Discus turning black

[lw0117]

I have a discuss who was eating great until I went on vacation. He stopped eating and is now turning darker. I have tried Metro. He does not appear to have a slime of any kind. He is a bit wobbly.

Temp in tank is 88.

[Carol_Roberts]

Discus turn darkand quit eating for many reasons.

How long has he been sick?
Are your doing daily water changes with a nice clean tank?
Are all the other discus perfectly healthy?
How did you dose the metro?

[lw0117]

Thanks for responding so quickly. He has not been eating for 2 weeks, but just started turning dark tonight. I do the water changes and I gave him 500mg of metro.

I do have other fish in my 55 gallon tank. 4 other discus, one I introduced on Saturday and some clown loaches.

After treating him with the metro, he seemed to get worse. He is very stressed.

[Carol_Roberts]

Did you quarantine the one you introduced on saturday? IF not I suspect your new discus may have brought a disease or parasite to the tank, which has affected the discus that has not eaten for two weeks.

When you treated with metro did you raise the tank temp to 92+ ? Did you treat in the main tank and how many days did you treat?

[lw0117]

Also, I am reading that salt in the tank may work. I do not have a hospital tank at this point-- Would salt hurt the healthy fish.

[lw0117]

I did not raise the temperature. I just started the metro treatment tonight. Do you think this may be plaque. I lost another fish one month ago with the same symptoms.

[Carol_Roberts]

Probably not plague, but there are lots of virulent diseases out there - especially this time of year. Salt may help your fish feel a little better, but at low concentrations will not cure your discus. Watch your other discus closely to see if they begin to show symptoms.

If only the one discus gets sick and you think intestinal flagellates are the problem, then I'd raise temp to 92, add extra air, change 50% water daily prior to dosing metro.

If it's bacterial or viral then raising temp may make problem worse :-\

[Terry]

Can some one help me
Yestarday i arrived home to find one of my discus very shor of breath,& dark in color.Tank 55gls planted about 15 plants,driedwood 3 peice's tank mates 2 clown loachs 4 briselnose 2 neon ido water changes every 3 day about 25%,temp 28 ammonia 0. ph 6.8.nitite 0 nitrate 10.this has worked fine for me for months.

I've up temp to 32 & started meds (protozin) its now day tow & his breeding has slowed down hes starting to eat again i dont want to damage the rest of the tank do icarry on with the meds or not , or have i just panaked..........

[Ardan]

Hi,
I have never used protozin, but a lot of meds are harmful to plants. Its also difficult to treat in a planted gravel tank.
If the fish is looking better, possibly the increased temp helped it, The increase temp may not help the plants though. I would keep the temp up a few days, stop the med and if it looks okay, slowly bring the temp down over a few days.
Also do daily wc's for a while with aged water. SOmetimes the water source changes too.

hope the fish is ok

hth

[Terry]

do i leave the light on or of when the fish are sick

[jules]

Terry - my tank is also a 55 gallon planted and I have loaches. Did the medication affect the clown loaches in any way? Did you use it full strength?

[Terry]

Jules, My loaches are fine.
But i must strongly point out that on ardan's good advise i only used meds for one day,I replaced the carbon & kept temp at 32 my discus is showing good signs of recovering

In fact none of them seem to mind the high temp will start to lower tomorrow. wish i could be more helpful but remember i did not run the full coruse of meds.

while i am here one of my briselnose's jumped out of the tank today don't ask me how lids where on has this every happened to anyone

[Ardan]

Hi,
I forgot to say Welcome! to you :) Anyway welcome to Simply! 8)
Glad the fish is doing better.

Leaving the lights on or off? Well , if it is a bacterial infection, sometimes it helps to keep the lights off. Otherwise I leave the lights on as usual during the day.

hth

[Ardan]

One other note. (well, 2or 3 ;D)

I never use carbon with my discus, except to remove meds (takes a couple days, then I throw the carbon out)
Carbon is not as good as wc IMO. Also carbon may contribute to disease like Hole in the Head". It also can release the nasty stuff it collects back into the water.

hth

[Terry]

I'm am please to say
That my discus is no longer black in color he is back to his beautiful self, its amazing how he has gone from floating on top of the tank only 4 days ago to being king of the tank today just by upping the temp & adding a little salt.I dont think i will run to the meds cabanet so soon if it happen to any of my discus again. Many thanks ardan for your quick reply and helping me. :)

[Terry]

by the way i got rid of the carbon.

[jules]

Hi Terry - how much and what kind of salt did you use?
Will it affect your plants?

I also don't use the carbon all the time.(just started)

[Terry]

JULES - I used aquarium salt about 3tps by aquamaster. They are based in Qld australia. www.aristopet.com.au they web address.Plants are fine :)