Discus hobby 2.0 - a restart and a reset

[Vanman]

Years ago after a flood or three I bought a small battery powered water alarm. I set it on top of the plastic 55 gallon drum I used to age water. I could move very fast when it went off when I got distracted and forgot about the filling drum.

[Jandiscus]

Years ago after a flood or three I bought a small battery powered water alarm. I set it on top of the plastic 55 gallon drum I used to age water. I could move very fast when it went off when I got distracted and forgot about the filling drum.

Good idea Gary! Thank you

[Vanman]

You could also use a bulkhead fitting on the third can and route the overflow to the shower. This is probably a better option than the alarm.

[Jandiscus]

Fish continue to settle in. Every now and then they are skittish and dart away when I approach the tank. I know that this will diminish with time. Moved the manzanita wood piece to the other side of the tank as it started to accumulate tiny pieces of food and detritus. I am feeding on the right so having a bare bottom clear area is helpful.

woodmoved.jpg

[brewmaster15]

CONGRATULATIONS JAN! Those are some really nice fishes!

Al

[Jandiscus]

CONGRATULATIONS JAN! Those are some really nice fishes!

Al

Thank you Al!

[Jandiscus]

Oh no....here we go again. One of my fish started to separate from the group, reduced appetite and ultimately had some white poop. But let me back up. I use wifi enabled plugs to operate anything electrical on the fish tank. While performing water changes, I use alexa to turn off the filter and heater. When done, I give the commands and everything turns back on. There is a confirming sound made by alexa, letting you know that things have been turned back on. All is good, except it wasn't. About 6 days ago the heaters did actually not turn back on, despite the confirming sound alexa had made. This essentially resulted in a temperature drop down to 75 F (24C) over night. Panic! I performed an immediate 30% water change and ensured that the heaters were working. Temp went to >80 F and then rose back to 84/85 quickly. I have an 800 Watts and a 500 watts heater that are operated by an inkbird controller. All is good, fish are alive and happy.

I changed the configuration of the heaters to be horizontal rather that vertical and closer to the bottom of the tank to avoid having to turn them off during water changes.

Then, within a couple of days one of the fish started to separate, lost some appetite and eventually showed some white stringy poop.

Once I noticed, I raised the temperature to 85/86 f (30C) for no particular scientific reason other than my belief that it can't hurt On and off, the fish did and does eat. Picky though. And not much. Here is a picture from today:

fish_sick.jpg

As you can see, the fish did not turn dark and did not hide in a corner He even swam today with the others and viciously ate from the freeze dried blackworm cube I stuck to the pane. Last night though it had this white stringy poop.

Here is what I did:

I kept my eyes trained on that poop for at least an hour in anticipation of it to finally come loose and fall to the ground. I wanted a fresh specimen. Once that happened, I immediately sucked it into a pipette and looked at it under my microscope. Nothing! No worms, no eggs, no larvae. What a relief, I thought.

Then I noticed another smaller string of white poop floating in the water column. I do not know when this one had been expelled. But I caught it and looked at it as well. Now I noticed two worms and one larva. No eggs. Check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/VqHp3mU_lzY

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/D2-xEem3De0

Five days have passed since I messed up the temperature. The feces videos were taken on day 4. Today, on day 5 I am not observing white poop, the fish did eat well as I mentioned before. While the default is still for the fish to stay on one side of the fish tank, it does swim with the others occasionally and the other fish do hang out with it when they are heading that way Yet, I am thinking to treat the whole tank with Levamisole HCL to kill off the worms & larvae and prevent any further spread. Should I?

[brewmaster15]

Jan,
First note on the worms.. its hard to tell what they are from the video but these don't look like capillaria..they may not even be pathogenic given the low numbers. Having said that, my qt has me treat all new fish as if they have worms.. once I do this I never have to do it again. I do not think the stringy white poop is from worms.. usually that would be yellowish/brown and loaded with eggs.

Two thoughts.. the temp drop led to a decreased digestion and a bit of gut infection set it. This can happen when fish get chilled and have food in their gut.

Option 2 the stress of the temperature swings overwhelmed the fishes immune system and the protozoan Hexamita flared in numbers.

Both of these two option might subside on their own.. But most likely you may need to treat the fish with metronidazole..

Epsom salt may help flush the gut out and I would try that at 1 tablespoon per 10 gals.

Hth,
Al

[Jandiscus]

Thank you Al! I am assuming that Epsom salt and metro are compatible if used together?

[brewmaster15]

Thank you Al! I am assuming that Epsom salt and metro are compatible if used together?

Correct.

[Jandiscus]

The fish seems to be back to normal. Swimming with the others, eating normally and no more stringy white feces. I did do the 24-hour Epsom salt bath but did not follow through with the metronidazole. I also did not see an increase in parasites under the microscope. I am doing 60% daily water changes now with a weekly wipe down and scrubbing of the manzanita wood.

fishies02042024.jpg

I keep removing small volumes of sand to lift up debris that are sticking to it. I also moved all of the sand to the left, leaving >50% of the tank bare bottom. My initial thinking was to just have a super thin layer of sand just to break up the reflection of the glass, since I did not paint the bottom. The fish don't seem to care at all. Sand or no sand.

fish tank020424.jpg

[Jandiscus]

This is my last post as the contest is coming to an end. For me it was not really a contest but an opportunity to keep a diary on me getting back into the hobby after several fish-less years.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to read my thread and suffer with me through a long 8-10 weeks without any fish in the tank. Just staring at an empty tank, testing water parameters, and playing around with water changes.
Thank you also to those who left their comments and helpful advice. That made it not only fun but helped me quite a bit.

Jan (JC)

[LizStreithorst]

YOu told a good story, Jan. Best of luck in the contest.

[Bathi]

This is my last post as the contest is coming to an end. For me it was not really a contest but an opportunity to keep a diary on me getting back into the hobby after several fish-less years.
I want to thank everyone who took the time to read my thread and suffer with me through a long 8-10 weeks without any fish in the tank. Just staring at an empty tank, testing water parameters, and playing around with water changes.
Thank you also to those who left their comments and helpful advice. That made it not only fun but helped me quite a bit.

Jan (JC)

Keep sharing the update.. I love this thread