About to give up...

[Rosskeegan24]

Hi guys my name is Ross, some of you may have seen my other posts.
I recently bought 6 2inch blue scorpion discus, i had them imported from
Thailand.
Tank temp is 31 degrees celcius
Its a 65 gallon that gets 60-70% wcs daily
Feeding with frozen brine shrimp.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10
No tankmates
Anyway a few of the discus started turning black and stopped eating, fast forward a few days and they started having seizures.
Skip to current day, i have been treating with flubendazole for a week now with no visable improvement. 3 of the discus have died from seizures and 1 is very dark.
Its hugely discouraging and feels like i have sunk a lot of money into this only for it all to seemingly go to waste.
I am close to letting nature take its course and getting out of the hobby for the forseeable future. I have attached a few pictures of one of the dead discus if anyone has seen anything like this before.
If anyone has any advice at all it would be hugely appreciated.
I know this is in the wrong category but this category gets more views and im desperate at this point.
Thanks for reading -Ross
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[Ryan925]

Real bummer to see you have had such a rough time for your first attempt. Hate to see you get discouraged. If you have any desire to stick with the hubby I would consider finding yourself a more trusted source and starting with quality fish. Unfortunately sometimes failure is due to no fault of your own and simply due to the fish you have received

[MilkPudding]

Unfortunately I can't offer any advice as to what illness has befallen your discus, but I agree with Ryan that it seems likely this is something the fish already had when you received them, since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your husbandry.

I'll also comment that it's extremely tough to start out with discus that small as a beginning hobbyist; they're a lot more delicate at that size than at 3-4". I started with 2-2.5" myself and while I've managed to raise a few to a nice size, I did lose a couple starting out to disease as well despite my best efforts to treat them, even though they were from a trusted source. If you can afford it I'd suggest trying to start out with a slightly larger size once you clear whatever issue is in your tank currently.

Out of curiosity, what did you believe to be treating with the flubendazole?

[Phillydubs]

I was going to ask of you could get larger fish. I think with 4-5" fish to start and your routine you will be fine.

You got tiny fish that would have been diseased or just didn't transition well.

[jmf3460]

I would cull any fish u have left at this time and start over with domestic fish. Are you in the us? Why did you originally import fish to begin with?

[Rosskeegan24]

Unfortunately I can't offer any advice as to what illness has befallen your discus, but I agree with Ryan that it seems likely this is something the fish already had when you received them, since there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your husbandry.

I'll also comment that it's extremely tough to start out with discus that small as a beginning hobbyist; they're a lot more delicate at that size than at 3-4". I started with 2-2.5" myself and while I've managed to raise a few to a nice size, I did lose a couple starting out to disease as well despite my best efforts to treat them, even though they were from a trusted source. If you can afford it I'd suggest trying to start out with a slightly larger size once you clear whatever issue is in your tank currently.

Out of curiosity, what did you believe to be treating with the flubendazole?
It was more of a precaution to treat for worms, and also i thought the seizures were caused by internal parasites, but it didnt seem to make any difference.

[Rosskeegan24]

I would cull any fish u have left at this time and start over with domestic fish. Are you in the us? Why did you originally import fish to begin with?
I live in ireland and it is very hard to get good quality discus, so i ordered some "high quality" blue scorpions through my lfs.

[adrian31@outlook.com]

Hi Ross:

Really sorry about the hard time you had, believe me we've all been there.

In one of your other posts you mentioned your new water pump had some residual machine oil that got into your tank water which made your water cloudy and left a film in some areas. It was right after this that your fish started hanging near the top and within 1-2 days started turning dark. To me this is where the trouble started and your fish never truly recovered from this. Correct me if I read this wrong and your fish did actually recover after that incident.

What occurs to me from my own experience is how fragile Discus are compared to all the other aquarium fish I've had over the years. One time I hadn't fully rinsed off some soap I had on my hands and this got into my tank water. After that it took my fish over a week to start looking halfway decent again (after many WC and hoping & praying). My thought was that your fish may not have had worms or parasites at all but simply never recovered from that pump oil. If this was indeed the case the medication you gave just further stressed them.

We've all lost Discus here, it comes with the learning. I really hope you have better success in future.

[Phillydubs]

Hi Ross:

Really sorry about the hard time you had, believe me we've all been there.

In one of your other posts you mentioned your new water pump had some residual machine oil that got into your tank water which made your water cloudy and left a film in some areas. It was right after this that your fish started hanging near the top and within 1-2 days started turning dark. To me this is where the trouble started and your fish never truly recovered from this. Correct me if I read this wrong and your fish did actually recover after that incident.

What occurs to me from my own experience is how fragile Discus are compared to all the other aquarium fish I've had over the years. One time I hadn't fully rinsed off some soap I had on my hands and this got into my tank water. After that it took my fish over a week to start looking halfway decent again (after many WC and hoping & praying). My thought was that your fish may not have had worms or parasites at all but simply never recovered from that pump oil. If this was indeed the case the medication you gave just further stressed them.

We've all lost Discus here, it comes with the learning. I really hope you have better success in future.

+1 - well saidand I could not agree more...

I still stand by trying your hardest to find or import some true high quality larger fish if you want to give it another go

[Ryan925]

I live in ireland and it is very hard to get good quality discus, so i ordered some "high quality" blue scorpions through my lfs.

Sadly it seems nothing LFS get is high quality. Never seems to go well here.

I know we have lots of members all over the world and they have been able to find some top notch breeders in their area if nothing else.

I would suggest maybe starting a thread asking for help in that department and maybe someone can steer you in the right direction.

I know I have made mistakes and my fish from Kenny have proven to be very hardy

[tonytheboss1]

:sorry: bout the rough start there Ross. I know it's kinda deflating when your best efforts don't bear fruit. Sometimes a restart can be exhilarating. Don't throw in the towel quite yet. Take what you've learned, mix some of the above suggestions, (different breeder - larger size ) get back up on that horse & ride again. Money not withstanding, the challenge is it's own reward. There are very few among us who have not faced adversity. It goes w/ the territory. Best of luck to ya & when in doubt, ask away! 'T'

[Willie]

Hi Ross;

I don't know where you're located, but importing discus directly from Asia is extraordinarily risky. The only thing riskier is to import small discus. (I keep many different types of fish and have learned to always work with local resellers.) If you're in North America, I STRONGLY recommend you buy from one of the sponsored sellers. Not only do they do an excellent job, but selling on Simply really makes them accountable to the membership. I'm going to post a series of pictures from a recent shipment and you'll see what can be expected.

As for the fish themselves, it's clear to me that these discus were diseased going into your tank. They also look smaller than 2" to me. Many of us who have been in the hobby have made the mistake of importing ourselves. The results are pretty similar to your experience. Let the sponsored sellers assume responsibility for the risk of shipping and fish quality. They need to charge for fronting the money and taking the risk, but I think it's $$ well spent.

Never buy cheap discus. $20 - $30/fish is a pittance compared to your making 70% water changes daily. My recommendation is to clean the tank out, let it sit for 2 - 3 weeks, then order from one of the many high quality sellers on this site.

Good luck, Willie

[Paul Sabucchi]

Hi, sorry for your setback. I understand your predicament as I too live in a country where reliable sources of quality discus are more difficult to find than rocking-horse droppings. I think it pays to take the time to seek if there are any beeeders in Ireland, sometimes small scale amateur breeders advertise only on local forums or facebook groups or online classifieds. This is how I got mine, ok I had to travel to fetch the fish but even wirh this expence I was quids in and with the huge advantage of beeing able to see the breeding pair and knowing exactly rhe water parameters and the diet used to bring them up and getting them straight from the breeder's tank means a lot less stress and zero chance of cross infection for the fish. All the best