Need Help! Discus laying down...

[patrick]

A friend of mine who bought some discus from me over the last year or so, woke up yesterday to find some of her discus laying down (3 out of 11) Most of the fish are about 5 inches. She immediately faked out and started applying hexamita after doing a water change. As a result, the fish may be a little stressed out.

Another fish dashed into the aquarium.

One day later the fish are doing ok, but they do not want to eat and are not as friendly as before. They are staying to the rear of the tank. Some of the fish are still breath heavy, but they have regained there color.

My friend does regular water changes, about 30% every 3rd (75 gal tank). I sounds like she is doing all the right things, except for the the discus buffer (a waste of money).

In my opinion, I think there was a power outage. We had a power outage doing a winter storm the night before. She called the utility company, but they did not confirm the power outage.

Any opinions or advice I can give to a fellow discus hobbyist?

Patrick
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[DREW]

did your friends ph drop suddenly?

Drew

[patrick]

I'll check the ph. However, what could cause a suddenly decrease in the ph? CO2, not utilized. Plants, not utilized. Fish waste and/or feeding? Or something else?

Patrick

[jeep]

Power was out? Could be an ammonia build up or a bacteria bloom or many other things. Can you provide more details? Planted tank, substrate, filtration, how low did the temp drop during the outage, etc...

The first theing I would do is slowly raise temp to around 85-86 and add non-iodized salt at the rate of 1-2 TBS per 10 gallons. Make sure before applying any different meds, that present med is filtered out. Too many medications can stress or kill...

Good luck!

[patrick]

My friend indicated that the power did not go out.

How does an ammonia build-up occur?

How does a bacteria bloom occur?

What should be done if either of those events occur?

Not a planted tank.

No power outage, no drop in temperature.

Under gravel filter with power heads.

Patrick

[jeep]

One possible thing could be the use UG filter with powerheads. The UG filter will trap all kinds of junk in there and if not properly maintained, a bacteria bloom can result from decayed matter. That's why most discus keepers go with bare bottom tanks.

I meant 1-2 TBS per 10 gallons...

How often does your friend do water changes? I would start changing water at 50% today with AGED water so as not to throw the fish into ph shock. Continue 50% WC daily. Go ahead and add the salt as stated before and replace the salt that is removed during the water change.

I suspect bacteria build-up...

P.S., if the water can not be aged at this time, I would do a 25% change now and 2 more 25% changes spaced several hours apart so the co2 will have time to escape from the water, thus avoiding the ph shock as much as possible...

Look for possible burns on the fish. Could be ammonia if the filtration is not processing the ammonia. Add Prime or another agent that will neutralize ammonia...

[fcdiscus]

You could also suspect an acid crash from the UG Filter and the use of acidic buffers. JMO. Frank

[patrick]

Thanks for your input. As it turned out, my friend had too much gravel in her tank and was not cleaning the gravel enough. Apparently, when she did clean the gravel she noticed that it was very dirty containing old food, etc...

Fish are doing much better.

She might be removing all the gravel and adding sponges...

Patrick