What to treat for first?

[flavious]

I'm very new to Discus, (just a few months). I bought this trio from my LFS in Feb/Mar. The blue (can someone tell me what he/she is?) and the pigeon blood are doing great. They have put on weight and are growing very well. They eat out of my hand now too. But the little peppered guy is still not doing well. He's not gaining weight and looks like he's losing it. The other two are picking on him and he doesn't eat much at all, he spits it out 3 to 4 times before he gets anything down. I plan to seperated him and treat him again for gill flukes but I'm not sure what to treat for next. Also the others (Phinneous and Otis :o ) are eating great so should I treat them for flukes also?

My water is changed every 3 days, 30%. Nitrates 5, Nitries 0, PH is 7.4, temp is at 86. I also keep a little bit of salt in the tank, 1Tbls per 10 gal.

eta: the other two are now almost twice the size of the little guy. He's just not growing at all.

[phalough]

Showing some interest in the food but just not eating may be a problem. I would look at the actions of the fish also as to help you understand what may be going on. Darting scratching or rubbing on things as well as pumping hard out of one gill only will surely tell you that you've probably got skin or gill flukes if not something else. I'd try prazi for that. You may also want to consider intestinal worms which discus are pone to. Keep an eye on the feces and it's consistancy from time to time and at any time if it becomes whitish and stringy you can bet you have an intestinal problem of some sort. I reccomend a bood called discus health. It is great and will really help you out. We must not treat for problems that do not exist. Unless conditioning a fish just purchased and going through pretreatment fases. May I also add that salt can and is benificial but some fish are more sensitive to it than others. Remember it is a mineral and can increase ph. I also favor the heat treaetment as some parasites cannot deal with heat well and die. And we all know discus can handle it quite well. Try adding some garlic to the food and feed only the best for your little guys. Your tank looks very nice and at times things get hard but the end result is whats it's all about. I am going through my own troubles as we speak but I'll be patient and do what I think is best for them. Take care and please check out that book. DISCUS HEALTH........

[Timbo]

hi flavious

why do you want to treat for gill-flukes?

from your discription the lil guy should be separated and treated with metro and 92-94F temp, as it appears to be hex (or similar) not gill-flukes

[flavious]

Thanks for the replies! I was going to treat for flukes again because his gills are red and irratated looking and he is constantly spitting the food out.

[marilyn1998]

Gill flukes seem to be the most treated for illness here when it is unnecessary.
The fish may well be not eating, but on the other hand, it is also very NORMAL for the fish to spit out the food multiple times before he consumes it. They like to break the food down before they eat it. So, I would watch to see if he is eating at all by looking at his feces.
Red and irritated gills can be also be caused by water that isnt quite kosher for him. How is the ammonia level?
He also is showing signs of being picked on. Three is not a good number. You need about 6 to offset the agression of the pecking order.
I also think, like Timbo, he may have Hex. Separate him, do the metro and keep the temp up at 92F for a week after treatment.

**Be careful about just randomly raising temps when the fish start acting sick. IF they suffer from a bacterial infection you actually want to lower the temp.**

For metro, tho, you DO need the higher temp to get the metabolism working better.

HTH and Good LUCK!