First Time: New HELP with Discus! NEED ADVICE!

[cyang]

Problem

Intestinal flagellates or external bacteria? Do I treat with Metro or Fluke tabs or Formalin? I have no idea right now. Help please! :confused:

1. Please explain the problems with your fish/when and how they started


I have only had them in the tank for 3 days. It is a 75G barebottom with a Eheim canister filter (new) and three cycled sponge that were sent with the fish from one of the Simply sponsors. Some fish seem to be OK, but others haven't been eating much. They might still be stressed/acclimating, but I doubt it. I saw a small whitish worm (about 1/4 inch long) in the water. Two of the discus have their pectoral fins clamped on just one side. Out of those two, one of them is darker and thus I assume it is secreting more slime coating.


2. Symptoms

Two of the eight fish have clamped pectoral fins on just one side of their bodies.

One of these two sick fish is darker and seems to be excreting more slime coat (but I can't really tell for sure).

WHITE/CLEARISH FECES!

I also saw a little white worm swimming in the water at one point.


3. What medications/ treatments that you have already tried and results. Include dosages and duration of treatment.

No medication yet. 30-40% water changes daily. Going to up it to 50-60% tomorrow when my water pump comes in the mail.

I have also added 1 tablespoon/10 gallon of salt (coarse water softener solar salt).



Tank/Water

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish


75G BAREBOTTOM. New tank. 3 cycled sponge filters sent from Simply sponsor that sold me the fish. Eight 3.5" discus, nothing else.

5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?

Changing DAILY 20-30% AGED tap water. Upping it to 50-60% when my water pump comes in the mail. BAREBOTTOM.



6 Parameters and water source;

- temp 86

- ph 8

- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading 0

- nitrate reading 0

- well water NO

- municipal water YES

7. Any new fish/plants added recently NO

[bearcat]

Chaz;
What were the water conditions off the suppliers water ph,and temp. was you water close to those number when you put the fish in the tank.
If you introduced them properly you should be o.k ,first thing is to take a deep breath and relax these fish are tough,if the fish are eating I would not worry to much at this point .
Fish can have clamped fins because they got a little bumped around in shipping,I would put another tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons to help reduce stress on them ,this will not hurt them and raise the temp up to 88 or 89 and keep and eye on them for the next few days,don't jump to med too fast let them get acclimatized too your tank for a will and then if the problem does not improve then we go to the next step.
If after a few days you find all the fish are coming around except the one you think has a tapeworm i would remove him to a 10 tank gallon hospital tank and contact this great form to get the experts on here to give you help. Good luck Rick

[cyang]

So far some 4 of the 8 fish seem to be eating OK. The others, 2 seem to be runts and 2 are the darks ones that aren’t eating.

My water was around the same hardness as the suppliers but had a higher pH (supplier 7.2, mine 8).

I’ve been doing daily water changes and have already been adding about 1 tablespoon of salt per 10 gallons.

Even if they aren’t eating, should I just wait a week and see what happens?

[1077]

I had one discus that did not eat anything that I saw for nearly three weeks after I first introduced it to the tank. I agree I would wait and watch. You will need to test daily for ammonia in such a young tank and keep the ammonia levels from becoming lethal. I would not clean the sponge filters for in a bare bottom new tank they could be the only source for good bacteria. You may also wish to leave the lights off for a time this might ease some stress. If the fish that you saw the white stringy poo trailing from is indeed sick I agree that it should be quarantined. Worm you saw could have simply been planaria which are harmless to fish. I wish I could offer more help! There are plenty of experts here that I am sure can help . For now , I would keep an eye on water parameters and change the water when needed using dechlorinator and using water with same temp of tank water. also would not let any uneaten food lay on the bottom of the tank but would get it out immediately.:(

[CraigG]

How long did you acclimate the fish for? Could just be a case of pH shock my Snow White Discus took over 1 week to start eatting. My Cobalt Blue was dark for about 5 days before he got his color back.

More then likely stress maybe some pH shock if you didn't acclimate them long enough.

All in all probably nothing to worry about. I like to use stress coat after I put a new fish in the tank seems to help them out.

[bearcat]

Hi:Chaz
A couple of things, a higher temp of 88 to 89 sometimes helps to get fish eating ,also if there is any parasites around it will help to kill most of them as they do not like high water temp.
A Ph of 8 is O.K. ( my ph is 8.4) but make sure that the water from your storage tank is as close as possible to your ph in your tank and temp,also check your gh and kh to make sure you don't get any ph swings,you want it to be at least .80 for both. As your tank is new watch your ph and ammiona levels very carefully and add prime to your storage tank water when doing water changes to help your fish with their slime coat.
Good luck,keep us posted .
Rick