Discus Plague HELP!

[Surferdave]

Ok. Well I'm concerned, but not freaking out, mainly because there is an abundance of information online! Saturday I picked up 2 more juvenile discus to add to my healthy 6. No quarantine. Ouch! Sure enough 3 days later 2 of my discus are losing mucous, looking dark and got the body scratch going on. This morning it's spread to a 3rd. The two new guys on Saturday look absolutely fine, maybe they've built an immunity to it. Either way, I've read up a lot about meds etc. Everyone keeps saying "metro" and lots of water changes. I have my fish in a 60 gallon planted tank with tetra, cory cats, otos and about 20 amano shrimp. Should I put the fish in a hospital tank or should I try to treat in my main tank? I don't even own another tank, so I'd have to go out and get everything for it. How serious is Plague? Sounds serious, but the 3 sick are still eating, just a little less. I've had those original 6 for over a month thinking to myself "sure this discus thing isn't too hard", guess I put my foot in my mouth. I'm up for the hard work of getting them better mostly because I've become so attached to those little guys. Feeding out of my hand and laying in my palm. So ANY advice would be much appreciated.

David.

[Kindredspirit]

David ~ always QT....like the "devil himself gave them to you".....if you are getting them from the same source, perhaps not....see if this thread will help, until someone comes along with more experience...

Hang in there:)


http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=50775

[crubino]

I was talking to someone at the LFS about a similar situation I had and they reccomended the metro. I tried that and it seemed to slow the disease down. About a week later, after spending much time in the cure isle at the store reading the back of every box of medicine they had, i chose to try Clout. It can be very stressful, i was told, but my fish started doing much better in about two days without negative side affects. If you do try it, watch carefully and be ready to do a big water change if they get stressed.

[crubino]

I would also treat the tank, and not QT. Whatever it is will stay in there and you dont want it to pop up again in a month or two.

[Graham]

The odds are it's a parasite...a microscope would come in handy here....a good shot gum chem is Quick Cure or something like it with Formalin and Malachite Green in it.,...the shrimp will not like it!

Metro has too small of a kill range to really be any good for anything but Hex

[kaceyo]

I'm with Graham on this. Metro dos not go with the symptoms your fish have and is really only used for fairly specific problems. The Quick Cure (or any med with both formalin & malachit green) would be a good choice.
Keep a close eye on them and if they aren't getting better by the 3rd day, check back to re-evaluate things.

Kacey

[lssdiscus]

If it is really discus plague, my advice, cut you losses......Lou

[korbi_doc]

If it is really discus plague, my advice, cut you losses......Lou

Not likely, (but always possible).....do try the formalin & mg....