Discus breathing heavy.

[Swancici]

Please complete thus questionnaire if your fish are sick (copy and paste). The more details you can provide, the better we are able to diagnose and help you treat your sick fish.

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


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?
A day ago. Just one discus is breathing heavy.


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).
One discus is breathing heavy and no other symptoms
.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment. None only aquarium salt



Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
55 gallon, 6 discus, 3inch no sure on age.
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
Least 75% twice per day

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
The tank has been running over a year but I changed fish and cleaned the tank out and traded filters. Bare bottom
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
No and no ph swing

8. 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 _85____

- ph ___6.6__

- ammonia reading _0ppm___

- nitrite reading __0ppm__

- nitrate reading __unknown__

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 ____

- RO water ____
I am no sure just tap water
9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No

10. 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.

I do not have pictures and won't be able to.

Also I use prime and filter is a aquaclear 110.

[Skip]

Not enough info given
Do some research
Use advanced search. Title only

.. , heavy breathing

[Crunchy]

Quickly do a 50% water change and see if helps. Sometimes they breathe heavily if there is something irritant in the water, or being spooked, or after fighting.

[Skip]

Quickly do a 50% water change and see if helps. Sometimes they breathe heavily if there is something irritant in the water, or being spooked, or after fighting.

Op does 75% daily twice

[Chicago Discus]

I just looked at your discus in another thread im not sure where they came from but two 75% changes daily is a bit much drop it down to one 50% change daily and lower your temp. to 82 take out the aquarium salt and add a carbon to your filter. Also I don't see if you age your water it is very important to age the water when doing such large water changes.....Hope this helps.....Josie

[Skip]

Idk josie.. toni did 2x wc and it resulted in those monster growouts..

[Chicago Discus]

Idk josie.. toni did 2x wc and it resulted in those monster growouts..

two 75% water changes is great as long as your water is spot on.

[Skip]

two 75% water changes is great as long as your water is spot on.

stupid smart phone did not post..

i also added.. that i would think the water parameters are pretty close to right out of tap.. as are in tank..

[Swancici]

Hi there.

I did not think I need to age my water as when it comes from tap and I put it in the tank it gives me same results.
People told me to do 2 water changes per day and no Carbon.

As for the symptoms the fish has been constantly breathing heavy for the past 2 days. Not being spoked or anything else. It's gills flare up and sometimes the fish face twitches and moves backwards. Other then that it eats poop look normal and coloration has not changed. Plus it's the only fish that does it. It's a red pigeon cross.
The other fish have no symptoms And are looking good. So I wouldn't think it be water quality.

[White Worm]

"no one wants to see you visiting the sick and diseased section in the coming weeks / months."

This is my comment from your previous thread and here we are. I am not a big fan of massive water changes daily when using straight tap unless you have done some serious tests and know exactly what you have, plus, tap water can change quickly. I would go with smaller like 1 a day and see if things improve. I know many like the massive changes daily and believe this will grow big discus but I think it may be a little over-kill. I'm not saying that you shouldn't keep a clean tank and change water frequently but every day, 2x, 75%...... That's a bit much for the average hobbyist. I was doing 90% every other day and was losing fry left and right. Went to 50% and everyone is doing well. I also fill straight from the tap.

[Swancici]

No need to write what was posted in a different Post. Yes they may not be the best but I really like them and want to give them a chance. Thanks.

So for the water changes how come people where telling me to do more? So once a day 50% be good?

Ok now the one fish has one gill flaring and the other is not.

[Swancici]

Also I tested the tap after 24 hours it was the same.

[Swancici]

Another fish is starting to have flared gills and breathing heavy the other has one flared and one clamped gill. I am assuming gill fluke?

I am not sure what treatments the pet store has but I do know that they have melafix and pimafix.

[Skip]

Have u tried salt.. not epson salt

It helps with gills

[Swancici]

What kind of salt? Like table salt?

I use aquarium salt.

Well other then that there all eatting no discolouration and active. I am not sure what is happening I hope someone could give me some answers soon.

Checked the water
Ph 6.6
Nitrate 0ppm
Nitrite 0ppm
Amonina 0ppm
I only did 60% water change and added aquarium salt.
No more clamped gill but both pb have flared gills and breathing fast.

[Skip]

aquarium salt/table salt.. its still sodium chloride.. but aquarium salt cost more.. cuz of the label..

but yes.. they will both do the same thing.. when mine had this problem.. it cleared it up in a few hours..

ps.. younger fish.. breath faster then older fish..

[PP_GBR]

Hey Warlock

Here goes the S A L T again. Why is it OK for you to recommend S A L T?

[Skip]

Hey Warlock

Here goes the S A L T again. Why is it OK for you to recommend S A L T?

idk.. maybe cuz i differentiate between Table/aquarium salt and Epson salt when i post something so readers don't get confused between the two..

:)

[strawberryblonde]

If I can stick my 2 cents in here, in this one particular case I tend to agree with Josie about the frequent water changes. (Not that I don't agree with her often, just generally I feel that more water changes per day are better for youngins. LOL)

Swan,

There's a possibility that you are getting a lot of micro bubbles in the tank when you refill it. My reason for thinking it is because you have the temps fairly high and that means that you have to add a fair bit of hot water to the tap mix.

In my case, I always keep my temps at 82, even for growing out my discus, so the amount of hot water used is very minimal. In addition to using less hot water, I also stuff a big piece of foam into the end of the siphon when I'm filling the tank in order to reduce micro bubbles even more.

For now, could you try lowering your temps to 82 and only doing one big water change per night? Your discus are still small and are in a fairly large volume of water, so a few days of this won't hurt them.

Cut back the amount of the nightly water change to 50%, temps to 82 and see if it helps them out.

[Swancici]

Ok I will do that. I actually think that's might be the problem as I did see bubbles in the gills. But I'll let you know how it goes.

[Baygon]

Hey Swancici one of my leopards had similar issues you mentioned and what I did was gave it daily typical 30 mins 3% salt bath (there are articles in this forum on salt dip instruction) and after the 3rd day the fish stopped breathing so quickly. I continued the bath for a week with daily 50% WC.

I don't think nitrate should be 0ppm for a cycled tank.

[Swancici]

I used a quick dio stick for the readings I do think there off. As I didn't have a nitrate test in the tube.

[Swancici]

Yup I think there off as it says there expired 2011/2012. At least I didn't buy it.
But my amonnia and nitrate and ph are all good as I have them in the bottles

[Swancici]

Still no improvements.. One has a clamped gill and a flared and now not eating. The other has flared gills but still eating. The rest are fine for now.

[Baygon]

Post us some pics if you could? Discus wont heal from one day to another...give them some time.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

[Swancici]

How can I post a video? I am using a phone.

Tested the tank again

Ammonia 0
Nitrate .5
Nitrite 0
Gh 25
Ph 6.6
Temp 80f
Only did 50% water change didn't add salt as all I have is table salt or sea salt and don't know the dose.
Also put the aquaclear on low and made sure to put a sponge on hose for water change.

[Swancici]

Oh and both have one clamped gill and the other flared and if I am not mistaken both gills are getting redder like there inflamed? And not eatting.

I do know that there all stunted( not due by me).

Feeding is omega one marine flakes with garlic, terra granules, beef heart, and some bloodworms occasionally

[Swancici]

No improvements, now there are 3 that are doing this.

I got some pictures but everytime I snapped one there gills where closed or something. Let me know if you know what they have as a like to start a treatment before I start loosing any:(.

http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-12.jpg
The bottom fish has one clamped one flared.
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-11.jpg
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-10.jpg
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-9.jpg
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-8.jpg
http://s268.photobucket.com/albums/jj32/princessSKITTLES/?action=view&current=null-7.jpg

[Chicago Discus]

Do you have an airstone in the tank?

[Swancici]

Yup

[strawberryblonde]

The only suggestion I can offer is to purchase Tetra Parasite Guard. You should be able to find it at any local pet store...it's a common med and pretty cheap.

I used it for flared gills and labored breathing when I just couldn't figure out what was wrong and it worked like a charm.

To use it, do a 25% water change, wait 10 minutes, then drop in the fizzy tabs according to the instructions. (depending on the size of your tank you might want to buy 2 boxes).

Wait 24 hours, then do a 50% water change and redose the tank.

Do it again on the third day, and then one more time on the fourth day.

My discus reacted to the meds on the first dose. They actually started breathing even faster and flared their gills more! I added an extra air stone and within 24 hours they'd calmed back down. Breathing was back to normal after 4 days.

Be sure to keep the temps in the tank at 82F for the entire treatment time.

[Swancici]

So I got metro instead. If there not better in a week the lfs told me to bring them in.

[Baygon]

The only suggestion I can offer is to purchase Tetra Parasite Guard. You should be able to find it at any local pet store...it's a common med and pretty cheap.

I used it for flared gills and labored breathing when I just couldn't figure out what was wrong and it worked like a charm.

To use it, do a 25% water change, wait 10 minutes, then drop in the fizzy tabs according to the instructions. (depending on the size of your tank you might want to buy 2 boxes).

Wait 24 hours, then do a 50% water change and redose the tank.

Do it again on the third day, and then one more time on the fourth day.

My discus reacted to the meds on the first dose. They actually started breathing even faster and flared their gills more! I added an extra air stone and within 24 hours they'd calmed back down. Breathing was back to normal after 4 days.

Be sure to keep the temps in the tank at 82F for the entire treatment time.

+1 i used parasite guard too, simple and effective.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

[Swancici]

So did the metro for a couple days. No improvement so I took them back to the store so she could help with it.

I notice white or clear poop and slime coat coming off a lot. Ill be going in Monday to see how they are and if there not doig ok should I try parasite guard?

The other fish Are doing great so I have no idea what is wrong with the other two.