective... using it with salt at concentrations that are high enough for the salt to be therapeutic in treating parasites really just doesn't make sense and could stress out your fish more , something you want to avoid when they are already very sick.. Using at concentrations that are not high enough to be therapeutic is pointless. Just because its done, doesn't mean its the best or safest course of action. Fish keepers do all kinds of misguided things to their fish all the time.

al

[brewmaster15]

Sorry, missed to mention the name of the Antibiotics. Its Almox 500.
I actually mixed Formalin with Salt after asking a very famous Discus farm of US. I dont want to mention the name here. The gentleman told me that I can use Salt and formalin together.

Almox 500 is Amoxicillan, It may help with any secondary infections but will not help with protozoans nor will it help with a virus(nothing but time will).. Its down side is it will affect your tanks Biological filter ( as will the formalin) Its really important you do large water changes here before dosing and should monitor Ammonia and Nitrites as they will spike stressing the fish even more.

What kind of water changes are you making?

al

[ani_discus]

Almox 500 is Amoxicillan, It may help with any secondary infections but will not help with protozoans nor will it help with a virus(nothing but time will).. Its down side is it will affect your tanks Biological filter ( as will the formalin) Its really important you do large water changes here before dosing and should monitor Ammonia and Nitrites as they will spike stressing the fish even more.

What kind of water changes are you making?

al

When I was using formalin, I was doing a 70% water change. I should mention here that from the day I started applying formalin, I redused the water level to less than half of the tank (Tank height - 18 inch), because I saw they are crowding at the urface of the water. After reducing the water level I saw an immidiate effect in their behaviour. They started looking much more in comfort. After that till today, Thye are in the half filled tank.

Now as you are saying that the problem will be resolved by its own, but will take time. Shall I stop putting antibiotics (After completing the 9 day's course) and use rock salt only? Shall I increase the water level too?

[brewmaster15]

When I was using formalin, I was doing a 70% water change. I should mention here that from the day I started applying formalin, I redused the water level to less than half of the tank (Tank height - 18 inch), because I saw they are crowding at the urface of the water. After reducing the water level I saw an immidiate effect in their behaviour. They started looking much more in comfort. After that till today, Thye are in the half filled tank.

Now as you are saying that the problem will be resolved by its own, but will take time. Shall I stop putting antibiotics (After completing the 9 day's course) and use rock salt only? Shall I increase the water level too?

Hi , Im sorry I didn't say it would resolve on its own.. That would happen if this was a virus like is what Discus Plague was. Your fish have a parasite by my best guess.. If so they will need treatment.

How long did you treat with Formalin. What kind of aeration and filtration is on the tank. They were probably at the top of the tank because of the high temperature and lack of oxygen. You mentioned you treated with formalin for 2 weeks? how often did you dose it..daily?

Please post more images of the tank and the fish here.

Thanks,
al