To quarintine or not to quarintine

[F8VRT-HBY]

Hello there,
Well its been a while since ive posted, I finnaly got into Ferris state in Michigan so now my life doesn't have as much discus in it as i would like :( But my fish have been doing well for the most part. the look great and they eat a ton of food.

Lately I have diagnosed one, possibly two of my discus the have Intestinal Flagellates. I am goin to do with Metronidazole. I have a quarantine tank that is ready to treat the two fish.

My question is, should i just treat my whole 55gal tank with all six discus in it or should i just quarintine the two?? Im ask because i don;t know if any of the other could be coming down the the problem and they just arent showing any signs. Thanks for your time, Its appreciated,
Keith

[Martin]

I would do them all at once. The treatment won't hurt the healthy fish.

[RyanH]

Hi Keith,

All of your fish have flagellates... and they always will. The fish that are getting sick are just getting them in higher numbers for whatever reason. This is often caused by a weakened immune system due to stress.

You can treat your entire tank for sure but it would be cheaper to just treat the ones that are showing symptoms in a quarantine tank as this will allow you to use less metro.

Whichever way you decide to go, make sure you do the treatment for at least five days, 2-3 times per day, and at 400-500 mg/10 gallons of water. A lessor treatment can cause resistence to metro in the flagellates. If we're not careful, hexamita will eventually be completely immune to metronidazole and then we'll all be in real trouble.

BTW, I'm a GVSU student so since you're going to Ferris, I guess that makes us arch-enemies. :D :D :D

hth
-Ryan

[aggie_67]

Another problem treating a 55 is you need to heat over 90 F, which would take a BIG heater.

[brewmaster15]

Hi keith,
Welcome back! How did you determine that flagellates were a problem?

-al

[F8VRT-HBY]

Hi keith,
Welcome back! How did you determine that flagellates were a problem?

-al

good question. I did some reading and i had an idea, then i read Carol's sickness aid and figured it out ( I think ).

The discus that i am most concerned about has long, stringy white poop. I watch there eating habits closely and he is eating less and less, sometimes not eating for days. His color is always dark, not the nice heckel blue he normaly has and he is also an outcast, only "socializing" when he "eats"(picks) if he even does, if he doesn't eat he sits in his corner spot.

One last thing i forgot to mention when i was pondering doseing the whole tank, i also have a large (20) school of Cardinal tetras. Any help is appreciated as always, thanks, Keith

P.S. what do you think about adding an extra heater jsut to aid the one i have now so i can get the correct temp? ( i know i should ultimately have two heaters, but hey, im a starving student)

[F8VRT-HBY]

Any thoughts on the Cardinals being in the tank when i dose?? Thanks,