sick discus.. need help asap.

[Joander123]

One of my domestics in my planted community tank is not doing well.

Dark in color, not eating, sunken forehead, decrease in action as well....

It has been decreasingly getting worse and i don't know what to do... water quality is good, and all other fish in the tank appear fine.

I can up the WC schedule, but i dont think my water has caused this problem?

Any help would be appreciated i don't want to lose this guy.

[Joander123]

also, i've been noticing a white substance forming on the fish's fins and floating around in the water that i hadn't noticed before.. it even appears to be in the sick fish's gills?

[Joander123]

Bump. Please help.

[brewmaster15]

Hey J,

Just saw this... First thing I think you need to do is get that fish into a hospital tank......It'll be easier to figure out whats going on...some clear pics would help also.

hth,
al

[Graham]

It sounds like what you're seeing is excess mucus production. This could be from a parasite or a bactrial infection. It's real hard to say what this might be...don't have access to a microscope?


Catch the fish and while holding it down gentley lift the gill plate,operculmn....what do the gills look like......bright red, pale faded looking or are there dead rotten looking areas.


Graham

[Joander123]

No acsess to a good microscope really... and to be honest i really wouldn't know what i was doing.

I'll try to get a good look at the gills... i would say that what you said graham, the excess mucus production seems to be dead on... thats what it seems like anyways, i just wasn't sure what to call it.


I'll try to go get a look at his gills and post again what i have found.

Also, just so everyone knows the sick fish is the fish in my avatar.

[Joander123]

Graham, the gills appear to be bright red... not horribly red, but redder then i would say the other fishs gills are.

[Joander123]

thats weird, I just this very minute loaded Al's Post.

I was wondering that myself Al, ok i can do that fairly easy...

I have plenty of RO down stairs, you think run all RO? Or maybe half RO, half tank water?

[Graham]

OK that's a good thing....no excess mucus on them or bacterial infection on them.

Since the fish isn't eating and getting emaciated through the head area that suggests that he has been using it's own body reserves for nutrition. Possible that he has internal worms...........I'd QT as Al suggested and try a de-wormer to start with...

G

[Graham]

I would take his water with him so there is no stress from a massive 100% water change

G

[Joander123]

Ok, that also makes sense graham, and i was going to add that i just noticed some swelling around the fishs anus. I was thinking constipation, but worms would make sense too..

What de-wormer would you suggest? Should i use it in accordance with epsom salt?

Ok, so half and half or use all tank water?

[Graham]

I'd use all tank water and forget the Epsom salt.

Try Prazi to start with..........

[Joander123]

Ok, I'll have to pick some prazi up i don't have any on hand.

Discus handle normal dosage fine i assume?

[Joander123]

I gotta run out for a while, i'll get pics up when i come home.

[Joander123]

Ok, looking for prazi.. don't really no where to look for it though.. i don't think any LFS near me would stock it.

[Graham]

Look at some of the typical fish meds it'll be one of the ingredients or try

http://www.pondrx.com/

[Joander123]

Ok, i found a medicine.

If one of the other fish is showing maybe some starting signs, should i treat him too?

[brewmaster15]

J,
What medicine did you find? can you post a pic of the sick fish?

Is the fish in the hospital tank yet?

Hows its feces look?

-al

[Joander123]

Ok Al,
The fish is in the hospital tank, I have to run out but will post pics as soon as i get home.

The medicine i found near me may not be the best, but has the same active ingredient (praziquantel). Its made by jungle and its called parasite clear.

It does not appear to be passing feces, nor is it eating at this point...I can see something white that appears to be clogging the fishs anus.

[namasgt]

if your gona use jungle make sure you have enough oxigen circulation in the water or solve it in a seperate container and then add the solution to the tank. you will see the prazi get activated by exess very tiny bubling coming from the tanks air stone.

[Joander123]

Yes, you are right i am seeing more bubbling coming from my sponge filter.

I'll get pics up in a little while.

[Joander123]

I'm thinking that some of the other fish in the community tank may be showing signs as well... i do not have a big enough hospital tank for all of the fish however...

I want to treat them all, but i was thinking maybe more along the lines of a bath of prazi in a bucket at a higher dosage? I'm just wondering how much... talking about a 5 gallon bucket here.

I've read something that says use 1/4 of a teaspoon in 5 gallons, but what i have for prazi is not just the raw powder, but rather jungle tablets. So i'm thinking maybe just use double the strength of what i would normally use for 5 gallons of water?

Another question is how long... 2 hours maybe?

[Joander123]

He's very skinny... color is starting to come back, which i guess is good but now he's swimming abnormally. I really need to get some food in this guy, but he won't budge for anything i got... any ideas?

[bs6749]

I'd try feeding some live worms, that may spark his interest. See how he takes to them. Try not to stress him anymore than he already is. I have been told before to cover the tank so that the fish don't get stressed when they are sick but I've never tried it...I'm by no means an expert, they might whole heartedly disagree with me. Still, I think I'm right in trying to feed live food at this point.

[Joander123]

I can try.. but he's not even looking interested at this point.

I think im gonna lose him....

[Sandi]

Joander123,
I treated my tank of 7 discus this last week with the jungle anti-parasite. but in that same time period I added drift wood. something went wrong. even though I tsted water daily and did WC. they turned black and over the week end lost 6. I have one that I'm trying to save. alot of money and sleepless nights of worrie. So good luck and hang in there. I'll be watching for your posts.

Sandi

[Joander123]

Yeah sandi, I as well lost my fish that i treated... I honestly don't know why, he had been ill for a while, maybe the stress of the medicine got to him?

Not sure, I would like to treat the other four discus in the tank, but not sure if the jungle brand treatment is the way to go.

i was thinking maybe a short term bath in a 5 gallon bucket with praziquantel? What do you guys think, if the idea makes sense, how much prazi?

[namasgt]

ok
I think the reason your fish died was because of overdosing the jungle product. remember that the med your using does not only include prazi but also athere meds one being metro. overdosing a med specialy metro is not safe. I had a situation where i overdosed on metro in my tank one of the fish that was dark was adversly afected by the overdosing. around after 24 to 48 hours of the start of treatment (no water changes) the fish start gaining some color but while he gained color back he also start loosing it. after a matter of hours i was monitoring him and he almost bleatched out, evn the eyes went white. the fish did no longer swim normally. he was swiming like he has gone blind going fro left to right. i finally did a 100% water change that night with noting added to it just tap water and prime. the next day the fish looked bethere so i continued changing water several times a day until on the 3rd day he start eating. if your going to treat with this jungle which i have used sucsesfully in the past. you have to be carefull how much your puting in there.but if you did not overdosed and put the right amount in the water then maybe your discus had a reaction to the med. thus i sujest changing the water imediatly if you see your fish swiming abnormaly during medication.

[namasgt]

and i dont recomend bathing the fish in high dosage, its not gona help any and it will stress your fish. i sujest treating the whole thank with all the fish in it. at the recomended dosage, 2 treatments in 4 days should get the job done. if not i sujest doing a 3rd treatment.

[Joander123]

Looking for more opinions, i have another fish that looks like he's got the same issue, just not as far along in the development i need to do something asap i really don't want to lose another fish.

[namasgt]

Hello
well how dose the fish look now ?
is he staying in one corner pointing down at a 45 degree angle, breeding slowly, dark eyes? no interest in food at all.
this might be hex. if so the only way i would do is to use metro at a temp of 90F.
if he just started not eating today(meaning the desease is in the first stage). i would go with the jungle product but you have to dose exactly what the manufactore say.
If your not sure whats causing the problem, i would put the fish in a clean tank and ad salt at 1 table spoon for 5 gallons, keeping the temp at 88F no meds, and then wait for few days to see what happens.

[Joander123]

I'm not sure the problem, the fish is dark and is just starting to show a loss of interest in food, much like the other one did...

[namasgt]

how big is your discus?
I would sujest to buy metronidazole. now that you dont have time its best to go buy it from your LFS, they sell it under seachem brand.
put this med in the water and raise temp to 90F. Im prety sure this could be hex. if it is it will take 4 days to recover (if everything goes well)but you have to continue the treatment for 10 days. dont try to feed him for the first two or 3 days. the treatment water has to stay clean. then after 2 or 3 days if you see some improvment. try to feed him a tiny bit (if he eats do not try to feed him alot).
what is his favorit food, feed that to him.
if its blood worms I would sujest to use hikari brand not the othere one brands.

[Joander123]

The discus are all from 5"-6"