Discus acting weird! Help!

[Stacie Girl]

Hi! I need some advise... I have a Juvie red melon and last week he looked like he was getting a little bit of opague coloring on his tail...kind of like the beginning stages of fin rot, so I added some salt and melafix, and it disappeared, however, now he is not eating and is hanging out in the corner. I have fed bloodworms, beefheart, all his faves and no intererst. His appearance is fine..coloring, breathing, etc. looks good, but he was flashing a little. My tank water perimeters are normal...temp is 85-86 degress, and I do a 50% water change about every 4 to 5 days... I have stopped treating with Melafix, but have continued adding salt each water change. Also, added a UV sterilizer last week... any suggestions?? :confused:

[1077]

Sorry to hear your fish is not well. If you are adding salt at each water change then over time your water will become VERY uncomfortable for your fish. The salt is good for temporary treatment of various ailments but can only be removed from the aquarium with water that contains no salt. Look at it like a cup of coffee. If you keep adding sugar it gets too sweet. Were it me I would probably perform 50 percent water change with only dechlorinator no salt. Wait 12 to 24 hours and do another with no salt. As I suggested by adding salt at each water change the water will become too salty for the health of your fish. the immune system of fish can fight off many diseases, bacteria, etc. if water quality is maintained. You noticed some discoloration and began treating the fish with meds. Meds should in my view be last resort. It is far easier and cheaper to improve water quality. In my view small frequent water changes are less stressful than large ones on fish. Is the tank bottom being vaccumed regularly? What foods and how often? exactly what are ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate readings on your tank? what is normal?

[Stacie Girl]

Thank you for your response! I understand what you mean about the salt and I have been compensating by only adding 1/2 the dose per 50% water change. My tank has 5 discus (1@ 3-1/2", 1@ 3", 3 @ 2-1/2"), I also have 1pearl gouramie, 2 african spotted pearch, and 1 pleco. I feed 5 times a day and a variety of foods: they get bloodworms for 2 feedings, flake for one feeding, and beef heart for one feeding and brine shrimp for 1 feeding. Occasionally I give them tuifex worms in lieu of the brine shrimp. The food brands are listed below:

Boodworms frozen - Hikari & Ocean Nutrition
Beef Heart frozen- Pro Pops
Tubifex Worms fozen - Bio Pure
Brine Shrimp freeze dried - Omega One
Super Color Flakes - Omega One

My aquarium stats are:

Tank size 47 gallon (getting ready to upgrade to either 75 ot 100 gallon)
Ammonia - 0
PH - 7
Nitrate - 10
Nitrite - 0
Temp - 86

Also, this morning another discus has developed that opague look on the tip of his tail. UGH!!:(

I am going to do a water change right now and with no salt added!

Thanks again for helping me!

[1077]

That is quite a few fish for 46 or 47 gal tank. And with your feeding schedule I would probably do water changes every three days. Your pleco is sensitive to salt as are most scaleless fish. I might also add a hang on the back type filter along with what ever other filtration you have. I have an 80 gal. tank with four discus, some blue rams,cory cats,neon tetras. and whitecloud minnows. I use an emperor 400 and an emperor280 with 25 percent water changes every five days but i do not feed the fish but twice a day with one day of no food each week. I am not a fan of tubifex worms except for freezedried and only offer them on occasion.Keep up on water changes and your fish will thank you. If your fish do not improve then perhaps medication will be necessary. Always follow the directions to the letter MORE is not better. I believe that feeding twice a day will help improve the fishes enviornment especially considering the number of fish you have in your tank and I do hope they begin to show improvemnt.

[Stacie Girl]

Thanks again for your help...I will cut back on my feedings. I do vacuum at every water change, however, I will also increase those changes.

I plan to purchase a larger tank this week probably 100 gallon. Do you have any suggestions for cycling the new tank at a faster pace then the norm?

[1077]

Yes. you can use a cupful of gravel from your 46 gal. and place it in the toe section of a pair of nylons and place this either in the filter compartment depending on what type of filter you have or you can push it into the gravel of your new tank or hang it in front of the out flow on the filter of the tank you will be cycling. this gravelwill have all kinds of good bacteria that will help your tank mature quicker. You can also put decorations from 46 gal in the new tank as well they too have bacteria growing on them. Some of your filter material from the 46 gal will also have bacteria (the good kind) on it as well. If you can get enough of this material from your 46 gal. and place it in the new tank, the maturing process will be quicker. You may only notice a slight increase in ammonia, and nitrites and you will need to test it every two or three days or you could miss it. I would also use some giant danios to help with the maturing or cycling .With enough material such as was mentioned from your 46 gal. the danios will be under very little stress if any. I realize there are those who frown on using fish to cycle the aquarium but to each ,his or her own.:)

[Peachtree Discus]

1077 seems right on with the advice given. seeding with bacteria from another tank is probably the best start, but on such a large tank it may be difficult to know how much seeding is necessary.

there are products that have live bacteria (cycle and stability) that are made to cycle tanks. i have seen mixed reviews regarding the stability and i move so much water that that is usually not an issue for me. maybe u can try a combination of both seeding and the products made to do that job. i believe you need to make sure you have some source of ongoing ammonia

[susantroy1]

Hi! I need some advise... I have a Juvie red melon and last week he looked like he was getting a little bit of opague coloring on his tail...kind of like the beginning stages of fin rot, so I added some salt and melafix, and it disappeared, however, now he is not eating and is hanging out in the corner. I have fed bloodworms, beefheart, all his faves and no intererst. His appearance is fine..coloring, breathing, etc. looks good, but he was flashing a little. My tank water perimeters are normal...temp is 85-86 degress, and I do a 50% water change about every 4 to 5 days... I have stopped treating with Melafix, but have continued adding salt each water change. Also, added a UV sterilizer last week... any suggestions?? :confused:

Stacie,

You say your NH4/N02 are o than it may be a simple case of flukes the flashing could be from that and they will go off the feed because of flukes. Give PraziPro a try, its bio filter friendly. Salt will not do anything to Flukes. I would increase your WCs to at minimum every 2nd day.

EDIT:

Stacie, I just noticed that you said you think you might have the beginning stages of Fin Rot, Which would lead me to think simply to up your H20 changes and you should be fine.

All The Best

Troy.

[Stacie Girl]

Thanks again to everyone for the help!

[Stacie Girl]

Hello again...my discus is now pooping white! Still not eating, but no other signs of illness...Suggestions appreciated!

[jeep]

Crank the temp up to 93-95 for 10 days. I would normally say to add salt but already have and they are correct that salt should be used periodically or in case of illness only. How much salt do you use?

And please stop feeding tubifex worms!!

[Stacie Girl]

Thanks for your reply! I use about 1 TBS of salt/5 gallons. I will stop feeding the tubifex worms...do they cause parasites?