Swimming with one fin

[Taitea]

Recently my 2 bigger discus in the tank started swimming with one fin. One of the 2 is showing clamped fins and not eating. He's not dark in color and his poop is normal. All the other discus in the tank is doing fine. The only thing that I know that might have caused this was me forgetting to turn on filter after a water change and going to sleep. Please help!

[Kyla]

have u tested ur water parameters? your beneficial bacteria in the filters needs a constant supply of oxygen rich water... if it was left turned off for long enough your BB may have suffocated/perished... and this could cause an ammonia/nitrite spike. if u havent already, i would suggest to test ur water asap.

as with any odd behaviour, i'd suggest a large water change as well.

have u added any new fish to this tank lately?

[zchauvin]

Fill out a disease questionnaire. If you forgot your filter off over night then water quality diminished and you probably had a bacteria die off causing ammonia to spike. Large water change, check all parameters and dose prime if you see high levels of ammonia. Your fish won't do great because you'll essentially be having a mini cycle with very fragile fish inside.

[Taitea]

I recently added 2 juvenile discus. But everybody else is eating fine and swimming around happily it's just my two older discus that's doing this

[Taitea]

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
2 bigger discus is clamping fins and sometimes hanging at the very top of the tank. Also not eating. Accidentally left filter off and I fell asleep after water change.

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).
Clamped fins, hiding, and occasionally goes to top.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

Added 1 tablespoon of API aquarium salt and 2 hours.

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
75g, 1 month, 8 discus and 3 cory's

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
60-80% daily

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Tank has been running for 1 month and the tank is a semi bare bottom with less than one cm of sand

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I do not age my water.

8. Parameters and water source;
I fill my tank with water from hose outside, the pH is a steady 6.4-6.8 at all times. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and >5 nitrates
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.

[Taitea]

Now my other discus are doing it too! I'm really scared what should I do?

[Taitea]

Nitrite is now showing .25-50ppm

[Kyla]

i'd do water changes immediately. keep those nitrites at 0.

then once ur parameters are in line if it continues to happen u may need to consider the possibility u may have introduced a disease with the new discus (did u quarantine them?). hopefully its just a mini cycle.

what is ur water change schedule? how much and how often? what kind of filters do u have on the tank? do u have a quarantine tank incase its needed? what meds do u have on hand?

are the discus gasping at the surface? like they are trying to breathe the air? any slime on the discus?

[Taitea]

My water change schedule consists of 50-80% water changes daily and my dumb self didn't QT the new arrival. I do not have a QT tank yet, waiting for my sponge filter to seed. I do not have any Meds on hand just some API aquarium salt. I tested my water and it seems I have a Nitrite spike it's reading about .50ppm change so I panicked and did a 90% water change. And yes one was laying on the floor but he started swimming around after water change but they're going to the surface sometimes. I added the salt to prevent any nitrite poisoning.

[DISCUS STU]

All good ideas. Keep us posted once you get the tank back in balance and hopefully you won't have to medicate. A 10-15 gal. quarantine tank, yes small for some but works for me, is a relatively small investment and always a good idea.

Otherwise it's Russian Roulette with most of the chambers full.

[kris2341]

considering you mentioned a new addition, thats probably the issue, best thing to do is maintain the water quality as best as possible and hope for the best. Strong discus can usually recover but nothing is for certain, the problems which arise from the mixing of discus from different sources is a frequent issue here.

I wish you luck