Problem
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
I've added a Pleco after 5 weeks of QT to my discus tank. Two days later I noticed white poop on one of the discus but it was eating at that time with less appetite. I took the Pleco out and increased the water temp from 86 to 88 and started metro treatment for 14 days (800mg/20Galon each day). After a few days the fish stooped eating completely and still after 14 days it is not eating. It doesn't poop either. Obviously the Metro didn't work and I am not sure what else it can be.
2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
Not eating, white poop at the beginning, now no poop at all.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Metro, 14 days at 800mg/day, 88 temp. No improvement
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
55G 8x 4.5 inch discus, 5months old. Tank has been running for 4months.
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50-60% every other day.
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Bare bottom tank and the tank has been running for 4 months
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I age the water for 12 hours with airstone. I haven't measured ph swing
8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
I use prime an hour before the water change.
9. Parameters and water source;
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.
- temp _88____
- ph __6.5___
- ammonia reading _0___
- nitrite reading __0__
- nitrate reading _<10___
What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.
- well water ____
- municipal water _100%___
- RO water ____
10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Yes I've added a Pleco and two days later this started
11. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
I feed homemade beefheart mix and Prime reef flakes
12. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
Antibiotics is stressful for the fish, so it might not eat straight away. Keep the temps up and change water everyday, at least 50%. Your tank is slightly crowded using the 1 fish per 10gal rule.
21 Discus, 7 Green Tree Frogs, 3 Eastern Dwarf Tree frogs, 1 Coastal Carpet Python,6 sawshelled/Murray river turtles, 2 dogs, a cat, 2 kids and a wife. Phew...what a mouthful
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Having tried the metro and keeping the temp at 88 it’s something else. Could be hormones in the tank from all the discus. Being you’ve got 8 in a 55 I’d change every day and you may want to up the water volume to 75-90% every other day. Next I’d remove that discus and put it in a qt tank. I had this happen to my fish about a month ago. A 3” discus stoped eating for about 2 weeks I removed and added to a 15g by itself and it started eating almost immediately. Kept it there for a month and now it’s fine. No medication. It was in a 45 with 7 others that I got at 2”. They are all now in a 75 and about 4”.
Hi Maz, when you say you used 800mg of metro was that for the whole tank volume? If yes, this might be your issue. Normal dosing for metro in this case is 500mg per 10 gallons dosed after a large daily WC. You dose for the whole tank volume.
Pat
Your discus are talking to you....are you listening
Thank you Pat. Just a correction, I've been dosing 800mg/10G each day for 14 days. As we discussed on the facebook, this evening it will be 48h that the temp is at 90, and I'll keep the water temp at 90 for another couple of days with daily 50% water changes. I've also ordered Wormer x and wormer plus in case I need to use it in the future. But I won't add any other medicine for now and just keep doing the heat treatment.
Your pic clearly indicates worms. That is not normal poop.
If you haven't done already, you need to treat the whole tank with worming treatment. You need to treat for 'all' worms as a precaution.
Metro won't eradicate worms. Its purely an antibiotic.
Hello and thanks for your reply. Unfortunately things haven't improved and second time of metro treatment along with high temp(90) hasn't worked. I've did use wormer+, levamisole, and today I started the treatment with Praziquantel (powder form). Are these wormers cover all sort of worms? Please let me know what else I should do.
You’re putting way too many medications into the tank, which is stressing the fish out. I’d ditch the meds and just focus on higher heat and big daily water changes. It doesn’t look like worms to me, just a fish that hasn’t eaten much looking at the feces
21 Discus, 7 Green Tree Frogs, 3 Eastern Dwarf Tree frogs, 1 Coastal Carpet Python,6 sawshelled/Murray river turtles, 2 dogs, a cat, 2 kids and a wife. Phew...what a mouthful
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
Over medicating there is a danger of toxicity to the fish, frequently causing liver, kidney, or other organ damage that may or may not be reversible.
Grasshopper
Francis
The first week after the fish started showing symptoms, I just did daily water changes with temp at 90. But noticed more fish with the symptoms. Then I did metrotreatment for 12 days, no improvement. After a few days then another one with the symptoms. That is why I ended up with using different kind of medications ...
I can stop and just do heat treatment if that is the best thing to do considering that I did that at the very beginning...
I completely understand your point. Please read my reply to Brendanj23 and let me know your thoughts.
I am really confused. It has been 6weeks couple of fish are not eating.
Hi Maz, if you started the second metro treatment on the 11th did you run it for 10/12 days? Have you added all this other stuff in the last 13 days? I would suggest one dose of Praziquantel then let the fish rest with lots of clean water for several days but maintain the heat for now.
Pat
Your discus are talking to you....are you listening