Help, sick discus...

[Bobears]

I am new to the site and about to embark on my first discus tank. However, last night I was in PetCo and they had a 5in discus someone brought in. It had only been there one day and was terribly black and sick looking. I asked what the return policy was and the guy said if you think you can save him then you can just have him.

So I took him. Now what?

I put him in a 10gal quar tank I have, turned off the lights, got the temp up, and added salt and fake floating plants. His color is better this morning but he is still soooo dark. Another site said watch for making things too good too quick, he's not use to it. Can anyone give me some advice to save this poor guy. I use a RO/DI filter at home.

[pcsb23]

Welcome to simply. Whilst I understand the motives of what you did, IF you had other discus or have angels or other fish, you could be putting your entire stock at risk. If you do have other fish enforce strict qt practice and make sure that you wash your hands before and after and use one set of kit for that tank and never use it it on another.

Now to deal with the fish, it is very difficult to suggest just one thing that will work. In all probability it will have many things going on just now.

A lot will depend on its conditioning, take a look head on, if the it is ridge backed then the best thing to do is to humanely kill it. Sorry to be so blunt, but it will be beyond saving.

The first thing is lots of good clean water, as we don't know if it has a bacterial infection don't elevate the temps above 84f/29c.

First off I would do a PP bath, this will hit most external skin based parasites and give it a general clean up. If it is eating I would then treat with a general purpose wormer in the food, like panacur (fenbendazole) if it is not eating I would treat in the water with flubendazole or levimasole.

After that it would be a case of re-assessing where it's at.

Good luck, I have a feeling you may need it.

[Bobears]

Never mind he died last night. Oh, well I tried. I wish people would treat their fish better.

[Tropical Haven]

Its not so much treating their fish better, its probably that they do not know what is involved in keeping discus healthy. If they are not educated on this then they will never know.

[kaceyo]

Make sure to clean the tank it was in and any equipment used (nets, filters, airstones etc) with bleach. Add the bleach and fill the tank, with all equipment in it, and let it soak for 24hrs. Then rinse till you can't smell the bleach anymore.

Kacey

[Graham]

It's not unusual for big fish of any species to die when given up and moved. In all too many cases the water that they've been living in has been allowed to deterioate, very gradually till it's become crap. The fish has slowly adapted to these conditions

Then when the fish is moved, usually into decent water, it's whole metabolism goes into shock and it's immune systen is probably down. It doesn't have the energy to adapt it's body chemistry to the new water. :angel:

[Bobears]

I still feel bad for the little guy. I just orderes 5 discus from GLD today. I hope I can treat them better.

[Elite Aquaria]

Welcome to Simply...Like stated above, sterilize all items that got near that fish...the last thing you want is to contaminate your new fish from Cary. Good luck

[Bobears]

Thanks guys for the great posts. I'll follow your advice. When I get the GLD fish I'll post some pics. I'm excited, these are my first discus!!!:)