small white circles on edge of gills

[highthoughts]

i have a red parrot blood discus that has small white circlts on the external edges of its gills.
none of the other fish including discus have this.
this same red discus developed ick after the first 6 hours in the tank and i raised the temp to 86 then treated with copper sulfate, the white dits were gone in about three days.
The good thing is these white circles don't seem to effect his resperation and he seems healthy. he is eating and putting on weight.

any ideas about what it is and how to treat it would be great.

second question is about using salt for treatment in a planted tank. Will this type of treatment kill my plants?

[Shari]

Hi there..I'm not one of the moderators here but watch this carefully. Just learned myself that copper and Discus can not always agree....Carol is great with Formalin info - I've recently switched from Copper Safe to Formalin myself.
Be sure your temps are about 83-85 anyway so ich isn't usally an issue to begin with - you didn't say what they were before you upped to 86. Ich comes back as it's reproduced, read up - sounds like you caught it in time but you may not be out of the woods yet if your not careful with this particular Discus.
The small white circles you describe a mystery to me...I do recall reading something about 'something white' though near/around gill areas...I'll try to find that article again - but if I recall the ich meds usually worked for this also. (Rid Ich/Cure Ich etc. type meds. (machalite green/formalin combos)

I'll try to get back to you too but meantime Carol and Al may know what you are looking at here.

Best Regard/and lotso luck meanwhile ;)

[Shari]

afterthought...oh yeh - salt can hurt plants pending quanity used. Often they recommend tablespoon of salt anywhere from per gallon to per 5-10 gallons..depending plant type and how sensitive they won't make it for this period of days the salt may need to be present in the waters. I've done ok with a tablespoon to 5-10 gallons with plants like Java Ferns/moss etc. but not sure about the others folks have in their tanks.

[highthoughts]

thanks for the info. there hasn't been any change and i have stopped treating them. i will try Formalin in about a week or so.

Really appreciated the info on the salt treatment with respects to plants.