What can this disease be???????????

[chris allsop]

Hi every one,
Im having problems with my fish, i bought two new fish a few weeks ago, the biggest one is breathing a little quicker and it very dark, its a spotted snake.
The other seems ok.
I will post ,my water parems first:
Amm 0
Nitrit 0
Nitrate 40, i was using tap water mixed with ro, im now using pure ro with ph buffer and ro rite, so this will come down as the ro water's nitrate is 5.
Ph 6.5
Gh 4.5
Kh o.50
temp is 90, i was told to raise it was 82, ive changed it again to 85.

Ive changed from plastic plants to real and added diy co2, this was high for a few days as it could not get a test kit from any were, i sorted it now.
This has obviously this has not helped.
Also when i firsted added the new fish the ammonia raised to 0.25, i did a water change and added stress zyme and poly filter. The tests are coming out ok now.

Could the above have a lasting effect on this fish or has he got a disease?

My tank is 48 by 15 by 18, it has a jewel filter and a internal canister filter at the other end of the tank.
The substrate is sand, i have two medium pieces of bog wood and like i mentioned a lot of plants.

Fish list:
7 discus
2 at 3.5 inches
5 smaller say 2inch
3 orange fin tetra
1 hipo cat
2 cories
1 clown loach
2 plecos, one gold nugget one black with white spots, both 2inch.
3 siemise figters, 2 female, 1 male.

the tank is second hand so i have only added the discus and fighters, im thinking of moving the fighter and tetra's to a smaller tank.

I know i have a lot of fish in there but i still live at home and can not have a bigger tank.

Will getting a external filter help?

I was doing 8-9 gallon water change every week, mix of ro and tap. im now going to do at least 5 gallons of pure ro twice a week. Is this ok or do i need more?
Could my dark fish have hexitra or what ever its called?
if so what do i do about it?

Also i do not have a qt tank so i justed added the fish, i will not add any more.


I dont have a digi cam, its been going on for a week or so.
The symtons are:
Dark skin
Faster than normal breathing
One has a slight little hole in its pec fin. Thats the worst fish, health wise.
Not all are eating
Staying at the back of the tank.

That is about all that i can say, i just really need to find out what it is so i can treat it.

[chris allsop]

The small sickiest one is also losing weight around the head, by that i mean its head is thiner than b4, also the fish seem to twitch there bottom fins, not very often but they do. I can not see any white poop nad all but the sickiest is eating.

[Carol_Roberts]

I think you have a whole lot of fish in a 55 gallon tank that also contains new live plants, decorations and substrate. You have been experimenting with CO2 and have high nitrate water. You are using RO water to reduce nitrAtes. With so much going on in the tank it is hard to say whether your discus are sick from the water or sick from an external parasite or bacteria.

I would put the sick discus in a bare bottom hospital tank - say 30 gallons or so - with a cycled filter and daily water changes with the lowest nitrate water you can make. Be sure the pH is stable. Observe the fish for a weeks and see if they improve or show other symptoms.

[chris allsop]

some one on another forum described spme symtons of hex and it fitted so i think its hex .
Ive been told to use interpet no 9 internal bacteria, and octozin together, so thats what ive done, i will keep you posted.

[chris allsop]

Today is the last treatment of octizin and tomorrow is the last of inter number 9.

When can i do a water change??????????????

[Cosmo]

Chris,

I'm not familiar with either med you mentioned, but whenever I medicate I maintain daily water changes ... even if the meds instructions say wait 2 or 3 days...

how long has it been?? Have you tested your water's parameters?

Not knowing the meds I'd hate to speculate, but I'd think you'd want to do one ASAP.

hth
Jim

[jimmyhat]

simplicity is the best when keeping discus many modos and mine is the following

Nothing brings discus back faster than water changes. I would do water changes as often as I could with soft acidic water. Offer a variety of foods and clean the filter often. They should be back at it in no time..

I had plants in my tank and it was to no use i have rocks and fake logs with some rainforest wood. Its easy to clean now and no bad things going on in it. discus need high temps and the plants cannot deal with it they slowly rott.

I used 2 steps after seriously wanting to add major drugs to my tank and lastly said no way to it.

step one:
Turned up the heat with a proper heater shown in my link.. from 84 to 93F in a 3 day period. Lost alot of sleep doing this in increments..
Heat was used and stillis around 89-90F after a week.

step two:
EPsom salts is your friend/ Very cheap and it works.. i do a tablespoon and sometimes a half more to a liter of water from the tank and snatch a fish up and let him have a med bath with it for 15-30 mins depending on the state they are in? It fixs them good creates a great mood for them and they eat like tigers afterwards... It solves alot of outside issues with the skin and flukes and also internal issues..

I surfed for days figurein what the major breeders use and came across 5 people that swear by it. My fish were black hanging at the bottom and were on the verge of death. Looked bad i felt like a bad dad. So i had nothing to lose but try the method and it worked. But remember the first step is WATER WATER WATER changes i do a 35-45% wc everyday now and they are happy as can be...

Pictures of them in the link...

Goodluck

[jimmyhat]

oh and during step one i added 1 tblspn of epsom salts to a 5gallon to the tank to get it into the water also.. Its really hard to nail a disease on the head tillits too late so many of them resemble the other thus this method is not dangerous and it works.. FOR ANY FISH :spit:

[chris allsop]

ive tried getting epsom salt but i just can not get it over here.

[raglanroad]

A pharmacy must have it for sure. Regular salt baths are also said to help many illnesses. This is under some dispute, but I think the recommendation side wins. Remember,when adding salts, dissolve the salts very thoroughly before getting them near fish.
A good method for bath treatments is supposed to be to keep the fish in a large soft net during the bath. Periodically touch the fish to see if it still dives when touched. If the fish rolls over,during the bath, get it back in regular water. The bath treatments are often repeated several/many times every day.

[Carol_Roberts]

Epsom Salt (magnesium Sulphate) does not kill parasites. It is used on contipated fish as it draws water into the bowel, thereby helping the fish eliminate any blockage. It will not hurt the other fish or the filters and can be added directly to the tank at the rate of one tablespoon per 10 gallons.

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Hey Chris,
You just have too much going on in your tank. For a 55gal.
It's over crowded. You do minimum water change. You have a high bio-load.

I would remove all the gravel and do a barebottom for now till the discus gets some size to them.

[chris allsop]

The sickist fish in just floating on top of the tank, i did a 60% water change but that does not seem to have helped, should i put the fish out of its missery or leave to see what happens??????????

[chris allsop]

Does not matter about my last question, the fish got worse and sank, i could not take the risk and leave until tonight when i get back from work as i would of affected the water and other fish.

So unfortantly i had to put him out of his missery, i just hope the rest of my fish are going to be ok.

[Greg Richardson]

Sorry to hear that Chris. Hang in there.
I'd go with Discus only. This hobby is hard enough without having the others involved. I think your rewards for doing that will be worth your time to set it up that way. Water changes on a daily basis make a HUGE difference. I know that sometimes very hard to do daily but it pays off bigtime for me. A BB tank is way to go if maxium growth is your goal. Then once they are big stick them in your show tank.

BTW. I'll be needing to get rid of my pleco here. He did a great job keeping tank clean but is bothering the discus now that he is getting bigger. You might find that happen with yours also once they get bigger and braver.

[raglanroad]

Chris, sorry about your discus.
Maybe don't put any extra fish in the tank, it is overloaded.
For sure, plecos suck. it seems they can kill fish that have a nice flat surface. one pleco got 2 breeding pair of angels in 2 days. it is when the angels get a nice size to grab that the plecos get em. zuchini drives the plecos into a mad state of aggression, too.

[chris allsop]

Thanks chaps, i will not be putting more fish in there, like has been mentioned i have to many as it is.
On the bright side at least now its not as over stocked as it was.

My pleco's do not cause any problems now but i know when they are bigger they could well do.
When that happens they are goners.

[chris allsop]

You are not going to believe this, ive just gave my fish some supper and i could only see 5 discus, i looked around the tank and could not see anything so i started looking thru the side of the tank, there it was some how court behind the filter???
I have not got a clue how it managed to get there?????????
It was sick as well but not as bad as the one this morning, all were bought from the same shop??

I now have 5 discus, what a terrible day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is my tank still overstocked with:
5 discus
2 plecos
3 orange fin tetre
1 hipo cat
2 cories
1 clown loach
3 siemise fighhters?????????????????????????????????????????