Is There A Doctor In The House???....Pleeezz!

[samcatj]

I need some good medical advice.
I have a 125g tank with 10 avg. size discus in them approx 10 -15 months old. I have noticed that two of the fish eat sparingly at best, stay mostly to the back of the tank and are very thin, especially right behind there gills. If you look at them from above the tank they are almost razor thin starting right behind there heads. Over the weekend I lost one fish to the same symptoms and I need some help.
I do 75% water changes three times a week, the temp. is at 86, ph is at 6.90. I have seen no traces of white feces. I feed a variety of foods bloodworms, shrimp, whatley discus and OFN1 frozen 2 - 3 times a day.
Can anyone tell me a good medicine to get from the LFS so I can get started early on a treatment right away??? Also if you recommend salt can you tell me what kind, how much and how often and long do I adminster it.
Many thanks for your respnse in advance. This site is really great and I am so appreciative of all the people who keep it up and running. Thank You!!


Samcatj

[Liz_Streithorst]

I just got through treating a fish with the symptoms you are describing although not as advanced. On Al's and Cary's advice I treated for hex. I used 250 mg haxamit from my lfs per 10 gallons 3X daily and did 50% WC 2X daily. The fish was picking at food and spitting it out on the 2nd day, eating normally on the 3rd day and pooping normally on the 4th day. I continued the treatment 1 more day to be on the safe side. You are probably not seeing stringy white feces for the same reason that I did not. The fish aren't eating. But my fish's first poop on day 3 of treatment, looked like a magot! Intestinal lining sloughing...yuck.

Liz

[Carol_Roberts]

Liz has given you some good advice. Are most of your discus healthy looking and only a few thin ones? IF yes, do you have a smaller "hospital" tank? You will need to raise temp to 92 and it will be much cheaper to heat and medicate a smaller tank - say 20/30 gallon.

[chuck]

yeah that's what stink's about large tanks... They cost waaaaaaayyyyy toooooo much to treat....:waaa:
I have a 130 gal, and if one fish looks under the weather I always wonder if the others are infected and wind up taking out a loan from the bank to treat them all :-\ :-\ :-\ ;D ;D ;D

chuck

[fcdiscus]

You can halve the tank water during treatments, and now you are working with a 60 gallon capacity. Frank

[Carol_Roberts]

That won't work if you are only running an Aqua clear 500, but if you have airdriven sponges in the tank too (like Frank Does) then it is a great idea.

Hmmm, now I see why you have all those different filters in your tank, Frank. :)

Why not take some of the money you'd be spending on extra meds, and invest in a 33 gallon tank(or smaller) as a hospital tank?? You could probably even find one second-hand for cheap...