new dicus help please

[robr0924]

I added six red discus to my tank last monday. They where quarintined for a week them I added them to my big tank. I did a water change on thursday and increased the temp to 90. Since then water change I lost 2 Discus, a blue that i have for three months and a pigeon that i had for a month. But two of my turqoise and the new discus are dark and larthegic. I see no signs of disease and the water test turned out good. I lowered the temp to 86. What is the problem? Any help would be greatful.

tank size is 250 gal.

thanks

rob

[Cosmo]

Rob,

One likely culprit is that your bio filtration has been overloaded by the addition of the new fish.

Another possibility is that the new arrivals were carrying something, and when you added them into the tank the infection/parasite overwhelmed the existing fish's immune systems.

One week is way to short of a QT period as many symptoms won't show themselves in that short a time span. This is particularly true if all you do during QT is observe rather than preventative treatments. 6, 8 weeks or even longer is much better.

Until things sort themselves out, you might want to look at daily WCs of AT LEAST 30%... preferably 50%. Adding some non-iodized salt at 1 tbls/10gal may help, but keep an eye on them to see if any specific symptoms develop.

Also... post more info on the symptoms, your tank, your maintencance & feeding routines too as they all will help diagnose a problem much more precisely.

Jim

[lkleung007]

Hi Rob,

The most likely cause is that the new Discus are carriers of something that caused your other Discus to be sick. Again, strict quarantine of 6 weeks minimum is needed. During this time you can observe and treat for external and internal pathogens. At the end of the quarantine period, take one of your runts or culls and add it with the other Discus to make sure it does not get sick before adding the new Discus to your existing tank. Seems like a lot of work but it is better to be safe than sorry.

HTH, Lester

[keno]

Can you post the following plz?

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
PH

[AADiscus]

QT is always REAL important any time you get new fish. If you don't you are taking a big risk on getting all your fish sick. What kind of parameters do you have right now along with bio load on that 250 gal.?