Do sick discus breed?

[Catch and Release]

I am wondering this because a couple days ago I had a heater malfunction and the tank water dropped to ~74 degrees over the course of 24 hours. I have since raised the temperature back up to 84-85 degrees over the last 24 hours.

The tank is a planted 125g with 5 discus ranging from 4-5". One pair has been breeding regularly and after the temp. drop the breeding female, who is also the biggest/dominant discus has a scrape on her side (missing scales, but no flesh damage) and one eye sticking out -- it looks like popeye where the eye is actually sticking out about 3-4mm (~1/8"). The rest of the fish seem fine and are a little shook up from the temperature drop, but healthy and eating none the less. The injured female is also eating, but has the eye/scrape problem and is a little dark in colour.

Today the pair, including the injured female, bred. So basically, I'm wondering if the eye problem could actually be popeye the disease, or is it more likely that whatever caused the scrape (I'm guessing swimming into some driftwood, filter intake or something), probably damaged the eye at the same time? All my water parameters are fine and I do 50% water changes every other day and like I said none of the other fish seem to be experiencing any problems including 30 cardinal tetras, 5 bristlenose plecos and 10 cory cats.

Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks!

[Andrew Soh]

Hello C&R,

It is quite impossible for the eye to be damaged by the driftwood because if you look at a normal discus from the top, you will notice that the eyes are quite set-in.

The only possibility is being damaged by sharp object ....yours might have mild endobacteria infection.

Sick discus can breed.....whether infected with endo or ecto-parasites. The only time they are unable to perform is when it is critically ill. That is my observation......very slimy body...or.....very dark body......or.....bloated belly and not eating.....or .........serious injury and not eating.....

In general....as long as your discus can eat and of spawning age and not overly stunted....it will spawn.

Take care,
Andrew:angel:

[Catch and Release]

Hello C&R,

It is quite impossible for the eye to be damaged by the driftwood because if you look at a normal discus from the top, you will notice that the eyes are quite set-in.

The only possibility is being damaged by sharp object ....yours might have mild endobacteria infection.

Sick discus can breed.....whether infected with endo or ecto-parasites. The only time they are unable to perform is when it is critically ill. That is my observation......very slimy body...or.....very dark body......or.....bloated belly and not eating.....or .........serious injury and not eating.....

In general....as long as your discus can eat and of spawning age and not overly stunted....it will spawn.

Take care,
Andrew:angel:

Hi Andrew, thanks for the reply.

There are some "pointy" pieces of driftwood which would lead me to believe it's entirely possible that she poked herself in the eye, but since I didn't actually see it happen, I can't be positive.

The eye doesn't seem to be changing very much. Since it was first observed, the eye appears to have gotten some sort of white growth ring around it. Is this possibly the eye socket or eye muscles trying to pull the eye back in? Is this some form of infection? Any suggested plan of attack?

I have upped the water changes to 50% per day (from every other). I also added a small amount of aquarium salt and Epsom salt (less than 1tsp per 10g).

Thanks again.

[Andrew Soh]

Maybe you just happen to notice it now....but it was there all the time.

The white spongy thing around the iris could be the bacteria infection.....but such infection can for a long time seems to be topical...in other words do not spread to other parts of the body........ till a major pendemic plus bad water condition encourage its proliferation. During non-pathogenic stage, the discus can eat, spawn and grow.

I remember in my book I talked about sobrio sp. bacterium as the culprit....and also that I can only suspect as that is what I always find during bacteria culture but I did not take a swap directly from the side of the iris.

It is very difficult to eliminate......give very good water perimeter and quality and diet high in immune stimulant.......and let it recover by itself.....might take very long....maybe 6 months to a year........


Take care,
Andrew:angel: