Discus went nuts.........

[mikezz]

This is what happened!!!! Came home from work seen 1 discus acting like it was nuts raceing back and forth, up and down. Than 20 min latter it made the shape of a U. Started to swim fast then slow, upsidedown floated to the bottom of the tank. With one fin closed shut and the other looked ok. Very heavey breath for some time and swam for 5 min and died. All other discus look fine....
What happened or what should I look for. Water is 88*

P.H. 7.4 Tbs. 455 Ammonia is fine Nitrite-ate look ok
G.H. 2
K.H. 2 Water change 25% every day

Thanks "Z"

[Carol_Roberts]

No idea - especially if all other fish in the tank were fine.

[ozone]

For a while two of my fish went mad and skittish when ever I went near the tank, they would virtually jump out the water and injure themselves on the tank and then they would lie at the bottom of the tank stressing out. They are now cured of it. Sounds kinda similar as your problem. What was wrong with them I can only speculate but I did treat with praziquantel and raising the temperature and the arn't so skittish anymore. They still stress when I do water changes though and sometimes lie on they're sides. I think that your fish probably injured itself while going mad coupled with some sort of parasite infestation.
I would treat with something for anti parasite treatment amd keep up the water changes . I am sure that some of the others could add to this. :-*

[Dane]

I have seen two things cause that -

1) Ammonia/nitrite levels high

2) External parasite infestation

A combination of both is not unusual. The stress of high ammonia/nitrite can cause runaway external parasite infestation in my experience. I have never figured out how stress can allow external parasites to multiply to infestation levels, but have seen it enough times to know there is a link. My guess is something happens to the slime layer of the fish under stress, which is the 1st defense against parasites.

[mikezz]

I was told that it was like a stroke.................. Now I have 2 more fish the same way when I went to feed today. Both fish are in different tanks now what should I do..............

[elgecko]

What else is in the tank, decorations?

[mikezz]

only Discus in the tank about 10 in a 75 gal range from 4inch to 6 inch...........

[brewmaster15]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com//index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=17476

it may help.

-al

[falcon]

Mikezz, the same thing happened to me. I had a pretty good size wild brown and he would just go on a rampage. This would continue for about a week. All this time, he was in hidding, not eating. Over the course of two weeks, he has recovered. Started eating well, had beautiful color. Then it started again after two weeks or so. This time I decided to move him in a q-tank after three day but he died there the next morning. What a loss... :(

From reading some other posts, it seems that whatever this is it will come back and the fish will usually die.

Not sure if there is anything that you can do.