I had my first Discus death today.

[drew22to375]

I had my first Discus Casualty today. Woke up this morning and noticed one of my blue Diamonds was swimming funny. Bloated stomach and couldn't seem to swim straight. Looked like he/she was constipated. So I figure is is some kind of blockage or something. So I proceeded to slowly add 1 tbs/10 gal of aquarium salt. But unforaunately he was to far gone 2 hours later he/she was gone. The other Discus seem fine. Should I keep adding more salt for a while to the tank for a safety measure or should I just go ahead and slowly decreaase the salt back to zero, or anything else? :'(

[Wolf_Mek]

Sorry to hear about your discus, it's always a bummer to lose fish :(.

For constipation you use Epsoms Salt (Magnesium sulfate) as apposed to aquarium salt (Sodium chloride) which you would use to treat minor infections, parasites, and relieve some of the problems associated with nitrite poisoning.

If it is constipation, and it sounds like it, I don't think you have to worry about your other fish. The one that died was probably having problems before you noticed and that is why it died within 2 hours after you noticed something was wrong.

HTH

[drew22to375]

Where do you get magnesium sulfate? The Pharmacy?

[Wolf_Mek]

You can get it at pretty much any department store, it's commonly called Epsoms Salt. You might try foot care or first aid departments.

[Carol_Roberts]

Even the small grocery store in Canyonville (pop. 1400) carries epsom salt in the drug section