dark & not eatting

[wax]

i bought 3 4" discus last week two of them are eatting good but the other one will not eat a thing and he's getting really dark from blue to almost black. most of the time he always hides is their anything i can do?

55gal 50%WC everyday

[Bluemarlin]

Gonna need a little more info for anyone to help you.
Water parameters( Ammonia Nitrates, Nitrites) will be a good start, tank size how long its been up and running temp ect.

[wax]

Gonna need a little more info for anyone to help you.
Water parameters( Ammonia Nitrates, Nitrites) will be a good start, tank size how long its been up and running temp ect.

55 gal
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 10
temp 84
50% wc everyday since i have had the fish
tank has been up 4 weeks moved old filter over from another tank the day before i added the fish. the other two fish look grate. just the one will not eat and has went from blue to almost black.

[Bluemarlin]

Wax
My first treatment would be a formalin/malachite green treatment.
You can pick up at about any fish store.
I use Quick cure, it says 1 drop per gal but I dose 2 drops per gal.
Watch your filter it can harm the bio mass in them.

So many illness start out with the fish getting dark its hard to pin point, so a shotgun treatment like Quick Cure is your best bet IMO.
Someone else may have some thoughts as well.

[rogge26]

I am less experienced than many people on this forum so please correct me if I am wrong, but I would try the temp. and salt treatment before adding any medication.
I recently had a bad experience with quick cure. It cured the ick, but I believe it also killed my bio filter.
The heat and salt treatment can help to cure many ailments so, in your situation, it could have a shot gun effect. I would up the temp. to 88 degrees. Very few bacteria and parasites can live in such a high temp. I would also add 1 table spoon of salt per 10 gallons of water. If that does not work, I have had success using up to 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water. Be sure to make sure everything you want to keep in your tank can withstand such a high temperature. Also plants do not like salt. I have used salt with plants in the past. None of them died, but they were not thriving. Since then the plants have made a full recovery. However, I would not use salt for extended periods of time in a planted tank.
Also, be mindful if you have tight scaled or scaless fish in your tanks such as tetras and many varieties of catfish. If you do decide to use quick cure, use half the dose with these types of fish. Also, I believe you should use a lower dose of salt with some species. Check the label on the aquarium salt. Use Aquarium Salt. Do not use marine or table salt.
The temp. salt treatment should work pretty quickly if it is going to work. I would give it three days. If it does not work in three days or if the condition worsens, then I would medicate. Just be sure to watch your ammonia and nitrite levels during periods of medication. If ammonia and/or nitrite levels start to rise, you should possibly explore other methods of treatment.
Once you start medicating, it may also be useful to use a quarantine tank, there are many benefits to using a quarantine tank listed in other posts so I will not list them here.
I might be on shaky ground saying this, but I have found if one of my fish comes down with something, many of them come down with the same thing. For this reason, I would recommend treating the whole tank, although, I am sure some people would disagree with me on this.
That is my two cents. I hope it helps. I tend to be kind of long winded. Hope you find something in their of some use.

[rogge26]

Another thought. You said you got your fish a week ago?
My discus had a stressful shipment. Got held up due to weather. It might be possible that your fish may be still be stressed due to shipment. Three of my four discus took about four days to come out of hiding. (For the first one to two days they were laying on their sides looking dark). The last one took about week. Now, my discus are brightly colored, eating like pigs and greet me by coming up to the glass when I come into the room.

[shanek]

I have never had ich in a discus tank before. If you do have ich, perhaps the temp is too low. I usually keep my tank at 82-84F with no ich. I had some new rummynose tetras have ich. I drop them in the QT tank at 84F and in 2 weeks it was gone.

[rogge26]

My temp was too low. I did a water change before work and I had a heater malfunction. I have since added two 150 watt ebco-jaegger heaters attached to a separtate temperature controller in a 50 gallon tank. My tank is now steady at 87 degrees.

[wax]

ok i'll try the temp + salt (is table salt ok?) and i do have plants.
all 3 fish came from the pet store and the same tank here in town so i wouldnt think it was a stressful shipment. like i said the other two look grate and eat like pigs.

[rogge26]

I would not use table salt. Table salt has some things added that are thought to be toxic to fish. I have never heard of table salt harming fish, but better safe then sorry.
Use Aquarium Salt. It is sold at virtually all fish and pet stores and is very cheap. It comes in a blue carton. I believe API makes it. Just ask at your local lfs or pet store and they should be able to show it to you. Just tell them you need aquarium salt for fresh water fish.

[aquagal]

Table salt is fine as long as it does not have the preservative YPS (I think it stands for yellow prussate of soda)? This is a big myth in fishkeeping.

As far as your plan of treatment, the fish could be stressed from being moved to your tanks (in which they are exposed to different types of bacteria than before).

Be careful about raising the temp too much unless you can ID what's wrong as this can have a negative effect if they have a bacterial infection.

Dark and not eating could be anything, rushing into medication may end up doing more harm than good.

[wax]

ok.
just added some api aqu. salt. hope it helps. i tell ya i have a 75gal mixed reef, 55gal 4wpg planted and a 10gal reef and i thought their wouldnt be nothing to have discus. maybe i jumped the gun on that. hopefully it's just stress.

[wax]

ok a day later. the temp is up and the salt was added . but now today all 3 fish are hideing and when i go to try to feed them they go crazy and then hide. has far as i can tell their waste is dark and i dont see anything on them. what should i do next?

[wax]

ok just tryed to feed them and now all of them have stoped eating. and all they do now is hide. not coming out at all.

[rogge26]

It could be internal parasites, in which case, salt may not help. I do not have much experience with internal parasites, but I am sure someone will help you.

[Graham]

:bandana: Do a water change and a good house cleaning and get the Quickcure...dose it at the instruction level of 1 drop per gallon unless you have tetras. Dose daily and ideally a decent water between doses.

Some fish like Whales, and El Nose are sensitive..check the bottle.

Salt , anykind of salt, has minimial affect on parasites and should not be relied on for bug control...especially at this 1 tablespoon per 10 gal or 1 for 5.
AG got it right; it's YPS, Yellow Prussiate of Soda...this breaks down under UV lighting into cyanide...very mild mind you but toxic to fish. There are not other additives in normal salt table salt included that will harm the fish or the bacteria at the levels that we use it at.

G

[wax]

:bandana: Do a water change and a good house cleaning and get the Quickcure...dose it at the instruction level of 1 drop per gallon unless you have tetras. Dose daily and ideally a decent water between doses.



G
ok just picked some up. hope it helps.

[Graham]

keep us posted

Good luck

G

[wax]

2nd day using the quickcure the discus that was sick 1st is eating for the 1st time in a week. but one of the other two is not. all 3 are still really dark and they all are still hiding and acting like their going to jump out of the tank every time i walk in to the room. hope the quickcure is helping. i'll let you all know.

[Surferdave]

Have your fish been scratching or breathing heavily? Hopefully they'll snap out of it, I had a pretty bad scare a month ago when a few of my fish were sick, they snapped out of it pretty quick with proper meds. I later found that my canister filter was clogged, make sure to check the simple things ex. filter is running smoothly etc. When my fish were sick, I definitely upped the temp, and water changes, good luck.

Dave.

[wax]

Have your fish been scratching or breathing heavily?


no they havent been scratching at all.. but they are heavy breathing.

[rogge26]

I'm glad the meds are working. Hope everything works out ok for you.

[wax]

I'm glad the meds are working. Hope everything works out ok for you.

thanks..

day 3 all fish are eating. not much but their eating so thats a +. their all still really dark and hide when i come in to the room. tomorrow i'll do a big WC wait a day and do another 3 days of the meds.

[wax]

ok day 4 just did a 60% wc and added more quick cure. the discus are the same as yesterday all eating and their all still really dark and hide when i come in to the room.

i'm wondering if their the same by the 7th day if i should do another 3days with QC or try somthing different?

[Graham]

After this round I'd stop the QC and just daily 30 to 40% water changes

g

[wax]

day 5 and all looks well. their not hideing as much and are starting to come up to the glass to see me. i think everythings going to be ok.. i want to thank everyone for the help:) i needed it. sad to so but i think at the end of the week i'm going to take them back to the pet store. hate.. to. never like taking fish back. but now after looking around on here. my fish look stunted to me. i found a breeder 1hr away and going to drive up their this weekend. thanks again..

[krazykat]

Is kosher salt ok to use?

[Graham]

Just check that it doesn't have any anti-caking agent in it called YPS...it should be fine otherwise