Sick Discus Please help

[flyer1988]

Ok guys I have a discus which is showing signs of sickness, he basicly is away from the group and hides behind a mopani wood that I have, in addition he wont eat and tried different kinds of food but neglets all of them. At time he is moved by the food and tries to eat but take it in then spits it out and does not dijest anything. In search of external damage or something out of normal I was unable to find anything and he breaths just the same as other. Being a Pigeon Blood he got some pepering on the edges of his fins but not on body. I tried highering the water temp to 86 degrees to no avail, and am currently kinda scared to loose the guy due to starvation.

I moved the discus to a quaranteen tank and added aquarium salt to it too see if that helped and some melafix and pimafix since I had some laying around and at times seem to help. After trying to treat him for 5 days I see no improvment whatsoever.

Currently I do 3 to 4 water changer of 1/3 water perweek. Water temp is currently 83-84, and checked for ammonia and everything seems ok and shows Yellow on a API kit meaning its ok.

Im really concerned and to top it off I just noticed today another discus on my main tank doing the same stuff, im starting to think if it might be something Im feeding them.

Im currently feeding Oceanic Nutriction - formula 1 pellets, formula 2 flakes, Prime Reef flakes also from Oceanic Nutricion. Freeze dried blackworms from Australian something, and once a week frozen bloodworms, and not intentially since I have coryies they feed off of their food which is Hikari ground wafer.

Could it be that im giving them too much flakes or something? I was giving them beefheart on my BB tank but transferred them to my main tank since I saw them out growing my quaranteen tank. They been on the main tank for 2 months now and this just started 1 week ago. Can some please advise me what else to look for? or if you have an idea what to treat it with, where I reside im limited to LFS put we have a petco some hopefully I can get something today if not Ill order.

By the way I just bought yesterday Parasite Clear at Walmart from Jungle labs. Which contains Metronidazole, Praziquantel, Diflubenzuron, and Acriflavine. I have yet to see any effect since I probably have less than 8hrs since dosage, but im really concern since I see this problem with 2 discus in different tank.

[jimg]

how many fish do you have and in what size tank?
If you have a lot in a small tank more wc's are needed, less in a bigger tank then wc's you do should be fine depending on how you feed them. How are water parameters?
There is a questionnaire you should fill out to help.

[flyer1988]

were can i get a hold of the questionare?

and there is five 3.5 inch discus in a 40 gallon tank. with 6 cories thats my main tank

quaranteen were i left 1 of the discus also 3.5 hes in a 25 gallon tank riding solo.

[jimg]

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?t=38545

[cyberhog05]

It sounds like your wc's are up to par. I have found that the only time I do have a problem it is related to water. The only thing I do is feed medicated food for maint. I use Angels plus dewormer twice a week and an anti protozoan flake 3-5 times a month. Any time I have noticed any trouble in the last year I up my wc's and am very sure to use the same temp. water and it has sat out and been aerated for a couple days. My tank is a 180 so I only do 2 70-90% wc's a week.I have used the jungle product you mentioned with good results. Now that I think about it the only trouble I have had was HITH and I found the culprit to be a 6" dead BN pleco that was stuck inside a hollow section of driftwood. Took out his rotten carcass did a wc and all was well a week later. I have a brilliant turq that is the first to show signs of poor water quality. Bad water quality can still happen even when we do wc's regularly. My display tank is about 2 yrs old now and pretty stable as long as I dont get lazy. One thing to think about is all the bacteria we need to keep are water quality good is severely imbalanced every time we do a large water change do to new water can cut the bacteria back. That why I love my canisters loaded with media to have a large surface area for bacteria to grow. Geez...sorry for the rambling

[Jennie]

hmmm I have never had a problem with bio getting cut back from large daily WC'S and I run sponges only.

[cyberhog05]

I was having trouble with ammonia spikes after large wc's until I got my tw0 canisters hooked up. I cant think of anything else that would cause it????

[Jennie]

Well I wouldn't throw parasitic meds at them if it's a bacterial issue. Or it could be a little of both.Need to get a qt tank set up with an airstone running. The water changes need to be upped a little to 40% on an average stocked tank.
wait till Eddie comes around but I'm guessing he'll recommend furan 2 and maybe salt. And as I think that, he'll show up and prove me wrong:)

[Eddie]

Skip the melafix and pimafix, its useless and will cause undo stress on the fish. I can't really tell if you went ahead and used the Parasite Clear too but its sounds like you did. Can you fill out the questionnaire?

Eddie

[flyer1988]

thank you guys so far for your idea.

Now that the topic arised from the bacteria, I have a penguin 200 power filter which to be honest I dont think holds enough bacteria for huge ammounts of water changes, but yet I will step up my WC's to 50-60 percent every single day.

As for the questionare;

Problem

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

Well I explained this in the begining of the thread.

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/ white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds)

Being a pigeon blood the one im having issues with has had pepering going. excessive slime none, note eating of course, hiding. So far this is all I can distinguish

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

I tried melafix and pima fix, and parasite clear.



Tank/Water

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

quaranteen tank 25 gallon, age of tank running 1yr and 1 discus at about 3.5 inch big

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

three 1/3 water change a week. 1yr running tank. bb, and I dont age my water. just add the declorine stuff.


6 Parameters and water source;

- temp _82-83____

- ph _6____

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading ____ As for nitrite and nitrate, I just ordered a kit from pet solutions, waiting for it. My local petco ran out and this is the only place were I coult get this.

- nitrate reading ____

- well water _0___

- municipal water _0___ just tap water, declorinated with tetra aqua safe i believe

7. Any new fish/plants added recently


nothing new added.

[flyer1988]

forgot to add the dosages, so far I stopped treating with mela and pima fix for 5 days, and now today is my second day with parasite clear.

[Eddie]

Okay, at this point, there is nothing to suggest until your water parameters are known. Need to make sure nitrites are not the culprit. All pigeon blood discus have peppering so that wouldn't concern me unless it used to have none at all and now showing alot. It may be stress related. Is the pigeon blood getting bullied?

[Skip]

i had a pb doing the same thing.. moved him to a different tank where is not at the bottom of pecking order since he i now the big one, added salt for 24 hrs.. 4 days later. doing lot better.. swimming around and eating no problem.. it worked for mine.. i don't know about yours.. i also added some fine bubble air stones.. all my tanks seem to be doing better..

i am not sure if the extra bubbles had anything to do with it.. but thats what i did..

just be patient. i am sure it will work out..:)

[flyer1988]

As for the nitraites I will advise you all soon as I recieve the kit.

And eddie, no the discus did not show any peppering.