Upside Down Discus

[Robo]

Hi, i was in for a real shock and upset last night when i discovered my 4" blue turq swimming upside down near to the surface . It seemed to be struggling to swim upright and i thought i was going to lose it. Miraculously, in the morning it is back to its normal self! I've three 4" discus in a 30 gal tank and behaving normal (BT and 2 PB). Except that there are a few pieces of whittish slime coatings in the water, and occasionally the fish would be skirttsh. i've dosed medicine mainly for gill disease bought fr a local lfs. Can anyone advise if i should administer PP or formalin as a prevention measure? I've been hunting for formalin but my local lfs here claimed not heard about it?? Is there another name for formalin?

Thank you and regards.

[Carol_Roberts]

Sounds like constipation. Go to the grocery or drug store and buy epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) people use it as a foot soak. Next time he act like that add 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons. It won't hur tthe biofilter or the other fish.

[Robo]

Hi, just attach a pic of each of my discus. Would be grateful if you could comment about their health, if possible. Carol, just read your reply. I've got some epsom salt and will do so after a wc soon. Got another question here: can i feed my discus with just bits? Didn't like the idea of fouling up water though i've been feeding with a variety of food like frozen bh, bloodworm, brine shrimp and different brands of bits for discus. My discus do accept bits.
Thank you and regards, here's another pic of my PB.

[Robo]

One last pic of PB - is this stunted? It's eyes look slightly bigger than the other 2!

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, you can feed, just tetrabits, but a variety is better. Don't add the epsom salt unless you see bloating. I don't think they look stunted.

[Robo]

Thanks for the advice, Carol. Jus got a can of freeze dried cyclop-eeze and artemia. Now with 4 different brands of tetra bits, i hope my discus will not be bored with processed food. Will still feed them with frozen BH, BW and brine shrimps occasionally tho! Oh yes Carol, here's to extend an early welcome to Singapore! It would be great to meet up with you in person when you're here!

[mattb]

In my experience this happens alot with dried food. The fish takes the food in dry and then it swells in the stomach when it meets water. To avoid this happening again I would pre soak and dried food you have and also try a varied diet too.



Matt

[Robo]

In my experience this happens alot with dried food. The fish takes the food in dry and then it swells in the stomach when it meets water. To avoid this happening again I would pre soak and dried food you have and also try a varied diet too.



Matt

Thanks for the advice Matt. I'll do so. I consider myself lucky that my discus will accept dried food cos i've got friends whose discus jus won't accept dried or processed food. In my opinion, water get less fouled up than putting in bh. BTW, are those silvery gills normal for my discus?

[mattb]

your discus look pretty healthy to me, no stress bars and good colour so I wouldn't worry. Be careful of some dry foods, they can dislve very easy and make the water go bad without you noticing. I agree though BH can be a pain. I feed a mix of dried and "fresh" food including beefheart. Seems to work at the moment.

Matt

[Robo]

Thanks again Matt. When you mentioned 'stress bars' - what do you mean? Darkened bars on BT? I thought my BT's colouration is pretty dull at the moment, but then again, if it's healthy, I gladly accept it as it is. This is a great forum - to learn and learn more! Kudos to the SimplyDiscus Team!

[mattb]

If you look at your BT you'll see vertical bars on it, the more pronounced they are the more stressed the fish is. Day to dat stress is reflected in the bars going darker for a fe seconds or minutes then they disappear again. Long term stress leads the fish to go darker, almost black and the bars to stay black. Looking at your fish again it seems a little light but that may be due to environment, you have a light background by the looks of it and a bright tank so it is trying to blend in. If you painted the back of the tank blue the fish would probably darken a little. They do look, from the picture, young though so they will develop their colour over time.

Matt

[Carol_Roberts]

Gills look fine to me.