Help..My discus are dying

[Patr1ck]

Definately need a smaller quaratine tank. More and bigger water changes, min every other day. Make sure you add back the proper amount of med for the amount of water being changed.

Pat

[dkratzer1]

Will it hurt to put the quick cure in with the other meds we already put in the tank? We just did a water change last night and put more of the parasite guard in. Can we still put the cure all in? Did anyone have fish this bad off and still live? The reason I ask is that this morning..they are actually moving a little and using their side fins. I wish I knew how to put pics on.

[MostlyDiscus]

If you see impovement then wait and just lower the temp a couple of degrees. You should see more improvement by tonight. If you do not see much improvement by tomorrow then you will need some kind of carbon to remove the present meds. I may be wrong here but I think that you can wait a couple of days to give the fish a breather, if possible. Sometime we freak out and start throwing all kinds of meds in and the fish are worse off. Hang in there.

Ed

[Chad Hughes]

If you see impovement then wait and just lower the temp a couple of degrees. You should see more improvement by tonight. If you do not see much improvement by tomorrow then you will need some kind of carbon to remove the present meds. I may be wrong here but I think that you can wait a couple of days to give the fish a breather, if possible. Sometime we freak out and start throwing all kinds of meds in and the fish are worse off. Hang in there.

Ed

Ed,

Agreed! I am NOT a medication person. I'll do just about anything before throwing chemicals in a tank. The biologists on this site will agree. Most of the time we just assist in the demise of life with toxic chemicals. I'm not a "green peace" or "pro wild life" person, but I like to keep things as simple as they are in the wild and last time I checked there was no hazmat locker in the amazon to treat for discus illness. You've got to focus on what the problem is in the first place and eliminate all the drama. Ask Hans about the drama! LOL!

Best wishes!

[MostlyDiscus]

HAHA,,, drama, here?



The good thing about meds is that if you catch the problem soon enough you dont need to do much. one treatment of whatever works fast and then your done. The key is to see the symptons early. You are very correct in assessing the problem with most discus ills, identfy the cause of the problem so you dont have to keep using unnessary meds. Lets not even mention the cost of the meds... arggg

Ed

[Chad Hughes]

HAHA,,, drama, here?



The good thing about meds is that if you catch the problem soon enough you dont need to do much. one treatment of whatever works fast and then your done. The key is to see the symptons early. You are very correct in assessing the problem with most discus ills, identfy the cause of the problem so you dont have to keep using unnessary meds. Lets not even mention the cost of the meds... arggg

Ed

I hadn't even considered the cost! I can only imagine that it would get costly! Imagine all the discus you could buy with that money! LOL!

I have been blessed to have never needed to use a chemical in any tank (knock on wood) since I have raised discus. My only caveat would be some MB wih eggs. You definately have to keep a sharp eye on things though.

Best wishes!

[dkratzer1]

Things aren't getting any better...the discus that seemed to be in good shape are now hanging to the back or bottom of the tank. The ones that were eating and now not eating. They are all getting it. They do have white stringy poo, but you would think that the medicine would be helping. It is just so frustrating. I don't like putting chemicals in the tank either, and we usually never do. Never had too to this point. I did lower the temp.

[Chad Hughes]

Did you cahnage your water with just tap water? What are the perameters of your tap?

[dkratzer1]

We changed the water with half RO water and half tap. That is the way we always do it, because with the tap water the ph and hardness is too high. Mixed together the ph is 6.8 and the hardness is 75-80. My 3 discus that have been sick and moving around a little (and I stress little) but that is better then yesterday. The rest of them are looking worse. It has to be parasites. I was watching them a while ago and (this sounds gross) but one of the gourmais was eating the poo right off one of the discus. I have never seen them do this before.

[MostlyDiscus]

The tap water can change ie cholamaine vs clorine. Tap should always be treated with kind of conditioner, prime or ultimate or run through a carbon block. I do both. Have you brought in any new fish recently since your med treatments? Not just discus but other types? The fact that you have fish with slimly poo just means that they have some kind of gut irratation going on. You treated with parasite clear by jungle? You may have had some kind of neamatodes but have since cleared them out. In the process you may have a secondary baterial infection. Im not sure if the meds you are using cover bactieral issue. The first thing I would do is condition my tap water as Chad is suggesting. The poo thing was a bad visual for sure. Clean fresh water change would help and wait till morning. If they gone in the morning then they may have been pretty far gone to begin with. I hope not. Discus are pretty hardy fish. Clean water for the mean time.


Ed

[poconogal]

Will it hurt to put the quick cure in with the other meds we already put in the tank? We just did a water change last night and put more of the parasite guard in. Can we still put the cure all in? Did anyone have fish this bad off and still live? The reason I ask is that this morning..they are actually moving a little and using their side fins. I wish I knew how to put pics on.

A friend of mine had Discus that were swimming skeletons, they got so bad. When I say they were horrid looking, I'm not exagerating. When I saw pics of them the pics made me gasp!

She lost 5, but 5 pulled through. They had a white film over their bodies, it was Chilondella and she used Quick Cure. After a few days she had to use Maracyn 2 because they developed a secondary bacterial infection. I think by the next day after adding the Maracyn 2, the fish began to eat a bit. It took quite awhile, but they filled out again and are swimming in her tank to this day. This happened maybe 2 years ago.

[MostlyDiscus]

Dont give up on your fish. Like Connie I have seen discus that looked like they had one fin in the grave. They really are a hardy fish. Quick Cure is a good recommendation but you need to get the tempeture down first because QCs main ingredient is formalin. You should see a marked improvement by day two with QC. After that you can tackle whatever internal problems there are. I would try to get the current meds out of the water via using carbon for a day and then add new fresh clean water.

Ed

[Patr1ck]

Does the poo look like sausage kinks strung together or is it in the shape of a curly-q?

Pat

[mmorris]

It may take longer than two days. In fact, they may look worse before they look better. Stick with it.

[MostlyDiscus]

hehe ok Martha I stand corrected. The med will show some improvement in movemnet but they will probally still have a white slime problem. It will completly disappear within the week if everything goes right.