Infectet Nose and melted fins

[FrankSNF]

Hello,
i`m relative new to keeping discus and have now my first problem with a sick fish.
i`ll try to keep it short.

- bought 2 fisch 5" (a bit tired when arrived but no external problems)
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- fisch went to hospital tank
- first 2 days pp bath
- 3rd day + API general cure treatment
- 1 fisch got sick on the last day of API treatment (big hole around nose)
- swimming normal / eats some food

the following days / weeks
- daily 100% waterchanges + wipe down tank
- pp bath (from just a couple of minutes - 2-3 hours)
- api general cure treatment (2 weeks after the first one)
- 2nd fish didn`t show any of the same symptoms so i took him out to reduce the water pollution

all this didn`t help and i started to add salt for the next 10-15days

-add aquarium salt to 25g tank ( ~1 tablespoon / 10g )
-no improvements after first week

start 2x daily 100% waterchanges + wipe down tank and keep adding salt after every WC
after around 2 weeks with the salt i could see the holes are not as deep as before but are still as large as before.and he changed color to silver for a bit
i reduced the salt over the next days and startet to add MB with every WC 2x daily and thats where i`m at now.

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i have seen the feces before i started the salt and they looked like from a healthy discus, no strings, nothing white.
over these past month i think more and more that it is some kind of bacterial problem. when i did only 1 wc per day sometimes i could see that they eyes where cloudy and some white bacterial build up on the glass also the ends of the tail fin are melted but this also got better with the salt and 2x wc daily

my problem now is that someone else will take care my discus while i`m not at home and this person won`t be able to do 2x wc on the hospital tank daily
can anybody tell me if i can put this fisch in my main 130g tank with my other 7 discus or will they get infectet as well?

after all the salt, MP,PP bath there will be no beneficial bacteria left in the hospital tank so if this won`t infect the other discus maybe it would be beneficial for the sick discus to get in a tank that has alot of beneficial bacteria to keep the water clean

i didn`t find anything about this online since all that comes up are the hole in head disease and i dont think that the case here.



no3 0-10 ml/l
no2 0mg/l
GH ~8
KH ~6
ph ~6.8
cl2 0
temp 81-86F

i have around 3 more weeks to get the discus well again

Thank you

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Frank, lets cover some basics. What is your ammonia? Do you have a cycled filter in the tank? Are you using prime when doing your water changes. Are you aging your water and why the temperature fluctuation from 81 to 86? Are you using cold water for your water changes?

Did the mark on the face of the fish in question arrive with the mark? This question is based on the first picture in your post. What much PP were you using and for how long. Generally PP is used at 2ppm for four hours?

Were you adding PP, API general cure and MB due to the mark on the nose of the fish? What else were you treating for?

I think you should stop all the PP, API general cure and MB so we can see where the fish are. The marks on the nose of the fish take time to fill it.
Pat

[FrankSNF]

at the beginning i did some ammonia test and it was green 0-x range from the test and now since i started to do 2 100% wc every day there should be no ammonia.

i had a hang on filter with some ceramic rings that came from a run in filter but since its a hospital tank and with all the PP and MB i removed the filter since i had the feeling that there where more bad bacteria then good in the filter.

is use tap water that is filtered with a paper filter and 1 larg carbon filter (carbon should be used up buy now or have a little effect and i need to change it) the water always has around 85F from the tap

the temp in the tank is normally at ~85/86 and only drops if someone is in the room and the air conditioner but there is also a heater in the tank so it 95% stable temp

there was no mark when the fish arrived i just did the API cure as some kind of quarantine/precaution

all the following treatment like PP,MB,Salt,2nd API Cure i used to fix the holes at the nose


what do you think is that some kind of external problem or internal? should these holes not heal withing 1-2 weeks (if there is no internal parasite) or will the PP/MB/salt slow the natural healing process ?

thanks for the reply

[Second Hand Pat]

I would suggest putting the filter back on the hospital tank and only use clean water. The issue with the fish has been resolved and only time with clean water and food will hopefully help the pit to resolve itself.
Pat

[Mando]

His eyes are cloudy and I think I see some pimples on his body which screams water quality. I'd do as pat suggested and put the filter back on and offer clean water. Normally, the Q/T process just entails observation and a deworming procedure. No need for other medications unless you observe some type of illness or psychical symptom.

If you removed the filter thinking there was more bad than good bacteria, and at the same time, you fed the fish, you definitely exposed them to ammonia and nitrite spike. I accidentally left my filters off on my growout tank and went to work. When I came back, I had ammonia and nitrite in my water on a cycled tank.

[jeep]

If you removed the filter thinking there was more bad than good bacteria, and at the same time, you fed the fish, you definitely exposed them to ammonia and nitrite spike. I accidentally left my filters off on my growout tank and went to work. When I came back, I had ammonia and nitrite in my water on a cycled tank.

Could also create a ph crash.

Without knowing water routine (aged or tap) there could be ph swings. If low kh there could be even larger swings that could include a crash. The "melted" fins and cloudy eyes point to ammonia or ph.

I would age the water and continue large water changes. I would stop all meds and raise the amount of salt to 5-6 TBS per 10g.

[Mando]

Also, it's unfortunate that you're going on a trip in this situation. Best thing to do here is to keep the fish separated. Take some media from the 130g and put it in the filter for the hospital tank so you can seed it. Don't feed while you're out and he will be fine with 1x wc a day, even every other day until you get back.

[FrankSNF]

i did stop with the MB and PP and also the salt and added a cycled large sponge filter, the holes are closing very slowly. i will have no other option then just hope he can still recover and be fine with wc every other day.
thanks for the help so far.