I am struggling to keep discus, any tips?

[Lemon94]

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

It all began a few months ago when I got 7 discus. I am new to this hobby and made the mistake of not quarantining. A month ago, I lost a fish because it turned black, stopped eating and eventually died. Now a second discus is having the exact same symptoms and I fear it will also eventually die. I am now noticing a third discus who's color is slowly fading, who stopped eating and is hiding behind my driftwood all the time. I have a few discus ( about 2-3) who clamp their fins occasionally.

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).

Symptoms include, turning black, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins (occasionally). One discus has finrot which I used furan 2 and it didnt help.

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

I have already treated with General Cure and Furan 2. I have also tried Epsom salt but nothing seems to help at all.


Tank/Water

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

I used to have 7 discus, 3 swordtails and 1 pleco but I have changed my load. I have a 75 gallon tank with 9 discus, 8 neons, 2 plecos, 1 gourami and a german blue ram.

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

I change 80-90% everyday on my tank.

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 for over 3 months now. It has a light sand substrate about 1 inch. It has a few plants as well.


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

I dont age my 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 __84-85___

- ph __8.0___

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading _0___

- nitrate reading ___0-5ppm_ (Big daily water changes always keep this really low)

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.

I just use tap water.


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

Only two new discus that I quarantined for about 4 weeks. (Making the total 9 discus)

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.

I feed a beefheart mix (talapia, beefheart, shrimp, peas). I also feed bloodworms and brine shrimp. However, recently 1-2 of my discus have been neglecting my beefheart but eat the bloodworms and shrimp. I dont know why as they have always ate my beefheart mix.

Any tips about what I am doing wrong would be appreciated :cry:

[lastflea]

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will be able to give some advice, but in the mean time, check your pH from the tap. It might be lower than your tank, in which case, daily water changes at such high volumes might be doing a lot of bad, rather than good.

Your tap water might contain CO2, which then dissipates over 24hrs, once it comes out of the tap. CO2 lowers pH, so as it dissipates, your pH increases. If you're not ageing your water, that means you're putting water in your tank with a lower pH value, so your discus are getting high/low/high/low pH values every day. I hope that makes sense, because fluctuations in pH are really bad for any fish, especially discus.

I might be wrong, but this might be the cause of the problem. If you allow your water to age for 24hrs, it's pH will have already adjusted to your tanks pH, which means your discus won't be subjected to sudden swings in pH value.

Don't do any more water changes without ageing your water. All that means is leaving it in a tub for 24hrs before putting it in the tank. An air stone will age it quicker, but you need to test your aged water, against the water straight from the tap to see if this is the cause of your problems.

Hope that helps and good luck :)

[Second Hand Pat]

It would be good to check for a ph swing? Could you also post some pics of the tank and fish? What does the poop look like?
Pat

[dadecountyalan]

my key to discus is consistency. Tap water isn't consistent. Find a way to age your water, control it and use that for water changes.

[brewmaster15]

Hi, Sorry you are having troubles. The mistakes you made are ones that many have done. Dont beat yourself up over but instead learn from it.

Pictures are really important here... they can tell alot. I also need info on the meds you treated...what was the dose and duration?

Big water changes are "good" if the water is good. I didnt see what your water source was ? is it municipal? do you treat with a chemical for chlorine or choramine?
Hows the non discus doing? Tetra and rams dont do well with poor water quality. If they are thriving, its probably a bacterial or viral issue.

hth,
al

[Lemon94]

Thank you everyone for replying. I have seen that my tap water's PH is around 8.2, however after checking my tank the ph of my tank after 24 hours is 7.8. Could this be the cause as it is fluctuating. The problem is I live in an apartment and I dont have any space to store and hold water unfortunantly. I may try to make space but if i cant any tips?

To pat:

All my discus at one time had white poop and I treated with general cure and after that everyone started pooping brown again except for one who I took into a quarantine tank and doubled the dosage with general cure for 3 days with epsom salt. Everyone is pooping brown except the sick discus which is pooping white poop that looks like snot.

To brewmaster:
I medicated with general cure for 4 days as I followed the instructions on the back. I use prime to remove chlorine. The other fish all seem to be doing fine. I did medicate in the past using furan 2 as all my fish were breating heavily and it fixed that. I followed the dosage on the back for 4 days.

[Lemon94]

115232

[lastflea]

Thank you everyone for replying. I have seen that my tap water's PH is around 8.2, however after checking my tank the ph of my tank after 24 hours is 7.8. Could this be the cause as it is fluctuating. The problem is I live in an apartment and I dont have any space to store and hold water unfortunantly. I may try to make space but if i cant any tips?


As a single swing .4 isn't bad really. But this is happening every day,going up and down, so not ideal. I'd say it's been causing stress, and has made your discus weaker. As for what's actually wrong with them, I'll leave that to the experts, but you really need to find space for a container to age your water. Otherwise they're being subjected to daily pH swings, and that's not good.

Hope things turn out ok for you, and you might want to try getting a few close up shots of the sick ones :)

[lastflea]

I dont have any space to store and hold water unfortunantly. I may try to make space but if i cant any tips?


It doesn't need to be too big. Enough for a 100% water change would be ideal, but 50% would be better than nothing. I might be corrected here, but your discus look big enough to cope with less frequent water changes, or less quantity. Your tank is far from over stocked, so nitrates won't be building up to unsuitable levels over a 24hr period. Maybe 30% every other day, but you really do need to age the water first, because every water change you're doing is causing stress.

I'm not speaking from experience with discus, although I have kept other fish for a couple years, but I've read lots of threads here on sick discus, and so many of them involve some discus getting sick, others not, and the owners saying "the others seem fine", and so not listening to the advice given. Then the thread goes quiet, probably because all the discus have died, or occasionally the owner does report back, and all the discus have died. I'm not saying this is you, but from what I've read I'd say follow all advice given.

Something I would do, for the time being, is remove the substrate, as this could be harbouring bacteria that's bothering your discus. If this is the case, and coupled with pH swings on a daily basis, the outcome is likely to be bad. A pristine tank for poorly discus is pretty important. The best way to remove it would be with a syphon.

Hopefully others will chime in on how to actually treat your discus, and the close up pictures will help with that.

[Lemon94]

I will try making space to age my water from now on and see if that makes a difference. Also, is it smart to buy a uv sterilizer to kill free floating bacteria?

Heres a picture of my sick discus.

[Lemon94]

115233

[Second Hand Pat]

Oh boy, this guy has been sick for a while. It is in a pretty serious state of decline and has been for a while. See how thin it is in the forehead? Is it eating?
Pat

[Lemon94]

No I cannot get him to eat. i have tried garlicguard but that wasn't any help. I have even tried force feeding him a couple of times but he spits it all out so I stopped trying to force feed him.

[Second Hand Pat]

No I cannot get him to eat. i have tried garlicguard but that wasn't any help. I have even tried force feeding him a couple of times but he spits it all out so I stopped trying to force feed him.

It may be too late. PM Al (brewmaster15) and see if he has any suggestions. I am afraid even if you tried to treat him he is not strong enough to withstand the treatment. :(
Pat

[lastflea]

Also, is it smart to buy a uv sterilizer to kill free floating bacteria?


Some people swear by UV sterilisers, others don't. Yes they clean the water, but maybe they lower immunity by doing so, so when something does get into the water, the fish have no immunity to fight it. There's pros and cons to anything I guess, but discus seem to be in a different class when it comes to clean water.

He does look very poorly indeed. Hopefully something can be done.

[Tuterosso]

propably fungus

[Second Hand Pat]

propably fungus

If it is fungus what should be done about it?
Pat

[Lemon94]

Unfortunantly I lost him. I am worried I may lose my other fish, if it is fungus should I use furan2? Or use melafix with pimafix?

[Tuterosso]

i use potassium permanganate or fmc(formisol) 20ml on 100l one week batch