Back in the discus hobby

[Jandiscus]

Before the treatment, I removed the remaining sand. While it looked nice it was difficult to keep it clean as the combination of discus slime and small detritus particles tend to stick to it. The picture shows the amount of detritus that accumulated in one area of the tank over a period of 24 hours. I would estimate a similar amount in other parts of the tank. That is from seven 5.5-6.5" fish that are being fed 4 times a day. I feed:

6 grams of beef heart
30 granules of Tetra Colour
2 cubes of FDBW
2 cubes of red worms or artemia

IMG_6912.jpg

[brewmaster15]

Finished up a 24-hour bath with Levamisole HCL as the last step of the "onboarding" process. Dosage was 4ppm, lights off. Fish are fine, very skittish and little appetite which I believe to be normal for this treatment. The following day, 17 hours later the fish are still skittish and have very little to no appetite. I remember this from my previous discus days. They go back to normal after a few days.

Attachment 139062

Correct! Just give them time and clean water Jan.

[Jandiscus]

Just performed my 2nd 65% water change and that plus a few more hours of time did the trick. Right after the change they went after a cube of FDBW with the usual frenzy.

[Jandiscus]

Fish continue to do well. I went on a 24 hour business trip with no issues. The autofeeder dropped approx. 30+ granules of Tetra color 3 times a day and all I found when I got back was the usual (although smaller) amount of brownish feces. No white stringy ones anywhere.



The "problem fish" sems to have fully recovered after the levamisole bath. He is no longer staying in a corner and is swimming with all of the other fish. I am very content with where I am with this fish tank at this point. I'll be doing a 3-day trip next week and then another 8-9 days right around Easter. As I had mentioned before, my approach is to feed and overfeed while I am in town to fatten them up, paired with daily 65% water changes, followed by smaller feedings while I am gone to sustain an acceptable water quality. The purpose of this journal/thread is to document of whether or not it is possible to keep discus, even when travelling. I'll keep reporting on the highs and lows.

Should I do another levamisole bath down the road? I read that some do 3 of them in a row, once a week. Others just do one more two or three weeks after the first one to catch any larvae that might have hatched from eggs in the meantime. Thank you for your guidance on this one, as I would prefer to medicate as little as possible.

[brewmaster15]

Generally 3 treatments work best Jan... something like day 0, day 7, day 21. In most cases the first two doses will knock everything out. The 3rd dose is insurance incase you missed something.

Hth,
Al

[Jandiscus]

Generally 3 treatments work best Jan... something like day 0, day 7, day 21. In most cases the first two doses will knock everything out. The 3rd dose is insurance incase you missed something.

Hth,
Al

Thank you Al - will do.

[Jandiscus]

All is good here in the fish tank. They are healthy, hungry, active and are fun to watch. I am still sticking to my 4 feedings a day routine and 5 times on weekends. Still doing 65% daily wc's. Unfortunately, the timing for the 3rd Levamisole treatment is overlapping with my travel schedule, so I will have to skip it and hope for the best. I have not seen any further symptoms since the first treatment.

Between now and May 22 (two months) I will be gone for 28 days. Never longer than for a week but still quite some time away from the fish tank. This will be the ultimate test to see if the fish not only survive but remain healthy and not get stunted on the way. Feeding is 3 x/day Tetra granules, approximately 30 of them each feeding. Last time I was gone for 9 days I did this and saw no negative effects. Fingers crossed!

[brewmaster15]

Jan everyone looks happy and healthy. They should be fine without their minder for 28 days.

[danotaylor]

They look great Jan. Some big thick discus in the mix there mate. Very nice!

[Jandiscus]

Thank you Daniel

[Jandiscus]

Just a quick update on how things are going with my tank. I have been travelling several times over the past 5 weeks or so. Longest was a 7-day trip, shortest a 2 nigh stay. When I am home, I change 65% of the water daily and feed several times to get them beefed up as much as possible while I am gone.
The one fish that was dealing with internal parasites once again showed the presence thereof. The white stringy poop showed it clearly under the microscope. It was also evident that he was not growing, while all the others notably have. I was getting worried that the fish will continue to expel parasites into the tank and eventually impact the other fish. Sine the two rounds of Levamisole did not eradicate the parasite and I did not want to go through another round of treatments of the whole tank, I decided to remove and cull the fish. I am now down to 6 healthy fish. Difficult choice but in the end, I feel that this was the right call. I don’t have a hospital tank at this location and will continue to travel multiple times through mid-May which would have complicated things quite a bit.

[brewmaster15]

Jan given your situation I think you made a wise call.

Al

[danotaylor]

Jan given your situation I think you made a wise call.

Al

+1 Jan. A difficult, but good decision. You’re other fish would thank you if they could

[Jandiscus]

Thank you Al and Daniel!