Skin missing, fluffy white

[Triciagl]

I noticed a few days ago that there seemed to be like an ulcer or missing flesh on one of my discus. I thought maybe it injured itself on the driftwood. Kept an eye on it and did not get better in the following two days. I added kanamycin at 15 scoops. It seems to be getting bigger and a fluffy white stuff over the sore. I don’t know what to do. I have done two treatments so far. The second yesterday.
They’ve been doing so good since I got them better from the capillare infestation. It seems it’s always something 😪
123659

Water:

pH 8.2
Temp 82
Nitrites and ammonia 0
Nitrates 80
I do a 50% once a week
I age the water

[alron2]

You need to go to a daily 50% water change. Your nitrate needs to be down around 5 to 10 range. Looks to me like a bacteria infection. More water changes will help greatly. Ron

[danotaylor]

Agree with Ron re the nitrates. The white fuzz could also be fungal so I would dose salt with each water change as well; 3-5 TBSP per 10 gal until it clears up. Salt will help bacterial of fungal infestations

[jeep]

Nitrates 80
I do a 50% once a week
I age the water

I agree with Alron and Danny. Nitrates need to be <5!!! Increase water changes with aged water to 80%+ for a few days then to at least 50% daily until this goes away. Salt as Danny recommends! I would even bump salt to 1 TBS per gallon for the first 3 days!! This is a bacterial infection that could turn very serious and infect the whole tank if not treated!!!

In order to avoid this in the future, always perform water changes to keep nitrates to <5!!

[brewmaster15]

That looks like a heater burn that got infected.. It could also be from a pleco if you have them in the tank...The white is fungus attacking dead tissue. Like the others said... your nitrates are way to high....that 50% weekly water change should really be increased alot, especially now. How big is that tank and whats in it?

al

[Triciagl]

Thanks you all for the advice. My nitrates come out of the tap higher than you are suggesting me to keep them at :( also my heater is in my sump. I will definitely try the salt though.

[Triciagl]

That looks like a heater burn that got infected.. It could also be from a pleco if you have them in the tank...The white is fungus attacking dead tissue. Like the others said... your nitrates are way to high....that 50% weekly water change should really be increased alot, especially now. How big is that tank and whats in it?

al

Al I have 7 discus, 3 albino pleco, and 2 corycats in a 72 gallon

[brewmaster15]

Thanks you all for the advice. My nitrates come out of the tap higher than you are suggesting me to keep them at :( also my heater is in my sump. I will definitely try the salt though.

The lower the nitrates the better, but at least with water changes you should be able to keep them in the 10-20 ppm range. If you have high nitrates in your water, its not fit to drink and you should look into whole house filtration.

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regu

[Triciagl]

The lower the nitrates the better, but at least with water changes you should be able to keep them in the 10-20 ppm range. If you have high nitrates in your water, its not fit to drink and you should look into whole house filtration.

https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/national-primary-drinking-water-regu

Maybe I’m reading the test wrong? I don’t think my city has unsafe drinking water.

[14Discus]

If I’m reading your last post correctly, you would be doing WCs w water that is high in nitrates. Putting water high in nitrates into the tank during a WC defeats your purpose. There are several things you can do to get those high nitrates down....which is a must.

Mix RO water w your tap in the aging container. Do keep an eye on the KH and GH factors of this mixed water.

Be careful w feeding and bioload in tank.

To add weapons to the nitrate reduction, you can try one or more of the following.
....If using a canister, put Biohome pellets in for anaerobic bacterial action.
....Resins like Total Nitrate can be added to HOBs, but will have be recharged frequently.
....make a refugium w a fast growing plant if you have a sump.
....buy dintrification canisters. These (housing anaerobic bacteria) have to be fed every so often
....make or buy an algae scrubber.

These options will add a punch to nitrate reduction in the water. Healing for your fish will be better w cleaner water. While your water may look clear, NO3 can be present in high amounts which will hinder fish health.

It may be obvious, but treating this fish with what was suggested would best be done in a hospital tank, not your main tank if possible (if you have a hospital tank). Good luck and keep us posted.

[jeep]

It may be obvious, but treating this fish with what was suggested would best be done in a hospital tank, not your main tank if possible (if you have a hospital tank).

Yes!!

[brewmaster15]

Maybe I’m reading the test wrong? I don’t think my city has unsafe drinking water.

what level are you getting Tricia? almost all USA municipalities publish whats in their water ...maybe check with yours?

al

[Triciagl]

what level are you getting Tricia? almost all USA municipalities publish whats in their water ...maybe check with yours?

al

I just tested my tapwater, it’s hard to read but I’d say it’s between zero and five. And I Mistakenly said 80 for the tank it’s actually 40

[brewmaster15]

I just tested my tapwater, it’s hard to read but I’d say it’s between zero and five. And I Mistakenly said 80 for the tank it’s actually 40

When was your last water change?

[Triciagl]

When was your last water change?

I did it on Sunday. I have one aging barrel that I share between 3 tanks. So I do my 72 on sundays and my 40 and 29 on Wednesdays

[brewmaster15]

I understand. if you could add one more water change a week you would probably be in the ok range. It generally only takes less than 24 hours to age water if you run an airline into the barrel. You could also add some pothos or philodendron vines to the tanks to suck up nitrates. These are terestrial vines...
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?127785-pothos-does-it-work-Is-it-worth-it&highlight=pothos+nitrates
al

[Triciagl]

I understand. if you could add one more water change a week you would probably be in the ok range. It generally only takes less than 24 hours to age water if you run an airline into the barrel. You could also add some pothos or philodendron vines to the tanks to suck up nitrates. These are terestrial vines...
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?127785-pothos-does-it-work-Is-it-worth-it&highlight=pothos+nitrates
al

I did just add a pothos recently :) it’s still little so I don’t think it has much of an effect on the nitrates yet.

So game plan I’m going to do a huge water change tonite and resalt 3tbs per 10 gallon. I could add one more treatment of kanamycin per instructions but it doesn’t seem to be doing anything. The wound seems to be growing larger. Is water change and salt sufficient?

[brewmaster15]

It hard to tell if they kanamycin is working because of the fungus.. its pretty effective as an antibiotic.

Honestly, if the fish was mine.. I would net it and swab with hydrogen peroxide to clean up the wound. The problem is that could kill the fish ... but the way it is now, the odds are not much better... A compromise could be a salt dip..
al

[Triciagl]

It hard to tell if they kanamycin is working because of the fungus.. its pretty effective as an antibiotic.

Honestly, if the fish was mine.. I would net it and swab with hydrogen peroxide to clean up the wound. The problem is that could kill the fish ... but the way it is now, the odds are not much better... A compromise could be a salt dip..
al

My son could help me with that. Just place it on a wet washcloth? What if I don’t use hydrogen peroxide and just swab the fungus off?

[Triciagl]

That was pretty intense. I got most of it. Poor guy123673

[danotaylor]

Looks much better mate, good work on the cleansing. Keep up the salt dosing & water changes and I reckon you're on the right track!

[14Discus]

Pathos may be ok, but give water sprite a try. Water sprite has faster root growth and it hangs down perfectly when plants are floated. Mine really eats up the nitrates etc.

[brewmaster15]

Pathos may be ok, but give water sprite a try. Water sprite has faster root growth and it hangs down perfectly when plants are floated. Mine really eats up the nitrates etc.

Absolutely! Water sprite is an awesome nitrate sponge... If you can use it in the tank either floating or submerged it can be great at sucking up nitrates. Pothos and Philodendrons may not suck up as much nitrates initially but those vines can grow endlessly long and as they grow their nitrate consumption increases. They also do not need light other than ambient room light. For houseplants they are considered low light plants.

Theres alot of great options using plants and algae for nitrate control..

Al

[14Discus]

Yes Pathos is a low light plant. My problem is that I tend to keep the fish room on the dark side regarding ambient light. Here is a pic of my enlarged water sprite refugium. It’s now twice as big as from when originally posted on another thread.
My love of ws is the super fast rate in which it grows.....this pic is a day or two from trimming the higher reaching plant stems. All that fast growth is eating up the garbage in the water.

123679

[Triciagl]

He looked so bad today. The wound had grown larger and he was starting to intermittently lay on his side on the bottom of the tank. I decided to put him out of his misery, felt cruel not to. Poor fishy.

[danotaylor]

RIP. Sorry mate

[14Discus]

Sorry for your loss. You did the right thing, hard though it was to do.

[Second Hand Pat]

Sorry to hear but you tried really hard. You make the right call. :(
Pat

[brewmaster15]

Im sorry to read this but you did the best you could for this fish.Sometimes they are just too far gone too help them.

Al