Help, belive my discus has gill flukes or suffering from something else

[Tore Bo]

2 weeks ago i received my first discus ever. There are 2 discus in the tank, and no other fish. I have been doing 30% waterchanges every day the first 5 days, then switched over to 50-70%. The discus has been acting weird since i got them. First i thought they just needed time to adapt to the new environment. The tank is a bare bottom tank containing 260 liter (68 gallons). It also contains a pump that can move 1050 liter an hour, but i have ordered a new one as the current one is getting old and in my opinion making to much noise. The current temperature is 29 degrees celsius (84,2 Fahrenheit). The fish seem to have these "thin" bags sticking out of their gills. They are a lot darker in color a lot of the day and occasionally make big sudden movements. They also spend a lot of time in the corner bottom of the tank, sometimes going up and down a lot. One of the discuses has scratch itself a lot to the internal filter. The fish seem to be scratching the gill part of the body. I dont have the numbers on the current water parameters, but a new test set is on its way. Attached some pictures, but is hard to spot as they are hiding in a darker corner of the tank. First picture is 10 days ago.
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[jeep]

Welcome to the forum. Those are some really nice discus you have there!

This does look like the beginning stages of bacterial gill disease. It can be caused by different reasons including flukes, poor water quality, high bioload, other irritants, etc...

2 good treatments for flukes is Prazi or Potassium Permanganate. PP will also help rid the gills of bacteria. PP can be dangerous and will affect bio-filtration so if you choose this route then read up on the instructions first.

One thing I notice in your photo is micro bubbles attached to the glass. Do you age your water? Micro bubbles also attach to the body and gills of the fish causing irritation and inflammation. I assume you do use a water conditioner?

[Tore Bo]

I have ordered tremazol (link in end), as i see several people recommend that. Do you belive this can be an effective medication? I do have Esha 2000 available, but never heard of prazi before. Also no the water isent aged, but it attaches itself some bubbles on the back wall after waterchanges. It used to be a artificial wall there, but i removed it, and bubbles attaches itself to where the glue used to be.

I do not use a waterconditioner for the time being. The fish is according to the seller used to the water parameters that comes from the tap (Norway). It seems that a lot of aquarium keepers dosent use these kinds of product in Norway, do you belive i should get some?

https://www.dogman.com/no/sera-sera-med-prof-tremazol-25ml-914191?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjbyYBhCdARIsAArC6LJ64gcuf7SiY iOwTO-ME5tIwOZaDwE5P2whyWmPDH4DU5xA7sxWgbAaArVYEALw_wcB

[jeep]

I believe the active ingredient in Tremazol is Praziquantel. There must be other meds in it because I'm not aware that Prazi will treat for roundworms, but but that doesn't seem to be your case.

I'd go ahead with the Tremazol and add about 2 TBS regular salt per 10g. The salt will help with respiration and help ward off infection. Prazi will not kill fluke eggs so 2 or 3 treatments will be necessary.

[seanyuki]

Sera Tremazol active ingredient is praziquantel.


https://en.fishandaqua.com/4736-sera-tremazol-tremazol.html

https://pillintrip.com/medicine/sera-med-professional-tremazol

[Tore Bo]

Thanks, will be starting treatment the second medication arrives, should i be doing WC during the treatment?

[seanyuki]

Daily water changes and vacuum the tank, Gill flukes reproduce by laying eggs, and like most parasites, their eggs are immune medications. This means that the first treatment will only kill the adult and juvenile flukes, but not the eggs. The second treatment is needed, usually after 4 or 5 days, to kill next generation of flukes once they hatch.