suddenly sick???

[gsteve]

I dont have all info to put in the form . I get my water tested at the fish store regularly and they tell me its very good , somedays perfect. I have 4 discus in a community planted tank. Im new, 4 mons to discus. My sick guy had worms and i treated him with metro. He recovered well and started swimming lots and eating well/ Today i get home and see him on his side at the bottom curled sideways and gasping. He can straighten up and swim a lil but is having trouble. I do a 15% water change every other day and use a fluval 404 and a uv light , water temp is 85. What can i do.... i really like this guy:(

[Jennie]

your water may not be right today regardless of how it was yeaterday. Go get the api test kit at petsmart and post results and do a water change

[Skip]

I dont have all info to put in the form . I get my water tested at the fish store regularly and they tell me its very good , somedays perfect. I have 4 discus in a community planted tank. Im new, 4 mons to discus. My sick guy had worms and i treated him with metro. He recovered well and started swimming lots and eating well/ Today i get home and see him on his side at the bottom curled sideways and gasping. He can straighten up and swim a lil but is having trouble. I do a 15% water change every other day and use a fluval 404 and a uv light , water temp is 85. What can i do.... i really like this guy:(

FIRST THING! up the water Change to 50% EVERYDAY...

but since your information is vague.. the WC is something you can right now!!!!

[gsteve]

will do

[gsteve]

done... he is on his side. eyes cloudy, struggling:(

[Skip]

i thought metro was for parasites.. not worms... sorry. i meant some parasite different then nematodes/tapeworms..

[gsteve]

i believe worms are internal parasites. poor lil dude.

[Skip]

i believe worms are internal parasites. poor lil dude.

can you post a picture.. that may help..

[Eddie]

Are you using co2 at all?

[gsteve]

He was dead this morning:( A buddy has a 50,000 dollar salt water setup and a fancy water tester. i went over today and used his lamotte tester.
nitrate 9
ammonia 0
alkine 123
nitrite.023
phosphate .36

He says these are all good numbers. Bummer , id like to have known what it was.
Oh and no c02
Thanks all for the help.

[Eddie]

Sorry to hear but its impossible and actually dangerous for anyone to advise you on a course of action if all information isn't known. Since you lost one and have no idea why, I'd still look into whether or not something is affecting your tank. Please fill this out

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

[gsteve]

QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish/when and how they started
young discus about 2inches when i got him 3 mons ago. He had worms and hadnt eaten for 6 weeks. I saw the white poop and treated with metro tabs. After about 5 days he started eating and swimming about. After about 3 weeks of behaving well i found him at the bottom on his side curled up a little. He couldnt control his swimming and would scoot about and end up at the bottom. I placed him in a small birthing container in the same main tank so he wouldnt get stuck under things. His eyes got cloudy and within 12 hours he was dead.





2. Symptoms clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, cloudy eyes,






3. What medications/ treatments that you have already tried and results. Include dosages and duration of treatment.
125 mg tabs of metro , 1 a day for 5 days when i found out he had worms. He responded well





Tank/Water

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish
65 gals
6 mons old
15 small fish and 4 young discus


5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?
i change about 15% every other day and a 30% on weekends
sand bottom
do not age water , i use tap with prime and cycle



6 Parameters and water source;

- temp 84

- ph _____ could not test

- ammonia reading ___0_

- nitrite reading ____.023

- nitrate reading ____9

- well water ___no

- municipal water ____yes

7. Any new fish/plants added recently
no new plants or fish for maybe 6 weeks


Lil more info. This guy that died is 1 of the first 3 i bought. He didnt eat for a long time. The other 2 ate lots and were very busy in the tank. I bought one more , that one and one of the others have about doubled in size and are always busy. One of the 1st group hasnt grown much and no longer acts like the boss of the tank, he tries to push the newest one around but that one has grown so big he doesnt get too worried. I have cardinals , oxfords , tiger barbs , rams , swords and all have done well , good eaters and no deaths.

[Eddie]

How did you know he had worms? Also, metro doesn't treat worms. Sounds like it was a combination of nutrient deficiency and internal parasite. Keep an eye on the others because they may have something also. Keep the fish fed well on a well balanced diet for better immune system building.

All the best,

Eddie

[gsteve]

I thought he had worms by the white stringy poop he had. One of the others is acting more shy than he used to . I have not seen any white poop on him yet. What should i have used??

[Eddie]

I thought he had worms by the white stringy poop he had. One of the others is acting more shy than he used to . I have not seen any white poop on him yet. What should i have used??

White poop can be any number of things, its basically an intestinal issue. Its impossible to be 100% accurate at guessing what internal issues are affecting the fish. One very effective method is by viewing fresh feces under a microscope to check for worms or flagallates. An issue that you cannot detect by viewing feces under the scope, is bacterial.

One instance of white poo doesn't lead me to treat with anything. Simply change the diet and improve the environment to see if the fish will fight off the issue on its own. The ultimate goal in treating fish, is to not treat them at all. ;)

Eddie

[gsteve]

Thanks Eddie... i used to feed them mainly shrimp and bw till i read here i wasnt doing them any good , thought i was doing good by them:confused:. I now feed them mainly flake that everyone here reccomended. I notice one of mt rams sitting on the bottom too much now and his color is a lil off. Why is it the ones you like the most that are the hardest to keep happy????