dead discus

[alan j t]

hi all
title says it all
i have a 55 gallon lightly planted discus tank
the same one the dead guy came out of tonight
iv'e owned them for a while and all was fine
ill check water parm. in the morrning

i recently was giving 3 free discus
they new i had the space
they were put in another tank in another room
i knew they were not in the best conditiions
they are really stunted and were very dark
now with cleaner water and my homemade discus food
they are looking better

so im guessing by sharing the python between w/c day
i transmitted some disease from the new fish to the old fish

what do i do
besides from upping the w/c

p.s.
never try to rescue jus any ole discus

[Roxanne]

...how sad...do you mean one of your original discus died, or one of the new ones?

Have you noticed what colour their poop is? Are they all eating?

Rox

[Eddie]

Sorry to hear the news. Cross contamination is no joke. I've read stories of tanks just being in the same room being cross contaminated. Hope the rest pull through.

I definitely won't be taking any give aways.

Eddie

[TankWatcher]

So sorry for your loss. It was one of your existing ones that died, right? Always best not to share equipment between your main tank & any QT tank.

I think it is hard to suggest any treatment right now, without some more symptom info. Otherwise, we are just guessing. If you can observe their breathing rate, whether they are eating normally & colour / texture of their poops & report back, one of the experts here might have the right solution for you..

[aquagal]

Same thing happened to me when I mixed discus/pythons. Bleach your python and get a separate one for each tank. In my experience, my existing discus were also the ones that died...sorry for your loss.

[Peachtree Discus]

very sorry to hear about your loss. its always very frustrating to lose a discus. with the pythons, nets, and even your own hands, x-contamination is easy to do.

....Have you noticed what colour their poop is? Are they all eating?

i'd follow Roxannes and Robyns logic...in order to figure what you need to do, you need to determine the problem, hopefully before your problem spreads. 1st, do you have access to a 'scope? what symptoms are they showing? any flashing? fin loss?

[poconogal]

Its always best to use separate equipment between QT and/or hospital and main tank. I have 3 Pythons now, separate nets, separate test tubes, etc. and I keep everything separately. Best to always work with your main tank first too. Then work your way down to any QTs you have, instead of working with the QT tank first then moving on to your main tank. Throw away any paper towels, etc. that were used and then wash hands and arms thoroughly; I now use alcohol to wash my hands and arms up to elbows. I also wipe down faucet handles and anything else I've touched with alcohol before I move on to another tank.

What are your params? Are your other Discus exhibiting any signs of illness? Are they eating? Spitting out? White poo? Shedding mucus?

[alan j t]

thanks for all the quick responses
as far as visual goes everything looks normal
no shedding mucus, they are eating and not spitting food out
i havent noticed the color of there poop yet
but they all seem fine for now

im checking parm. right now

ill keep you posted

[alan j t]

heres the param;
ph7.4
nitrate;50
nitrite;zilch
i've never had my nitrate over 15 so maybe the regent is expired,
i hope

the ph out tap reads 8.0
i never had to age my water before it would only jump.2 after it was aged.
i guess i should start aging the water before a w/c.

so maybe it was ph shock or bad water quality
right now im questioning the tests
so off the lfs in the morning

[Roxanne]

yes it seems very unstable PH..and PH moving around mimicks a few fish diseases as far as symptoms go....but like my water, when the water uses up buffering capacity, the PH will crash, (thank you Graham) grab some crushed coral and a fine media bag while you're there...

Roxanne

[alan j t]

well the param testd at the lfs read
ph;6.8
nitrate 20
nitrite-0
these are the param i used to seeing all the time
so i guess my tests at home are shot

the only meds i see at the lfs that would prob help are
penecillin and ampacillin

i know your not suppose to shotgun meds
but im looking for a general cure

[Eddie]

If you are gonna shotgun medicate for something that you have no idea what it could be, I'd start with Quick Cure and then move to internal. Based on the rate of death in your instance, I feel QC will be beneficial. It's a Formalin and Malachite Green combination. It can also be found under the name of Kordon Rid Ich+.

Thats just my 2 cents
Eddie

[Roxanne]

..not to speak over Eddie's good tips there, but I just wanted to add, there's quite a difference between your ph and the LFS test of your PH...can you test it at 4-6 hourly intervals to make sure it is stable and not crashing/moving around?

Rox

[Eddie]

..not to speak over Eddie's good tips there, but I just wanted to add, there's quite a difference between your ph and the LFS test of your PH...can you test it at 4-6 hourly intervals to make sure it is stable and not crashing/moving around?

Rox

No worries Rox, definitely a good idea on the PH. It just kind of seems like Alan is leaning towards medication of sorts. Water is always the easiest to fix so if it PH, that would a simple fix. I think Alan needs to get another test kit.

Eddie

[alan j t]

i went shopiing today and forgot to buy the test strips
my 3 kids keep me busy

things look normal with em so we will se tomorrow
and ill definetlyt get some test kits