what can I do for her? she's on her deathtank

[engiskhan]

ok, bad analogy. my 29 gallon tank has a mated pair of discus. the female has been sick and today, she's looking like she's ready to meet her maker.

I was poisoning the tank by not cleaning the sponge filter well enough. i cleaned it out and have been doing more than 50% daily water changes. She was very dark with clamped fins prior to that with labored breathing and slightly swollen and dark gills. after I cleaned the filter, her color and fins started looking better but now, she's looking very pale and bloated. I put in epsom salt but she's still bloated and now she's beginning to look deathly ill. she's swimming about weakly and if she runs into the aeration from the filter, she gets sent for a ride.

I realize that she's probably going to die, but if there's anything I can try to save her, I'll do it. any last ditch tricks you guys know of? medicine? peroxide? I'll do anything short of mouth to mouth.

also, I don't know how she's become so bloated because I haven't seen her eat in quite a few days. I've heard of someone actually squeezing a fish to try and get the crud out.

[engiskhan]

oh, another thing I noticed is her bottom lip was a little fat. I don't know if that means bacteria or what.

[Dave C]

No idea what to do but I'd look for other reasons then sponge maintenance. I haven't cleaned mine in over 6 weeks and when I did it regularly I would do it every 3 weeks. I've known other hobbyists that allowed their filters to go uncleaned for a year at a time. I'm not recommending it, but I doubt that it's filter maintenance that is causing your problem.

[April]

sounds like dropsy maybe? which is internal bacteria.. sorry to hear..poor fishy.
not sure theres anything you can do at this point if shes not able to keep herself going when she hits aeration.
not sure what other advice i can give other than keep up the wcs for the mate. hopefully you will get a good routine going and prevent him from getting ill.
we've all had to learn the hard way..your not alone. and some of us experienced guys sitll make mistakes.

[jeep]

Try adding salt at 1TBS per 10 gallons. It may be too late, but you'd be surprised at what a miracle cure salt can be...

A good anitbiotic for internal bacterial problems is Kanacyn...