Sick discus.. something is in my tank...

[Candydiscus]

Hey guys.. I have had discus for 2 years or so and i should have listened to the old fish keeping saying.. once you have a good equalibrium dont get more fish to mess it up.

Basically i had 6 Adult discus. 2 were from a local guy who sold me his 7 inch discus and the other 3 i had as babies from petco believe it or not. I raised them from 2 inchs to 7 inchers.. My first ever discus.. Never had issues with discus being sick well except 1 of the 2 i got from that guy had tapeworms which prazipro killed and expelled in a day or two.


Anyway.. 2 years in i was at petco.. they had a discus all alone and hiding and in a 5 gallon tank with 74f temp water.. I felt sorry for it.. So i got it.

I put it in a quaratine tank for 2 weeks and it was fine.. eating not sick ect.. 2 days after i put it in my main tank all but 1 ( my snow white) of my main discus got horribly sick. Im talking heavy slime coat. Black breathing heavily.. flaired gills and even the outer gill fillaments were hanging out from the heavy breathing... I tried all kinds of meds.. prazi pro.. then lowering the heat and raising it.. then i tried a broad spectrum anti bacterial.viral and nothing helped.

I lost my 2 big discus that were a breeding pair and 1 other.. Only 2 discus survived.. they all died in like 4 days it was very quick... then oddly i had 2 angle fish in a sepsrate tank get sick and 1 die...

I think this little discus i bought had discus plague... even though he wasnt sick...

I waited 3 months and my remaining discus were all fine... Obviously i dont want a 100g tank with only 2 discus.. So i purchased 6 discus from a local breeder... All 2-3 inches 15$ each.. beautiful discus all blue leopards.

Well after quarantine i put them in.. In 3 days they started to get sick 1 by 1 then stop eating.. The last 2 main discus are fine... Ive had thrm now for 15 days... 1 died 3 days ago 2 are now eating. The rest not.. and are all breathing labored..

Is discus plague just non curable and will i mever get rid of it ??? I waited 90 days for crying out loud.. uhg

Anyway one thing i didnt do before was lower temps really low and use salt and malachite green... So i put my temps to 77-78f. ( the idea is higher temps help bacteria grow so lower should supress that assuming its some bacterial infection) and the added 2 tablespoon per 5g of salt as well as malachite green.. 3 days into treatment is when thise 2 started eating again... One of them was on deaths door floating in the current upside down and un able to move.. breathing so heavy his gills were flying out i could see thin skin inside flapping around..

So i decided to try a salt bath.. 3 tablespoon in 1 gallon and i scooped him by hand.. thays how weak he was.. i kept him in there until i started making loud clapping noises with his mouth and gills... maybe 5 min..

Put him back in my main tank.. part of his slime coat burned off aparently... But its been 1 day now and hes active.. he has power to swim again and swims around with energy and is breathing better..

So i changed my water 80% didnt add salt back in but im on day 4 of malachite green.


Seems the rest are recovering too..

What the hell disease do i have.. that infects discus in 1 day and basically kills them in less than a week ?

[Second Hand Pat]

I do not know the answer to your question but do want to stress the importance of a hero fish. In your case I would have added one of your fish from the QT to the main tank. I have had salt be very beneficial when dealing with something of a bacterial nature. Here's a read on discus plague https://discus.co/plague/. I do know the University of Florida has been doing research to try and get a handle on the herpes virus. They might even have a better write up then what I linked.

If I was in your shoes I would be tempted to cull everything, sterilize the tanks and start over. The reason for this suggestion is whatever is in the tank and fish is most likely still there. If you introduce new fish you might have the same problem. I would also suggest getting your fish from a reputable source should you choose to start over.
Pat

[Candydiscus]

Well im hoping the 5 remaining blue leopard babies make it.. if they become immune and make it like my other 2 big ones did then i wont have to cull anything. As i wont need anymore discus. Ill have 7 discus which is plenty.

So far it seems they are getting better. Specially the one that was on deaths door who i salt dipped and kinda burned his skin or slime coat from it.

But some of them still have clamped fins and stuff.. I might try to salt dip them... Or maybe i should add more back to the tank after taking 80% of my water out last night. I didnt put salt back in. Just the malachite. I figured 2-3 days of 2 tablspoons of salt per 5g was enough stress.. but i dunno.

Whay do you think ?put salt back in ?

[Second Hand Pat]

I would suggest large daily water changes and observe.
Pat

[Candydiscus]

Thats what ive been doing 80% every day for 15 days..

[Candydiscus]

Reading up on this discus herpes you mentioned.. seems the only thing you can do is use a high salt concentration. Lower the temps and water changes.. aparently they die from secondary infections it seems.

So maybe thats why what ive been doing with low temps salt and malachite green has been keeping my juvies alive this long and brought that one back from the brink of death when i did a salt dip.

I just fed them well the 5 that eat.. going to cleanup the sand ina min and change 80% of the water again and add my salt back in thought id give them a break from salt but seems its best to keep em on it