white covering large section of body

[Mountain Man]

Need advice!
Rec'd 3 discus from lfs shipped from Montreal and still in shipping container. We got 1 male at 4.5" and 2 females at 4". They had fungus on them when still in the bags and lfs gave us Baktopur to treat them with. The lfs will stand behind the fish but we really want to save these ones.
It has not helped and now 4 days later the problem is much worse. Obviously the meds are not effective. The fish are still eating well and active but they look really bad. Today we started a 5 day treatment of Maracyn which has been effective for fungus in the smaller community tank and hopefully will be here too. Should we add salt?? The tank is a new setup, cycled 90 gal tank, no gravel and a few plants. We have a Fluval 404 and a smaller intank fluval as well. Removed all carbon to treat and feeding homemade beefheart mix which they seem to love as well as frozen bloodworms and spirulina flakes.

Tank readings are as follows:

PH 7
GH 4
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0

Temp 86f

We have not had Discus for a very long time but these are not the first time and we are very worried about these three.

We have been reading the forum but am getting more confused because so much is new since we last kept Discus.
http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/Nemo2.jpg
Bernie the Mountain Man

[Carol_Roberts]

Salt and furan 2 treat fungus. Maracyn is erythromycin, a mild antibiotic. REad Steve's thread in this section . . . Your fish don't resemble his do they?

[Mountain Man]

well they do a lot of scratching ! ... they really look bad dark and that white is nearly every where even on the eyes! I will try the salt ....any recomendation ? I have salt from my previous marine tank! Should be safe using that salt ? and what ? this is a 90gal tank? so ?? thanks Carol for responding so fast ! I truly appreciate your help and this forum ....

[Carol_Roberts]

Do you have a smaller tank to treat them in? Your are going to need lots of salt - start at 3 tbsp per 10 gallons, then make it 6 per 10 gallons tonight. Tomorrow 1 tablespoon per gallon. Replace with water changes. I'm not sure that fungus is your problem, but heavy salt helps with columnaris too

[Mountain Man]

thank you for your help, Carol. We are taking your advice. We have a 25 mile drive to town so we went this morning and picked up a smaller tank since we will need it sooner or later anyway and some Furan 2. We have added the salt this evening as soon as we could set up the smaller tank and will up it tomorrow morning. As soon as the water is warm enough (about an hour)we will transfer the fish. They are still eating well so we are still hopeful of a good outcome.

[Mountain Man]

Would like to know how long to keep the salt mixture at the highest concentration? We have to do a 25% change of water today ...do we have to add salt again ????? The last two days seems like the damage is halted ... not improving but not getting worst !Do you recomend a second course of Furan2?

We really appreciate your help ! thanks again

worried ???

[Carol_Roberts]

Yes, keep the salt concentration up for a total of 7 10 days. Then slowly remove with water chnages.

I don't remember the amount of days for the furan 2 - hopefully Brewmaster or Frank can remind us . . .

[Mountain Man]

ok will keep the salt concentration up. Thank you again for your help. Will do a second course of Furan2 unless otherwise advised.

[gump]

good luck with them Bernie.
Pierre

[Mountain Man]

2 more days to go on the second course of Furan 2. We seem to have made some improvement. The white/grey covering is much less now but one of the females is getting pretty weak. That female now appears to have popeye, protruding quite strongly. The other two appear to be eating something on her body. The water perameters are normal. Temp is 86f. Any further advice would be welcomed. We and the fish have fought hard to overcome this, and none of us are quitters so we will continue to hope.

[Mountain Man]

[ one of the females is getting pretty weak. That female now appears to have popeye, protruding quite strongly. .]



that female now barely move sinse last nite she is standing nose down in a corner and side fins just barely moving ....dont think she will make it !

the other female and the male is eating good and color is coming back and swimming all over ! those two are recovering ...will finish the treatment just the same ! Thanks all for your help!

[Carol_Roberts]

Sounds like internal bacteria now.

Personally I would cut my losses and start over . . .

[GulfCoastDiscus]

The Furan 2 treatment is 10 days double dose. You can start to see some improvement on the 4th day but continue with the Furan and salt. Change 50% of water everyday.

dan

[Mountain Man]

Yesterday evening and today we have seen marked improvement on the two remaining fish. Colour is almost normal and much more activity. The fungus is almost gone now. They have been on Furan 2 for 7 days now so will continue until the 10 days are up. The female we lost yesterday morning was in the worst condition when we received her so I am still not ready to give up on the other two. Unfortunately we did not use double dose until now but will finish out the treatment with double and maintain the salt.

[Mountain Man]

ok looks like we save 2 out of 3 . they are eating very well and no fungus left on them ! their colour is back to normal and lots of activity !

Treatment is finish and will be doing 50%wc again today and adding charcoal to remove the colour in the water !

http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/28 feb small.jpg

their is the female eating frozen red worms!
http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/28 feb c small.jpg

thanks to all for your help and encouragement ! much appreciated ;)

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Do a large waterchange to remove color and meds. Continue with salt but lesser amount.
They are still carring the disease for 3 or more months. If you put any other fish in the tank, they too will get it. This has happened to me. Be careful

Dan

[Mountain Man]

thanks for the advice DanDman ! did a 50%wc and continued the salt! will do another 50% tomorow!

both discus looks very good and truly show great improvement !

eating like pigs ;)

[Mountain Man]

Update :)

Wanted to update the outcome for the two surviving wild browns. We lost one of the original three but the combined Salt/Double dose Furan2 treatment for 10 days did the trick for the other two. They are fully recovered and doing very well. Will follow advice given here about not putting new fish in the same tank with them for several months. We are very grateful for all the help given here.

pics to follow later :-*

[Mountain Man]

here is Arial the female brown wild that survived ;)
http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/Nemo march 10b.jpg

[Mountain Man]

Nimo the wild brown that we rescued with the help of the forum!

http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/Nimo march 13.jpg

Now both of them Nimo and Ariel ! :-*
http://www.macbern.bravepages.com/discus/Nimo ariel march 13.jpg