Red.Aceco
11-20-2020, 01:17 PM
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?
About 3 months ago maybe more, I noticed a couple of my discus had developed white poops. After the following treatments, one still has stringy poop, and just now I watched another one DIARRHEA lumpy white poops,is also twitching and agitated, and another has ghost poops. Lastly one other has been hiding and turning dark.
*I cannot tell if this is re-occuring parasites or bacterial. Metro seems to help a little bit but never quite goes away. I tried Furan -2 in case it was bacterial but they because stressed very quickly. I am preparing to move on to Levamisole or back to Flubendazole, or perhaps try a different treatment for bacterial infections like general cure*
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).
Discus 1: Has had stringy white poops (with a short 1 week break in the middle) for months, is wafer thin but still eats.
Discus 2: Poops are stringy and white off and on for 4 weeks, still eats. Just liquid pooped lump white, and twitching.
Discus 3: Dark hiding, thin, pecking at anything but the food.
Discus 4 & 5: Normal poops, Quarentined away from the rest because after the Flubendazole treatement, they both got swim bladder disorders and lay sideways or tail stand. This has been for 2 weeks, I have them in some salt and espom, with sponges bubblers and lowered water level. They are SLOWLY recovering.
Discus 6, 7 & 8 seem fine.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Meds
Flubendazole - Used Charles instructions. Treated twice with 4 weeks spaced in between each treatment. Caused tail standing and side laying in my two biggest healthiest mating pair. Quarantined them, 89 degrees, 1tbs salt per 2g in a 20g tank plus 1tbs epsom, no food.
[LIsT=2]
Metro in water 500mg per 20g daily dosed for 2 weeks and metro food - took a break for 2 weeks and restarted. its now been 1 week no meds and white poops are back.
[LIsT=3]
Heat and salt were also attempted for a week.
[LIsT=4]
Furan - 2 was attempted but seem to really stress them out!
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
120g
8 discus, 2x 4", 1x 3", 2x 2", 3x 1.5"
6 Cory Cats
4 loaches
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
4x's per week 50% WC OR 1x per week 90% WC
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Tank has been running for a year, I had substrate, sand, 1.5 inches, until 1 week ago assuming maybe the sand was harboring parasites and thwarting my success. Now its bare bottomed and 4 sponge filters.
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
No I use R/O and remineralize with Revitalize to 130TDS, PH is always 6.4 - 6.8
8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
None apart from revitalize
9. Parameters and water source;
Amm. 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Ph 6.8
Temp 85 -86
R/O water only
Note: I tried using 50% tap and 50% water for a few months but it turned out to be too difficult to keep my tap water PH (9!!!!) down to a normal range.
10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No
11. 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.
For 2 months its been Everthing Aquatic Duo Flake, Prazi and Metro. This helped stringy poops go away but once I switched back to normal food the poops came back. When I'm not feeding meditated food its Vibra Bites, FD brine shrimp, or Community CRave on a rotation.
12. 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.
1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
About 3 months ago maybe more, I noticed a couple of my discus had developed white poops. After the following treatments, one still has stringy poop, and just now I watched another one DIARRHEA lumpy white poops,is also twitching and agitated, and another has ghost poops. Lastly one other has been hiding and turning dark.
*I cannot tell if this is re-occuring parasites or bacterial. Metro seems to help a little bit but never quite goes away. I tried Furan -2 in case it was bacterial but they because stressed very quickly. I am preparing to move on to Levamisole or back to Flubendazole, or perhaps try a different treatment for bacterial infections like general cure*
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).
Discus 1: Has had stringy white poops (with a short 1 week break in the middle) for months, is wafer thin but still eats.
Discus 2: Poops are stringy and white off and on for 4 weeks, still eats. Just liquid pooped lump white, and twitching.
Discus 3: Dark hiding, thin, pecking at anything but the food.
Discus 4 & 5: Normal poops, Quarentined away from the rest because after the Flubendazole treatement, they both got swim bladder disorders and lay sideways or tail stand. This has been for 2 weeks, I have them in some salt and espom, with sponges bubblers and lowered water level. They are SLOWLY recovering.
Discus 6, 7 & 8 seem fine.
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Meds
Flubendazole - Used Charles instructions. Treated twice with 4 weeks spaced in between each treatment. Caused tail standing and side laying in my two biggest healthiest mating pair. Quarantined them, 89 degrees, 1tbs salt per 2g in a 20g tank plus 1tbs epsom, no food.
[LIsT=2]
Metro in water 500mg per 20g daily dosed for 2 weeks and metro food - took a break for 2 weeks and restarted. its now been 1 week no meds and white poops are back.
[LIsT=3]
Heat and salt were also attempted for a week.
[LIsT=4]
Furan - 2 was attempted but seem to really stress them out!
Tank/Water
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
120g
8 discus, 2x 4", 1x 3", 2x 2", 3x 1.5"
6 Cory Cats
4 loaches
5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
4x's per week 50% WC OR 1x per week 90% WC
6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Tank has been running for a year, I had substrate, sand, 1.5 inches, until 1 week ago assuming maybe the sand was harboring parasites and thwarting my success. Now its bare bottomed and 4 sponge filters.
7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
No I use R/O and remineralize with Revitalize to 130TDS, PH is always 6.4 - 6.8
8. What type/brand water conditioner do you use? Do you add it to the tank or aging barrel? How much do you use?
None apart from revitalize
9. Parameters and water source;
Amm. 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5
Ph 6.8
Temp 85 -86
R/O water only
Note: I tried using 50% tap and 50% water for a few months but it turned out to be too difficult to keep my tap water PH (9!!!!) down to a normal range.
10. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
No
11. 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.
For 2 months its been Everthing Aquatic Duo Flake, Prazi and Metro. This helped stringy poops go away but once I switched back to normal food the poops came back. When I'm not feeding meditated food its Vibra Bites, FD brine shrimp, or Community CRave on a rotation.
12. 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.