EMERGENCY

[mattm025]

One of my 2" cobalt discus was black and is kind of on its side when I got home just a few minutes ago. What could be wrong with it? It looks like its slowly dieing. I just did a water change last night, could that have something to do with it? I'm worried. Looks like the skin is flaking off to.

[Howie_W]

Hi Matt,

Sorry to hear about your fish. Can you post some basic info?

Ammonia, Nitrate,and pH readings? Temp?
How much water are you changing and how often?

Are you changing water straight from the tap, or aging?

Has the fish been eating regularly and feces look okay?

Fish looosing its slime coat sounds like a response to poor water conditions, and possible internal infection.

First defense is a clean tank. I would perform a 50% water change. Make sure tank walls and bottom are wiped clean. If you still have those stones in the bottom of the tank I would remove them.


Howie

[Cosmo]

Matt,

More than likely what you're seeing is your fish shedding it's slime layer, not it's skin. Could be related to the water change, could be related to deteriorating water conditions in general and the water change is coincidental :confused: How long has the tank been up? how big and how many fish? Was the tank cycled? How often do you do water changes? How do the other fish look?

If you have test kits, test for ammonia and nitrites.. an ammonia spike can cause what you're seeing, or, ... you did use something to dechlorinate the water didn't you? Could be ph shock too :confused: If you get high readings ( which is above zero for ammonia and nitrates) do a 50% water change but make sure the new water is the same temp and ph as the tank water. If you get an ammonia reading and have something like Prime or Amquel+ around, add some to the water to neutralize it.

Your fish is under severe stress whatever the cause, so you don't want to do anything that will stress her out more..

When my fish suffered something similar, the advise I got was as follows;
add non-iodized salt, 5tbl/10gal and treat with Furan2, double dose first day. Change 30 to 50% of the water tomorrow - and re-dose. Add back 5tbl salt for every 10 gal water removed during the WC. Repeat 5 days or longer if necessary.

Leave the lights off and feed sparingly w/ clean foods (no beefheart).

post some more info though before you do too much.. the salt can go in right away though..

keep us posted
Jim

[mattm025]

Hi Matt,

Sorry to hear about your fish. Can you post some basic info?

Ammonia, Nitrate,and pH readings? Temp?
How much water are you changing and how often?

Are you changing water straight from the tap, or aging?

Has the fish been eating regularly and feces look okay?

Fish looosing its slime coat sounds like a response to poor water conditions, and possible internal infection.

First defense is a clean tank. I would perform a 50% water change. Make sure tank walls and bottom are wiped clean. If you still have those stones in the bottom of the tank I would remove them.


Howie


Just did a 50% yesterday and I did use tap but I conditioned it. Ammonia is 0, Ph is 7.0, temp now is 82. Don't now why it's 82, its usually around th 86-88 range. The fish was eating very well. The feces looks OK. If it's an internal infection what would I treat it with? It's also hanging out by the heater. Does that mean anything?

[mattm025]

Matt,

More than likely what you're seeing is your fish shedding it's slime layer, not it's skin. Could be related to the water change, could be related to deteriorating water conditions in general and the water change is coincidental :confused: How long has the tank been up? how big and how many fish? Was the tank cycled? How often do you do water changes? How do the other fish look?

If you have test kits, test for ammonia and nitrites.. an ammonia spike can cause what you're seeing, or, ... you did use something to dechlorinate the water didn't you? Could be ph shock too :confused: If you get high readings ( which is above zero for ammonia and nitrates) do a 50% water change but make sure the new water is the same temp and ph as the tank water. If you get an ammonia reading and have something like Prime or Amquel+ around, add some to the water to neutralize it.

Your fish is under severe stress whatever the cause, so you don't want to do anything that will stress her out more..

When my fish suffered something similar, the advise I got was as follows;
add non-iodized salt, 5tbl/10gal and treat with Furan2, double dose first day. Change 30 to 50% of the water tomorrow - and re-dose. Add back 5tbl salt for every 10 gal water removed during the WC. Repeat 5 days or longer if necessary.

Leave the lights off and feed sparingly w/ clean foods (no beefheart).

post some more info though before you do too much.. the salt can go in right away though..

keep us posted
Jim


The tank has been up for 3 and half years now and is 55 gallons. Yes, its cycled. The other fish look fine. After I think about, it could be Ph shock because I had the Ph around 7.0 and my tap is 7.6. The fish was fine this morning though. Is the salt you put on food the same as non-iodized salt?

[mattm025]

anyone?

[Terrybo]

No - most food salt is iodized. (It will say on the container that iodine is added or that it provides iodine). What you want is aquarium salt. (I think water softener salt will work also).

Terry

[Howie_W]

Hi Matt,

Fluctuation in pH, especially a reduction could easily be part of the problem.

When performing water changes, pH should be the same from tap to tank. Aging your water in a storage barrel with aeration for 24 hours can solve this problem.

Temperature should also be aprox. the same from water change to existing tank temp. If you are getting a temp. fluxuation your heater is not working properly.

Regarding salt; you want to use additive-free sodium chloride which is different from regular table salt. I use Morton's Pickling salt which meets this criteria as it's free of any additives...most grocery stores carry this. Keep in-mind that salt is not a medical treatment, but rather a short term use to help reduce stress, by helping the fish breath easier.


Howie

[mattm025]

OK, I'm going to get some right now. What about the stress coat stuff you can buy for fish, any good?

[sidra]

Hey Matt,

Sorry to hear your fish is having troubles. I am new to discus so I'm afraid to give much advice. I will say this, but please see if any of the experienced people here agree before doing this...I had a fish that was sick, turned dark and was floating on it's side. I took a gallon of water out of the tank and added 2 1/2 tbsp of aquarium salt and left the fish in for 10 to 15 minutes. I watched him the whole time to make sure he was OK and the salt bath definitely helped. The darkness went away and he perked up. I'm not saying salt would be the cure, but it did seem to help him until I could figure out what the problem was and treat appropriately.

AGAIN, please see if anyone agrees before doing this, but I found it helpful for that fish.

Also, if no one already said this, I would get that fish into a quarintine tank (just make sure it's the same water conditions as the main tank so you don't shock him more).

[mattm025]

I was also wondering, I left my heater on when I did a 50% water change. Could this ruin the heater? I know your only supposed to have it running while in water so I figured it would be OK with a 50% WC. I think I might of ruined the heater. I have it set at 90 and its only goin to 82.

[sidra]

You could have damaged the heater, but if that's what happened to it I'm surprised it works at all. If you forget to unplug them while doing a water change, they can shatter from over-heating. Mine both have auto-shut off and re-start but I still unplug them when doing water changes.

Also, if your heater is FULLY submersable, you can put it at the lower section of your tank and you wouldn't have to worry about that.

What size heater (wattage) do you have and how many gallons is your tank. Since discus need higher temps than most tropicals, you often need a larger wattage heater than the manufacturer recommendations. On the other hand, you don't want to overdo it, because if the heater malfunctions, a higher wattage heater could "cook" your fish by overheating.

I would get either a larger wattage heater, or another smaller one to make up the difference. For a while I used a 150 and a 75 together.
How is your sick fish doing?

[Jeff in NC]

I agree with all the advice but if hes hangin out around heater hes cold .82 may not be what it is use to.And as allways keep up water changes! Jeff

[Howie_W]

I was also wondering, I left my heater on when I did a 50% water change. Could this ruin the heater? I know your only supposed to have it running while in water so I figured it would be OK with a 50% WC. I think I might of ruined the heater. I have it set at 90 and its only goin to 82.

It's very likely that the heater is ruined. There are several ways to avoid this;

Heater can be positioned horizontally along the bottom of your tank so it's always below the water line during water changes. You can also keep your heaters on a power strip that is shut off pripor to water changes...not a problem as long as you remember to turn it back on when you are done. :)

A third option; I've been using the Visi-Therm Stealth Heaters...these have an automatic shut-off when the water line drops down, and will turn back on when tank is re-filled.

In general, its always good to have back-up. I usually have a pair of heaters running in all tanks, 55 gallons and larger. This cuts down on one heater having to do all the work, and also provides support if one of the units fails for any reason.


Howie

[mattm025]

Just bought a new 200 watt heater. Is there a reason why the light on it keeps blinking on and off every 3-5 seconds?

[sidra]

Matt, what brand heater did you buy and how many gallons is your tank? Different heaters work different ways. My visitherm shuts on and off (not every few seconds though). My Tronics I actually like better because they DON'T go on and off. They stay on until the water is at the selected temperature.

[Carol_Roberts]

heater may be malfunctioning - monitor temperature of tank . . . .

[mattm025]

It's an Aquatic Gardens 200w heater. Just bought it like 4 hours ago.

[mattm025]

:thumbsup: Just thought I'd let everyone the 2" cobalt is doing much better! The slime coat is back on and it seems almost fully healed! Thank you all so much for the help! :thumbsup: