Need your expert advice - long corkscrew shaped white turd....

[engiskhan]

I watch my discus alot and since I've only had these guys for a couple weeks or so, I'm not what you'd call an expert. Maybe I'm reacting to something I needn't worry about but I'll let you experts be the judge of that.

I have 8 discus ranging in size from 3.5 to 4.5 inches in a 55 gallon barebottom tank. I noticed that one of my leopards wasn't very hungry and appeared listless a week or so ago. she came out of it, but still doesn't attack cbw and seems to prefer flakes. Lately, one of my BDs is acting listless and I haven't seen him eat in a few days now. I've also seen him twitching his head to the left in a weird spasm and I've also seen him scrape his gills once or twice. His color is fine, and his fins aren't clamped a whole lot. come to think of it, his color is lighter than usual if anything. He hangs by himself alot but will defend himself if anyone other than the "boss" tries to pick on him.

I read that it's good to treat for worms once in awhile so I did a dose of parasite clear (jungle labs). It has metro and prazi in it I believe. Anyway, the next day I saw a 2 inch long corkscrew shaped turd. It looked like some type of ribbon pasta. I also have seen a few white turds mixed in with the others which look like normal black/brown ones.

Anything I need to do different?

Oh, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0. ph is 6.7. temp is 88. I do 50% daily water changes (aged r/o water with kent r/o right and discus essentials.

[April]

hi. it sounds like it was a tapeworm if flat. i would get straight prazzi from Barry Illman and dose them as per the instructions.
if you go to this link you can get the info to order it.
I usually prazzi my new guys once i get them to make sure theres no worms as i used to get some fry who were loaded with tapeworm.
sorry forgot the link. go to buy and sell and stickied at the top it has prazzi or barry illman post.

[brewmaster15]

Sounds like a Tapeworm to me.

-al

[engiskhan]

Ok, I noticed that today, the second fish that became a little shy and listless and wasn't eating, started eating again today. He seems back to his old self. I'm assuming this is because of that Parasite clear treatment two days ago. The BD still is just floating around and sometimes looks at food like he/she wants to eat, then just continues floating around.

[Dane]

I think you have two issues...

The worms comming out are probably tape worms, which often live in Discus and do not cause disease for the most part.

The thing I would be concerned with is the spasm/scratching. This is a sign of gill flukes or other external parasites. It is not unusual for Discus that have been transported to have parasite problems. This is from the stress of transport or by introducing them into a tank that contains parasites.

If they are doing better after the med you used and have stopped scratching, don't do any more medicating and keep the tank clean on the bottom where many ectoparasites lie in wait for a new host. Because Discus are bottom feeders and school close together, they pick up ectoparasites easily.