My first sick discus ever , need your help

[nicholas76]

HI! all,

My king blue snake skin some several weeks ago was showing drastic variations in his colour, one minute black , 30 secons later normal. Anyway he was eating well , and still was the boss of the tank so i did nothing but made sure the water was good etc etc.

2 days ago i noticed he wasnt eating at all, usually he rushes to my fingers for a bite.? His colour is still fluctuatting and , he now has a long string like string of poo coming from him. It is transparent in colour , slightly white if anything. It has no colouring and when it leaves him, usually floats on the bottom of the tank, it also floats to surface - the waste that is. he now hides most of the time.


I went to the local fish store who said sterazin would fix it. although it says it kills internal worms, ive been told this is a fluke medication.


I dont feed my fish live food and am shattered that this is happening as these are my pride and joy, my prize discus if you like.

This fish appear fine apart from that. no other symptoms. my temp is on 29- 30. ph is 7.4 and I maintain a tight schedule with the water changes. I also change my carbon filter every 2 weeks as I know how important clean water is.


help me out!!!!


nick :-\ :-\

[RyanH]

Do you have a hospital tank?

[brewmaster15]

Hi nicholas,
Those symptoms sound more like Hexamita, than worms. The medication you would need has to contain the anti-protozoan medication... Metronidazole. I'm Not sure sterazin has that.

Read about treatments here...

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=4000

and for hexamita information....
here...
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=10;action=display;threadid=1058

hth,
al

ps.. The food you feed isn't related to this protozoan..Its very common , and most fish probably have it to some degree, but their immune systems keep it in check. There are things that can weaken an immune system , such as stress, and that can trigger an out break

[jeep]

I think I read where some meds may be difficult to get in Australia. Heat may a a course of action until you can locate the proper meds, if needed...

From Al's link...

"Discus and Angel fish owners report that elevating the water temperature to 92-100 degrees “cures” the disease. If your fish can tolerate that temperature it may be worth trying ."

Just make sure you raise the temp slowly (over a day or two), add sufficient air because heat depletes o2, and add salt at 2 TBS per 10 gallons.

Brian

[henryD]

Nicholas,

Shaun is from Australia also and have a similar problem.

Here is the link to that post....

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=11184

Looks like you can only go to the Vet to get the proper meds.

I know that late at night there is a number of Aussie that joins that chat line. You should drop in sometimes and possible someone from Aussie could mentor you.

HTH

Henry

[April]

yes.,.you need to get it from the vet. so....print out those pages of links brew gave you and take them to the vet.
or...private message rod coleman as hes in melbourne and ask him where he gets it.
yes he will be there on chat on monday night. i got him all set.
definitely sounds like hex. and he should be fine...once you get the meds.

[rickk]

HI Nick.

If its Metro you are after you can get it from a Vet. the stuff I get is called Metrogyl 200 and is made by Alphapharm.

each tablet contains 200 mg of metronidazole.

HTH
Rick

[nicholas76]

Thanks everyone.

Yeah it appears that metro is the way to go. Ill pop into the vet this week. I spoke to the local fish store again and they insisted that sterazin will work however everyone agrees that its metro that i Need. The LFS probably cant sell the stuff huh

I'll email rod and make enquiries with the vet

thankyou all for your help. Its very reassuring that you are there for us. I shall update the site accordingly ...stay tuned.
cheers

nick

[Rod Coleman]

Hi Nick
I replied to your email last night and only found this thread today.

If you can't get metronidazole from a vet I will post some dimetridazole to you. Just let me know.

I would start getting the temp up straight away.

Regards
Rod

[yippy]

Hi Nick, I printed out some pages about metro from this site and took them to my doctor - he read them and was quite happy to give me a prescription for them - in fact he was very interested in how human meds work on fish. Its not a controlled drug like a sleeping pill or anything, so maybe its worth a try for you next time you visit your doctor. to ask if he will give you some in case of future outbreaks. For a prescription of 21 x 200mg metro tabs it cost me about $11. I needed another human drug for my fish a couple of weeks ago, amoxicillin and i managed to get that as well, the doctor and the chemist were more than helpful and very interested in how its used on fish. They were a bit puzzled on how we give it to them so i just told them 'with a glass of beer".
Hope this helps,
Kerry :)