sick discus, I think

[mikel]

Hi everyone: My 5 discus are new to me and the tank is also new. All numbers for the tank is good, and I try to change between 25-50% water change every day. Everything seems to be going well until a few days ago, when I notice that my weakest discus, the one that everyone else seem to pick on the most, has stopped eating. I do see it swim with other fish when I feed, and he doesnt get picked on too much because there are 5 of them, but he doesnt seem to be really eating either. He would chew the bloodworm, then spit it out. I have also noticed that, unlike the others, his stomach seems a bit more puffed up. Looks like he swallowed a small pebble of something' looks puffed and then pinched behind the front of the stomack. He does come to the front of the tank like the ohers when I aprach, but he doesnt really eat, and stays in the back and away from the others most of the time. He also does a slow wave-live move with his body' like a slow motion shimmy or wave across his whole body. I dont know what to do with him. He is not scratching himself, or breathing with only one gill...so it is not gill fluke. Could it be constipation? He did eat alot of frozen blood worm a week back when I first started acquired them and started feeding them FBW. Do I use the epsom salt as suggested on the NADA site to see if that could clear it up? Will epsom salt hurt my other fish or plants or bio-filter? The NADA site states that I can treat the whole tank, as the salt does not harm other fish or plant or bio-filter. Is this true, and has anyone got a better treatment? I would like to check with all of you before I proceed with my treatment. Thank you for your expertise and help. mike

[Tropical Haven]

I would tend to believe that it has the bloat. Since it doesn't have any other signs I would lean towards this. Unfortunately when the signs that it is showing it is usually too late to treat it with any success.

[mikel]

so it's been about 3.5 hours now, and I notice that he is swimming a bit more, but the bump/bulge still exists on his belly. I dosed 2 teaspoons per 10 gallons, and then a little bit more. I have not seen him defecate, which I assume would be the real sign of progress. I withheld food at noon today....what should I do? Watch him, or put him out of his misery if you dont think he will improve? He is not completely dark, as sometimes he does show his true color, and swims about a little. But no major improvement as of yet. Thanks mike

[Sue50]

He should have relief (poo) in 6 to 10 hours after epsom salts are added. Be patient. ;) If you see no results by then you may double the dose.

[mikel]

I will wait and leave him alone. He did not eat this evening...my other fish (4 of them) had frozen brine shrimp (I read that Carol thinks BS is a sort of roughage good for digestion) and frozen bloodworms. The other four guys are very very full. But this guy isnt eating yet. It's been 4 hours now. I also did a two bucket waterchange right after they ate this afternoon to get all the poop off the bare bottom tank. I changed the water 50% this morning already. I replaced the epson salt that I removed wth the water change. I hope he gets through this. I hate seeing one of my charges die.

One another note, I really enjoy doing water changed (who would have thought). I have a bin for standing water, and if I run out of standing water, I simply get the water from the tap, conditioned with amquil plus of course. It's alot easier than I thought, and I like the look of a spotless tank, and beautiful 0,0,0 reading. I just hope my little guy pulls through. i will keep you all posted. mike

[dvarnay]

Mike

Be patient if it is bloat it can take more than one dose of epsom salts to clear the blockage. I had a female RT that was bloated it took 2 lots of espom salts before she cleared up. You might have a look at raising the temp on the tank depending on what it is now as this can stimulate appetite.

Let us know how the discus does. Good luck

Cheers
Debbie

[mikel]

my little discus that I had suspected of sufferig from constipation and bloat...took the world's biggest fishy poop dump yesterday afternoon. It was HUGE; I couldnt believe something so big could ever be stuck in that little intestinal tract. It's just amazing. I did up double the Mag Sulfate (E salt) dose to 2 teaspoon per 10 gal a few hours before as suggested by you wonderful people and I think that did the trick.

He is swimming with everyone now, and he did eat some frozen bloodworm this morning. I am going to feed a bit more F Brine shrimp for the next few days just to get some more rouphage in all the fish.

On another note, I did notice my constipated fish eat quite a bit of plant debris (there was one amazon leaf that was deteriorating in the back of the tank, and I just saw it yesterday as I was tracking the sick fish, and I watched it eat the plant debris...my tank has a huge amazon plant and some other low light plants planted in a big terra cotta pot sank right in the middle of the tank...it's very unconventional but the discus likes it, and I like it because I can have the benefit of live plants and still keep the bottom of tank totally clean)). So discus do need green food, and I think they will seek the plant food out if there are plants available.

[luenny]

Hi Mikel,
That's great news. I had a discus that had this problem once too. I didn't manage to safe it. As for green food, yes they do need green food. Some books actually say that the authors put cooked spinach in the ox heart mix for the discus to eat. I think it helps with the digestive system. I'm a bit lazy, so I don't use spinach. Instead, I put spirulina powder together with crushed algae wafer in my ox heart mix. They loved it.

[mikel]

Thanks for the tip, Luenny. I will try that! mike

[judy]

they also like spinach plain: just dip a spinach leaf in boiling water for a second, to get it limp, blot it fry, and hang in into the tank for them to graze on (don't lave it there long enough to start rotting, tho!).
Also have heard for constipated discus: thaw out a frozen pea, pich it a bit between the fingers, then drop it into the tank wehre you can see it (remove it when the fish lose interest). Apparently the pea does a great job of clearing out the plumbing.

[Iovino Gennaro]

Could you explane us what was the food you gave it when it accepted food??Did you give it freeze food?
Sometimes, when a discus doesn't eat; I up the temperature about 32/33 g; and put in aquarium 1,5g/l of coarse salt. This to accellerate the metabolism of the discus........