Is he OK?

[AndyM]

I've been reading alot in the university forum and very few of the pictures I see have bars as pronounced as my RT. Is this normal coloration? They're all eating fine, active and seem happy. Just want to make sure I'm not missing something.....Here's the others for comparison, 1 cobalt and red melon.
50% WC 2x/week, Amm/Nitrite 0, pH 6.2 (CO2 injected), nitrate around 10-15, phosphate around 1.0....

[thekeem]

Yup.

Perfectly normal. Of course, it is important to take into consideration that within a strain, fish can vary greatly!

These are just stress bars. The name can be a little misleading though - among captive-bred discus the bars have more to do with the pecking order than actual stress. My RTs showed them very intensely when i got them, now i notice their intensity is different a few months later, with the alpha male being virtually stripeless.

Their also used when establishing territory.

In the wild, when a school of discus becomes startled, these bold striations kick in instantly as the school swims about, creating a confusing blur and making the predators job an awful lot more difficult.

[AndyM]

Ok, thanks. That is the dominant fish of the four, so that probably has a lot to do with it. Thanks again for the response!

[Stevie D]

Is that RT from Hans? I have 3 of them, they are about 7 months old i would say, one looks exactly like yours!! The other 2 never have stripes, he always has them and is quite happy.

Stevie D

[ShinShin]

Andy,

Sorry, my man, but the fish in pic one is terriblely ill. It is stunted and full of internal parsites. That is why his stress bars are so intense. He is extremely stressed. The fish in pic 3 is on a downswing as well.

Mat

[MRQuad]

Andy,

Sorry, my man, but the fish in pic one is terriblely ill. It is stunted and full of internal parsites. That is why his stress bars are so intense. He is extremely stressed. The fish in pic 3 is on a downswing as well.

Mat

sorry about this question.. how do you know that the fish is terribly ill? and extremely stressed? a solid bar, is that where we can tell that the fish is ill or stressed?

i am just new to this, that is why i am asking this question too.. sorry, im not hijacking this thread.:angel:

[AndyM]

Suggestions??

[ShinShin]

MrQ,

The fish has an emaciated look and brown/black eyes which is usually indcative of nematodes. It is washed out colorwise, as well as being stunted. The stress bars are always present because of the stress of the parasite's toll on its body.

Andy,

What kind of set-up do you have? Barebottom? I hope so. It'll make everything a whole lot easier.

Mat

[AndyM]

I have a 92G corner bow, moderate to heavily planted, CO2 injected, 85deg, pH ~ 6.2. 0 amm/nitrite, nitrate ~ 15. 360 gph canister and 120 gph powerhead sponge filter. I have noticed whitish poo from some of the other fish and have been treating with metro albeit at lower than suggested dosing cuz I'm scared to OD it. I'm a bit surprosed at the diagnosis as he (?) is quite active and eats well. I had been feeding exclusively CBW but over the last week I've started mixing up some shrimp and peas and whatnot in a blender to supplement the diet. Any suggestions are welcome, thanks!

[mikel]

I had a red turqoise with bulging dark eyes once as well. It was the weakest one in my group, and it was always shy and ate very little. i agree that a fish wih these traits is definitely sick. i would suggest you convert the tank to a barebottom at this point so that you can maintain a higher water quality standard (nitrate should be zero, no exceptions), up the water changes to perhaps every day, and do some research in removing the nematodes. barebottom tanks allow for better cleaning, and the controlling of the water quality as you carry out heavy feeding to ensure that your young discus achieve their optimum sizes. Good luck. mike

[CraigG]

Nitrates will never be at zero in an already cycled tank.

Though i do agree you want to keep it around 5 or less for ideal situations.

[AndyM]

It should also be noted that I took that picture quite a while ago, and the lighting pretty much sucks. He's not as dark as he looks, and the eyes are actually quite red. I do agree that he's stunted and probably stressed out. I'm switching to a more varied diet including shrimp, peas, zucchini, etc and stepping up the metro treatment. I'll see how that goes. He is definitely not the shyest fish in the tank, quite the opposite he's pretty much the bully, and eats great, not skittish or scared of me. Hopefully the diet change will help the color, I think it's probably better for them no matter what. Tearing down the tank and converting it to BB is NOT an option, although it makes a case with the wife for me to get another tank!:D Thanks for the help!

[thekeem]

Honestly, your fish is most probably not sick, at the most he's just being picked on because he's lower down the pecking order. Most photos on these forums are just w/ flash so we're not used to seeing the ambient light in the background crushing the blacks on the foreground

I would personally never use flash on my fish so i got a wide aperture lens to take bright shots with the given light sources, some of them run pretty cheap you should check them out.

[ShinShin]

I'll tell you what, thekeem, if anyone here that has had discus for more than 10 minutes, looks at the picture of the discus we are discussing, and after reading the fish has a white fecal discharge and has been feeding almost exclusively on CBW's, living in a gravel bottom tank and thinks this fish is healthy, I'll take them to a dozen LFS and get them a deal on a whole lotta healthy discus. I've had literally thousands of discus over the years go through my fishroom, and although I might not diagnose correctly 100% 0f the time, I certainly can tell a sick discus from a healthy one. This one is sick. If yours look like this, get help with them. Really!

Mat

[Don Trinko]

I'm no expert but I do agree with Larry.
I have had very little luck getting thin fish healthy especialy if they are picky eaters.
I think Levamisol is the treatment for nematodes. You find it at your local farm store. It is hard on the fish. They will not normaly eat while being treated and it can kill a fish that is very sick. Search the web and you will find directions for use IF you chose to try it.
I have kept thin fish alive for over a year but eventualy they get something I can't cure and die.
Sorry to be so pesamistic but that is my limited experience. Don T.

[AndyM]

I hope my post concerning my intended course of action didn't imply that I don't think my fish is sick. I am fairly new to discus keeping (but not fish in general) and am anxious to get more input on how I can help them stay healthy. I do have enough knowledge to see issues with most fish, hence the metro treatment for the white stringy poo from the blue ram, but not necessarily specific to discus. I welcome any and all suggestions and will do whatever I can to help them. Thanks!!

[ShinShin]

Andy,

There are people here who have kept and bred discus for years and were exactly where you are now at one time. We learned from those before us, before the internet. Wattley, Degen, Schmidte-Focke, for example wrote books and magazine articles that we actually had to read to learn, plus our own successes and failures in the fishrooms that were observed. Now, we have people who don't even know who Schmidt-Focke was, people who never read a book, have absolutely no idea whatsoever about the history of the discus, proper discus care, or even have basic fish husbandry knowledge post absurd information on the internet about how to care for discus.

There are reasons growouts should not be kept in planted,gravel tanks. There are reasons discus generally do better with discus. There is a reason why more people are sucessful with adult discus in barebottom tanks. Time has proven the best methods for raisnig discus. If you want to raise fish in a community tank that just happens to include discus, that's one thing. But, if you want to raise discus, then raise discus the way the experts did. They tried it all. No one here is going to be doing anything different that what has been done long before they ever had a fish.

Mat

[AndyM]

I'm not really looking to "raise" them in the sense that I'd be breeding and raising the fry to keep, give away or whatever. As with all fish, I enjoy having them in my tank and watching them grow to adulthood. All I'm really looking for is some advice on how to get these ones healthy. I certainly did not start this thread to initiate a discussion about knowledgability. I'm not looking for someone to hand me the answer on a silver platter, I know better. I read and post on these threads because they provide (hopefully) faster, more convenient access to people such as yourself who have the knowledge and experience I lack. If you think I'd be better off looking up the literature myself I'm fine with that, just might take a bit longer to get things on the right track.

[Don Trinko]

Andy; I think you are asking good questions. Unfortunatly you already have the discus. It would have been better if you knew what you were getting into before you bought the discus. Please don't take this in a negative way.
I have done many things in life without proper forthought. I'm sure my wife could provide a list.
This is a good site for increasing your knowledge abought discus. In time you will recognize that the advice from certain people tends to be accurate and from others(very few thankfully) not so accurate. Don T.

[ShinShin]

Andy,

No, I don't think that. What I am saying is different people have different expectations of a forum based on what their use for one is. This is a discus forum. I just think that some consider it a tropical fish forum. Some of us here know each other for the last 10 years on other discus forums before Simply's existance. The ones still here from back then are discus keepers who have succeeded to whatever degree we wanted to succeed. We did so because we took the time to find out what needed to be done. Before the internet, we didn't have a large group of people telling us how to raise our discus. I think it is good to have such a resource as the internet, but people have to learn how to not be so reliant on it. Ask questions and learn. Just don't ask questions. Some people never learn. That is evident in responses to certain threads.

If the internet failed to exist tomorrow, how many people herewould have no discus in 6 months? Who still would? It depends on what you know.

Mat

[John_Nicholson]

I have to agree with Mat on this one. The first fish pictured is not really doing well. Look at the size of his eye in comparison with his body. Also look at the shape of his body. Discus are called discus because they should be round. The RT pictured has not developed well for some reason. I never worried much about trying to save sick fish. If I had an issue I would simply pack one up and send to a fish pathologist and then act accordingly. I never had Mats skills when it came to diagnosis.

-john

[AndyM]

Don,

I agree whole heartedly that this is a good site to increase knowledge about discus. So far in this thread, however, it seems that I'm increasing my knowledge on how to increase my knowledge elsewhere.

John,
I never disagreed with Mat on this one. I have agreed all along. I am painfully aware at this point that the fish is not well. Just looking for some options.

Mat,
I apologize if I have misused this forum trying to get information on how to help my discus, but I thought that's what it might be here for. I do plenty of research, be it on the internet or otherwise, just hadn't got to the part about not growing out in a planted tank. It's too late for that now. I ask questions because I want and like to learn, but learning only happens when questions are answered either by those more knowledgeable than myself or through further mistakes and failures. I started here to try and avoid the latter.
I do appreciate the diagnosis and I will find a way to make things better for my fish through more self-reliant means.

[GrillMaster]

Hey Andy, Larry is a guru with ill fish bud...If I may make a suggestion. A BB tank will take alot of guess work from the equasion. Lots of food and lots of water changes (50% a day or more) you will find it a little easier to care for the discus!

Once you have the confidence to take care of the discus you can slowly venture out to the "PT"...:)

[Roxanne]

Hey, from an outer perspective you may be missing their point. The forum IS excellent, it's great for ideas or suggestions, just be aware that not everyone posting a reply to your question, even with the best intentions, will have the best advice. Go with the advice of those who have obviously the most experience and simple practical wisdom! And maybe we should all think carefully before we add to anyone's confusion by posting advice when those with more expertise should really do so.
:angel: Peace to you all.....

[ShinShin]

Andy,

No, no, you haven't misused the forum at all. I am being misunderstood or not saying clearly enough what I mean to say. I guess what I mean is that if you want to be a discus keeper, look beyond just here. Wattley, Degen, Quarels, Yeng, Au, etc., wrote books because they could. There's a lot of interesting history as well to read about.

Please, ask your questions.

bastalker,

No guru here. Just someone who had a lot of sick discus in the beginning doing it MY way. I had to learn fast.

John,

Unless it is a favorite or a whole tankful, I don't waste much time anymore either. Like JQ, splat. ;)

Mat

[AndyM]

Mark,
Thanks for the suggestion on the BB tank, I actually am considering doing that with my 28G, although it may a bit cramped for 4 discus, but it is something to think about. That's the kind of stuff I'm after. I do not for a second doubt Larry's knowledge, I'm only trying to access some of it. If it has seemed as though I question his expertise then I apologize.

Roxanne,
Thanks for the response, and I do understand that not all the advice on these forums is worth its salt. That is exactly the reason I've been trying to get some of Larry's. I do not shy away from research and trial and error, I am a firm believer in the "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" ideal. My hope here is to not go through, if possible, the error portion of this particular lesson at the expense of losing my fish. I hope that makes sense. I am acitvely looking into this problem on my own, but am also hoping in the meantime to hear from people like Larry with good experience and knowledge to draw from.

[doc3toes]

i think he looks sick as well. hope it gets better.

[ShinShin]

You are exactly right in that a complete diagnosis cannot be made looking at a picture. However, those of us that have been around Discus for awhile develope some instincts about our breed of fish. White fecal discharge is a symptom of both protozoans and bacteria. If one reads the disease section regularly, they would have picked up on that. That's why a microscope is so important in keeping discus.

Where I disagree with you is that at least a partial dignosis can be made about internal parasites by looking at a pic in alot of cases, like this one - a text book photo of a discus with internal parasites. From there, other observations can tell us a little more. Yellowish fecal droppings? White? Eating or not? Emaciated or not? Finnage breaking down? Eye color? These obsevations need to be made by discus keepers. I wouldn't pretend to know about looking at a koi or a dragon fish. I haven't observed them for years and years.

When a person posts a pic here and asks a question, all that can be done here is for someone to draw on their own personal experience (and not some else's). Without a microscope it's only what a person thinks and oftentimes they are correct.

Mat

Mat

[brewmaster15]

I agree with Mat, John, Don and the others here... Those fish look ill..

Andy,
Once a person has raised healthy discus that are growing as they should... it is easy for them to recognize when they are not doing well.

This is what a healthy red turq looks like...
http://www.ctdiscus.com/images/rtdscn7463.jpg


Theres things that come from experience that we learn along the way and theres many ways of learning them...This forum is meant to be one way...so you haven't done anything wrong by asking... Its why we built this place.

My honest assessment of those fish is that they look runted already to me...but if you want to make the best of them....I'd try deworming them and treating them for flagellates...That plus excellent care and you many wind up with some okay fish.... But its very hard to take a fish such as this and do that....when you start with stock like this, its an uphill battle... and like John and Mat...its not something I would waste my time on anymore.

hth,
al

[AndyM]

Thanks everyone for the responses & info. Sorry if I got snippy but really want my fish to get better. I've found some things to try and hopefully things will come around. One last Q, I understand that the size & shape will probably never get good from this point, but if they recover will the color at least improve?

[ShinShin]

Color will improve some. The eyes sometimes never look quite right. I suggest levamisole after a metro treatment. Levamisole can be purchased at any farm store and there is a sticky in the disease section on its use, as well as metro.

Mat

[thekeem]

...its not something I would waste my time on anymore.

hth,
al

The funny thing is all the poor guy wanted was a plan of action on treatment and he's basically being told to cull his fish.

I apologise for treading on toes, I'll shut up until I've read some books; it's just that I've seen discus who don't look that physically swell (and may be a bit small, or covered in peppering) and definitely not in the show condition of the hypothetical healthy RT but still healthy... But then again what do I know.

Andy, I hope you find the treatment you need and your fish gets healthy! :)

[brewmaster15]

theKeem,


The funny thing is all the poor guy wanted was a plan of action on treatment and he's basically being told to cull his fish. Actually I told him my honest assessment of his fish when he asked if the fish was okay.... which is what he asked for and suggested a course of action that may help...I didn't tell him to cull the fish...I said I would cull the fish if it were me.... and I would. Not trying to be cruel and hate to be the pessimist here, but if you account for the $$$ in meds and time plus the chances that the fish will never really amount to much and may harbor any number of pathogens that could infect future fish down the road... its not worth it, IMO...thats a fact that anyone with a discus collection comes to realize somewhere down the road.

I've no idea how much discus experience you have or what your goals are with discus....but when I am asked for my opinion and experiences...I share them....I'm not going to white-wash it... A person who asks a question....generally wants a real answer....it may not be the answer they hoped for or likes...but I am sure they would like it to be an honest one.....which is what others and I have given.

Hope that helps you understand my position on this.

-al

[AndyM]

Again, thanks for the input. I feel like I kinda started a big rucus here, sorry for that, not my intention at all.:argue: I will take the information obtained here as well as other sources I am utilizing and go from there. I do understsand it may be too late, the last thing I want is an ongoing issue no matter what fish are in there. Hopefully they can be saved, if not lesson learned.

[brewmaster15]

Andy,
No Apologies necessary...Inevitably these things do come up and when they do, Diverse opinion can get intense....That should not stop you from asking though. Its the Norm in the Discus hobby.:)

I hope you find the course of action that meets your goals and wish you luck.. If the fish turn around, please share the experience with them months from now too.

Take care,
al

[ShinShin]

Andy,

I agree that you have nothing to apologize for here. People stick the 2 cents in without being asked then get all pi$$y later. Like Al and John said, some of us have been around and know certain things about discus. Not everything, mind you. If you want to waste money on this fish, go ahead. A cure is not always for certain, either. Personally, I'd get rid of it.

Mat

[Roxanne]

I'm posting a new question in the forum for a sick discus, so if you'd all like to have a go at that.....hee hee, I'm joking..I'd appreciate ANY thoughts because he's really sick to.

Though we may disagree, or even be misunderstood, we are all united in our love for our circular fishy friends!

:D

[Barbie]

Hi Andy,

I just wanted to note that I did read the thread and yep, the gist is much like I thought it would be. Come get levamisole when you finish treating with the metro. I always have it on hand.

For everyone else, Andy came to talk to me yesterday, very frazzled about his discus. He wanted to know how to treat them and whether or not he was facing impending doom. While growing discus to their optimal size and shape in a planted tank isn't something anyone recommends, keeping discus happy and healthy in one is definitely an attainable goal, IME. I do realize mileage may vary, but does it really need to be so cutthroat when someone asks for help with an issue?

And as a side note to the person that said there can never be 0 nitrates in a cycled tank, you definitely need to go reread the post. Plants most assuredly can yank nitrates to 0 and keep them there in a set up like Andy's. Most people with planted tanks and CO2 injection have to add nitrates for proper plant growth.

Good luck Andy, let me know how it goes!

Barbie

[thekeem]

theKeem,
Actually I told him my honest assessment of his fish when he asked if the fish was okay.... which is what he asked for and suggested a course of action that may help...I didn't tell him to cull the fish...I said I would cull the fish if it were me.... and I would. Not trying to be cruel and hate to be the pessimist here, but if you account for the $$$ in meds and time plus the chances that the fish will never really amount to much and may harbor any number of pathogens that could infect future fish down the road... its not worth it, IMO...thats a fact that anyone with a discus collection comes to realize somewhere down the road.

I've no idea how much discus experience you have or what your goals are with discus....but when I am asked for my opinion and experiences...I share them....I'm not going to white-wash it... A person who asks a question....generally wants a real answer....it may not be the answer they hoped for or likes...but I am sure they would like it to be an honest one.....which is what others and I have given.

Hope that helps you understand my position on this.

-al

I guess I misread your intentions, my apologies for the false accusation.

I hope you don't think I was insinuating I knew better, for the most part I was just surprised at the reaction especially since I have had a fish with dark eyes who swims about energetically and eats voraciously. Should I too be concerned? She seems in the greatest of spirits, and her feces is brown and healthy. I see no razor edge, so no signs of emaciation.

[ShinShin]

Barbie,

Where was there any cut throat activity in this thread? If you want to participate on the forum, fine, but we don't need someone coming here with their first post making accusations that didn't happen, like we need a mother. He asked. Some good discus people gave him great advice. Someone who wasn't even in the loop butted in, and then you. There was no need for you to come here and post what you posted. Your passive/aggressive reponse could have been handled via PM to Andy or better yet in person since you appear to already know Andy.

Mat

[Barbie]

Larry I was asked to come read the thread. Andy was frustrated that there were 3 pages of thread with NO actual treatment options for him in his situation.

This isn't my first post btw. I used to post here quite a bit, until the petty ongoing bickering made me go elsewhere. Obviously the board script has upgraded and post counts were lost since then. My intentions weren't to be passive aggressive, but to just plain disagree with the way the post itself was treated. While books and hands on experience are the method of problem solving for the past, now we have this wonderful thing called the internet. He was attempting to use it to solve his problem on a board that I too would have assumed should be able to help. Now people in the thread are apologizing to him, but again, a treatment regimen has yet to be posted. Just a couple suggestions about medications, with no concrete solution to the issue. Discus keeping, like any sort of hobby, is subject to a lot of opinion. Being inflammatory because someone has one that doesn't agree with yours isn't going to do anyone any good, IME.

It's all a matter of opinion and personal experience. It's your board, so your opinion is the only one that matters, it seems.

Barbie

[brewmaster15]

It's all a matter of opinion and personal experience. It's your board, so your opinion is the only one that matters, it seems.

BarbieActually Barbie,
Its Not Mat's Forum.... Its a forum that I and my Partner Ryan have spent years developing with the assistence of great group of moderators and a community of Hobbyists that get along better than most forums.... and its a board that has helped many many hobbyists get started with Discus and maintain healthy Fish... If your experience wasn't good here when you were a member...thats unfortunate.

I'm sorry if you feel that there was no concrete treatment offered... fact is...you can't offer a concrete treatment for a runted discus like that Red Turq... Suggestions were made to alleviate possible parasite issues... As for
but does it really need to be so cutthroat when someone asks for help with an issue? It wasn't, in my opinion cut throat...it was an honest answer.... Sometimes thats all we can give. Before you pass judgement on how we help people here...spend some time reading our Disease board...or just ask this boards membership how "helpful" it is.

Glad that you will be helping Andy out with his fish...



It's your board, so your opinion is the only one that matters, it seems.Everyones opinions matter here...that doesn't mean everyone will get along and agree... If you have Issues about how we run this site, Please take them up with me privately.

Thank you,
Al

[Barbie]

Al my only point for posting originally was to point out that the post was causing frustration and after 3 pages there were still no dosing instructions or actual techniques recommended for treatment. The reason I decided to post was to point that out, not to start any sort of a pissing match. You have my apologies for that. The point that is still being missed here is that he isn't keeping a tank to the optimum benefit of the discus, so therefore it seems to make his question less worthy of being answered. I think everyone understands that the discus would be more optimal in a bare bottom tank. Is that the only way to keep them healthy? Do you mean to sound like this just can't be done unless those rules are followed, with no exceptions?

Barbie

[brewmaster15]

Barbie,

The point that is still being missed here is that he isn't keeping a tank to the optimum benefit of the discus, so therefore it seems to make his question less worthy of being answered. I think everyone understands that the discus would be more optimal in a bare bottom tank. Is that the only way to keep them healthy? Do you mean to sound like this just can't be done unless those rules are followed, with no exceptions? The point that you are missing is that my comments have nothing to do with any of these things you are posting about... Andy didn't ask if the way he was keeping them was okay...he asked about the fish.."IS HE OKAY" Maybe we are looking at this from difference experience levels...but that fish is Stunted badly... Its not necessarily a disease issue... all the levamisole and metronidazole in the world can't change that... It can only maybe breath a little life into the fish, IME... Thats my point... It had nothing to do with how he keeps the fish... I never said or implied that the fish was sick because of the way he kept it...If you are reading that I think you have it wrong.... That fish is the way it is because it was not cared for properly for a long long time, most likely before Andy got it.... or its genetically Runted..You are making this into something its not...

A fish like that is IMO best Culled.....and thats just my opinion. Its not something I like to do...but sometime its the best course of action..Its what I stated before and what I believe...Its not meant to hurt or confuse Andy... and as I said before...if he wants to try to "Cure" it , he can try with a dewormer and metro.

When you start with Discus like that and throw meds blindly at them its an uphill battle.... My comments had Andys best interest in mind....From my point of view.

This is being made from a mole hill to a Mountain.

-al

[AndyM]

That's all I was ever looking for in the first place, something like: " you can dose metro and a dewormer, it may or may not work, you may lose the fish"
Unfortunately it took a week of bickering and 3 pages of irrelevant lectures about how to use (or not to) the internet to obtain information :mad: Barbie's the best, I should've just gone to her in the first place, and will in the future, lesson learned. BTW Barbie I'll see you in a while for the levamisole. Thanks for your help.

[ShinShin]

Barbie,

I know exactly what your intent was in this posting. Let's not kid anyone here. Like I said, since you know Andy, all this could have been done in private not here. But no, you had to publicly scorn everyone to statisfy whatever it is in you that motivated you to come here. There is a whole section on disease on this forum. It has all the information anyone needs as far as dosing is concerned. All one needs to do is look it up.

Perhaps the other forum you that are a moderator (or is that someone else? I may be confused) feels that they need you to mother them. I don't. Got it?

Mat

[brewmaster15]

Enough! This thread is locked...It has far exceeded its usefulness to anyone.

Andy,
You posted a question .... There was no Bickering until very recently in this Thread when you asked Barbie into ..... What there was though were answers to your question by very experienced discus Keepers that were not what you wanted to hear or were not in the format you wanted to hear...

This is a discus forum ....You came looking here for answers and got them....sorry if they were not what you were looking for....that does not mean they were not accurate answers.. What you and Barbie fail to see is that no amounts of meds will take that red Turq and turn it into something it can't be...I've raised literally thousands of Discus over the years and Have seen more than my fair share of fish like yours....Read my back posts and go thru the disease Board...I'm not a novice by a long shot and have spent years helping people with sick fish....I gave my honest opinion of that red Turq...Doesn't mean you have to accept, but don't get upset if you ask me for it and I give it... Others gave theirs...again don't get upset...go with the advice that you feel most comfortable with...

If you want to try and save it...go for it...but don't discount advise because its not what you want to hear.. Theres no guarantee that that fish is even suffering from parasites....and using meds may actually push it over the edge.

Early on in the thread you stated...


I'm not looking for someone to hand me the answer on a silver platter, I know better. I read and post on these threads because they provide (hopefully) faster, more convenient access to people such as yourself who have the knowledge and experience I lack. You got what you asked for, by the people you had wanted info from.. You were told to try deworming and metro..... A silver platter would have been being given the medication and dosing information... That information wasn't given because its all over the disease board and its something you could have easily found if you took the time to do some basic research...You complain about a week wasted.... yes...there was a week wasted....By you. At the first mention of parasites you could started looking for more info in our disease forum...you didn't.
You say you didn't want a silver platter then got upset you didn't get one.:confused:



Barbie's the best, I should've just gone to her in the first place, and will in the future, lesson learned. BTW Barbie I'll see you in a while for the levamisole


Good luck with your Fish. I sincerely hope that things work out for you with them... But I do not appreciate the way that You and Barbie carried yourselves in this thread and on this forum.
-al