Fungal Infection Overnight?

[RobC]

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?

Noticed this morning, didn't see it yesterday, every discus in the community tanks fights! So this is the result of the battle scars, I assume.

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).

Fungal spots on body.

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

Nothing yet

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

5 - 4.5 - 5" Discus, 50g.

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

25% W/C 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?

Pool filter sand substate, running for 3 months.

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

No aged water.

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 _____ - 82 F

- ph _____ - 8.0

- ammonia reading ____ - No measuring tool yet

- nitrite reading ____ - No measuring tool yet


- nitrate reading ____ - No measuring tool yet


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% - dose we Seachem safe, every water change.

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently. - No


10. 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.

2 times a day, Morning and Evening, Tetra Color.

11. 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.


Also to note, my Discus community tank is like a Royal Rumble.

109654

[Ryan925]

To me those look like discus pimples. 25% every other day is not enough wc. You say 5 in a 50 community? How many other fish are in the tank? Start with some large wcs and you will likely see those disappear

[RobC]

I threw the Discus in a separate tank so that it wouldn't infect the other Discus, it seems like those pimple popped and this is the result...
109849

Been treating with 50% WC everyday, and Furan-2 with some salt.

I want to say its getting better, but I'm just not too sure, any advice or help??

[Ryan925]

I won't try and diagnose what's wrong with your fish but typically wounds heal very quickly with lots of fresh clean water.

I would highly suggest the first thing you do is buy yourself a test kit and test your community tank. I would have to imagine your nitrates are very high in a tank that size, with stocking levels, substrate and the amount of water you are changing.

Or take a water sample to lfs

Also if you don't have a test kit how did you cycle your tank before adding the discus?

[RobC]

I won't try and diagnose what's wrong with your fish but typically wounds heal very quickly with lots of fresh clean water.

I would highly suggest the first thing you do is buy yourself a test kit and test your community tank. I would have to imagine your nitrates are very high in a tank that size, with stocking levels, substrate and the amount of water you are changing.

Thanks for the reply.
The answers to the questionnaire is old, I just purchased a new 55g aquarium and separated my Discus, so they went through new WC and corrected my WC cycles.

The problem is only that one pictured, the other seems fine, not seeing any issues.

[Ryan925]

Did you cycle the new tank ?

[RobC]

Did you cycle the new tank ?

Yep, first day with filter media from the other aquarium, then added some zebra angel fish the day after for a few days and then finally added the Discus in.

[jmf3460]

ROB, this looks bacterial at this point. I do agree with Ryan that this was originally just pimples caused by poor water quality, and I agree with Ryan 150% that your water change percentage and frequency needs to be increased significantly. You need to do 100% water changes daily if not twice daily on this guy in the hospital tank. If you don't have a cycle in there that wont matter if you do 100% water changes, because then the ammonia wont have time enough to populate. can you take the fish out and swab some iodine on the area. if you don't have iodine, other things could help, like a simple Neosporin, it is anti bacterial.

Furan 2 is a great medication to be using, as well as the salt. If nothing more, keep with the furan but do 100% water changes in his hospital tank daily instead of 50%. also you may want to increase water changes in the main tank too.

[RobC]

ROB, this looks bacterial at this point. I do agree with Ryan that this was originally just pimples caused by poor water quality, and I agree with Ryan 150% that your water change percentage and frequency needs to be increased significantly. You need to do 100% water changes daily if not twice daily on this guy in the hospital tank. If you don't have a cycle in there that wont matter if you do 100% water changes, because then the ammonia wont have time enough to populate. can you take the fish out and swab some iodine on the area. if you don't have iodine, other things could help, like a simple Neosporin, it is anti bacterial.

Furan 2 is a great medication to be using, as well as the salt. If nothing more, keep with the furan but do 100% water changes in his hospital tank daily instead of 50%. also you may want to increase water changes in the main tank too.

Thanks Jacklyn, great info!

[RobC]

So I did another WC - 50% (did one in the morning), and swabbed some Iodine on the guy, now he is laying on its side flat on the floor, was taking him out the water (for about a minute) put him into shock and super stressed? Or is he a goner?

[jmf3460]

hes shocked. add an air stone to the hospital tank

[RobC]

Added the air stone, doesn't look good, he is just floating along with the current of the air stone, and looks like slime coat is peeling, I did the water change with aged water (a week old) in a 60 gallon barrel, so I don't know what else can be the cause.

Thanks for the help and info though, I think I'm done with Discus after this one, since December I went through a cracked tank at 1AM, a faulty heater that cooked half of my Discus, various Discus diseases that I failed at curing. I understand that I may have been doing stuff wrong, like not changing enough water or lacking patience, but I was hoping to learn, observe and apply overtime. I wasn't expecting BAD to just drop all at once consistently, 6 months in I've already poured so much time, money and water into the Discus hobby, and it hasn't returned that bliss I was expecting in the aquarium hobby, only stress and frustration.

I've raised fishes from Cichlids to Kois to Arowanas for 15+ years and by far Discus has given me the most trouble, I don't ever recall the aquarium hobby being this stressful. Thanks Again.

[nc0gnet0]

an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure any day. I'm a little confused as to what happened from the first post you made on 5/13 and today 5/19. Can you give some detail on the progression of the infection?

[RobC]

an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure any day. I'm a little confused as to what happened from the first post you made on 5/13 and today 5/19. Can you give some detail on the progression of the infection?

5/13 - Noticed Pimple, isolated to 10G - with Furan-2 + Salt.
5/14 - Followed instruction on Furan-2 Box - Did 25% WC and added another dose.
5/15 - Pimple bursts into open wound, more pinkish red than the picture seen above, so I thought this was the work of the Furan-2. - continued with another 25% WC and another dose.

5/16 - Present. - Repeat the dosing, I see more white in the wound, so looks like tissue is growing back, but it has been like this for a few days and the Discus stopped eating, did 50% WC in the morning, another 50% in the evening and swabbed the wound with Iodine. Now its just sitting in the corner.

[brewmaster15]

Is there a pleco in the tank?

al

[RobC]

Is there a pleco in the tank?

al

LOL ... its long been dead!!

[brewmaster15]

ok,, because they will take advantage of sores like these and make them worse.. Honestly this fish issue isn't your fault Rob. Its not lack of care, its a bacterial disease that got the best of the fish while it was stressed....It happens. I would just keep it Furan 2 and let nature take its course. It may still turn around..

I realize that its easy to tie all the bad experiences together , but its a mistake to do that. The tank cracking was terrible...but unrelated to Discus for instance. Fish keeping can throw you curves. A few years ago I lost a whole tank of wild Rams to lympocyctis...Not a thing I could do.:(

al

[RobC]

ok,, because they will take advantage of sores like these and make them worse.. Honestly this fish issue isn't your fault Rob. Its not lack of care, its a bacterial disease that got the best of the fish while it was stressed....It happens. I would just keep it Furan 2 and let nature take its course. It may still turn around..

I realize that its easy to tie all the bad experiences together , but its a mistake to do that. The tank cracking was terrible...but unrelated to Discus for instance. Fish keeping can throw you curves. A few years ago I lost a whole tank of wild Rams to lympocyctis...Not a thing I could do.:(

al

Thanks for encouragement, if I don't quit the hobby I would at least take a break for a few months, I need to recover if not physically, mentally.

And Sorry about 'LOL-ing' about the pleco question Al, my very first post on SD was about a pleco killing off half my Discus and you chimed in on that, so I thought you were referencing that to this situation.

[brewmaster15]

Thanks for encouragement, if I don't quit the hobby I would at least take a break for a few months, I need to recover if not physically, mentally.

And Sorry about 'LOL-ing' about the pleco question Al, my very first post on SD was about a pleco killing off half my Discus and you chimed in on that, so I thought you were referencing that to this situation.

Lol:) my memories not what it used to be! Take care, al

[RobC]

Woke up in the morning to another dead fish.

Thats #8 in 6 months.