No matter what I do they don't look healthy!

[tbrat]

Here's whats going on....
For over 3 months now I've had the same three discus in a hospital tank, I've treated them with just about everything.:(
2 eat like pigs and act normal, they're just skinny as heck...the other one always seems to have some type of fungus on it. Again, I've throwed everything at these guys.
Atlas to no avail tho.
Could it be that they're just sickly fish and maybe putting them down wouldn't be better?? (hope not due to they are truely pretty fish!!)
any help input would be helpful thanks

brat

[pcsb23]

You are not exactly helping us to help you :o
I've treated them with just about everything what is "everything"?

Most wasting type diseases are usually caused by some form of internal parasites, but very rarely it can be other untreatable causes.

[tbrat]

sorry more info would be nice....

meds used thus far....
prazi, metronidazole, acriflavrine, p&p, nitrofuazone, and furan(sp).
and a tetracycline antibiotic.
oh yeah...good ole fashion salt and heat treatment.
I do 75% wc daily...wipe out the tank every other change...and generally do end up doing 2-3 100% wc a week instead of the normal 75%

have I missed something?? are they just sickly fish???
Goodness I can't help but be discouraged with these ones at this point!

Again, thanks to all for any help and attention they give!

brat

[Kindredspirit]

Wow... I hope that you gave them ample rest between each med used. I am not a med expert so I will let Paul chime in....

Did you as well take out the old med before hitting them again with new? That would be awful if they are resistant to all those meds now:(

What is your temp and water parameters? The more that Paul has to work with the more likely he can better assist you:)

Are they eating? Dark? Hiding?

And some pictures would be great as well!


Hang in there!

[tbrat]

ph 6.8
water is a little hard, never pay too much attention to that since all the rest have adapted generally around a 7 tho when i do test
ammonia 0
nitrite and trates 0
temp 89

I always wait at least 2 weeks between med treatments,,,altho with as discouraged as i get at times its been a month between med treatments a couple of times.

wc's 75-100% per day with every other day wipe down

2 of the three eat like horses and act norm just skinny as heck, one of those tho does show its stress bars all the time. The third is dark hiding and with its nose down, and eats very little.
The diet consist of Flake, freeze dried and frozen blood worms, beef heart once a week sometimes two, and some type of gel food put out by jack watley a couple of times a week.

Wished I had a cam to get some pics. just never needed one till now....hehehehe there is a silver lining!...."Oh honey, I gotta go shopping!":D

[tbrat]

I forgot on that med list of already tried

meth blue, something victoria green???, and a formayldhide(sp) combo

[pcsb23]

Well, its almost everything :)

If you look at their eyes are they dull? Also check the gill colour, it should be a nice red/deep pink colour.

Not sure what the vistoria green is, I know a victoria sponge is a cake ;) maybe it was malachite green??

The concern now is that these fish have been sunjected to a real cocktail of meds and it could just have caused serious damage to kidney/liver etc... the good news is that you gave a reasonable time between treatments. I am wondering if maybe you didn't treat for long enough or use the right dosage/regimen for some of them... however I suspect that these fish have an internal parasite, probably now nematodes, given thta you have used prazi and metro.

Without wanting to sound cynical, another treatment now is unlikely to do any more harm, and as you are already considering culling them why not give them one last chance?

I would treat with fenbendazole (panacur) in food or levimasol in the water, make sure you complete the treatement.

[tbrat]

Mal green was what i was using....as far as their eye''s and gills....everything on 2 out of the three look great other than I can't get them to gain weight. My fiji red is growing in size, but skinny as heck. The golden butterfly isn't growing at all and neither is the white eruption.
They all have great shapes if they'd fill out and culling them is the last thing that I'd want to do but I am sick with worry from them being in that hospital tank for so long.
The only thing I'm using right now on them is salt and heat, today is the last round of it tho....wait another week and try the meds you suggested? Or should I give it a little longer? I just want my babies healthy! 2 out of three were shipped to me sick I believe but that white erup. was healthy when I picked it out and brought it home...Its killing me to see him this way!
Would trying just RO/DI water with buffer on them make a difference?

Again thanks for all the help and support!

[tbrat]

Thought I'd give a quick update...

My white erup. looks to be coming out of his funk!!!! He ate like a horse tonite and moving all around the tank and his color is getting better! Hopefully the rest shall follow with getting some weight on them!!

[doc3toes]

what are you feeding?

[tbrat]

Currently all my discus get fed freeze dried blood worms and frozen as well, flakes, and some kind of frozen gel like food that jack wattley markets, altho they don't eat that as well....I'm also using a bit of garlic guard with the blood worms too. I've tried beef heart but none and I do mean none of the discus that I have will even touch it, they just look at me weird, like "come on mom give us something to eat!!" so I gave up on bh.

BTW: my white spotted was fine for a day or two and now won't do anything at all just lays at the bottom of the tank! :sad: Seriously thinking about just putting that one down...god he has to be suffering bad, but my hopeful spirit just won't let me do that.

I'm waiting just a few more days to treat with some wormer due to they just got done on Saturday with a three day salt treatment.

[tbrat]

one more update here....my white erupt has passed on:angel:
Still going to start a worming treatment tho on the rest of the babies...Its only been 3 days since the salt treatment ended, should I wait another week before hitting them again with something else??

Again thanks to all for your help and support! .
brat

[SriAngel]

Hey Paul,

I actually have gone through a similar situation and have used all the same cocktail of meds. Its when you asked the question are the eyes cloudy..and i must say a resounding yes! along with a grayish color which i can only imagine as being extra slime.