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Chaotica
04-24-2011, 11:00 AM
DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

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

Ok this is how it goes, i have a 100gallon tank , there was already 3 wild blue discus in it perfectly healthy.
1 week ago i got 4 heckel discus from a friend because he sold his aquarium.
All seemed to be fine except the 4th day the biggest heckel starting acting crazy
out of the blue 2-3 times per day he will go crazy and run into the glass , on the woods etc etc




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)

Running around like crazy, No scratching , No fast breathing, his fins are always errupted, the fish seems healthy except when he goes berserk.
he seems a bit restlessly like smthing is wrong but i cant tell for sure what is going on.
last 2 days i havent seen him eat , he runs towards the food but i noticed he doesnt eat( i ll monitor it with bloodworms later )







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

Some salt for the stress and scratched like 1gr / 10L
and a mild medicine cold Bacteria Control - Beaphar for the scratches to prevent further damage.





Tank/Water

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish
100g - 400L , runs with wild from january, 7 semi adult discus ( 4heckel , 3 blue ) 10-16cm



5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?
2-3 times / week
Biotope style , sand / wood
i dont age water, i use R/o



6 Parameters and water source;

- temp 30 C

- ph 4.8
- ammonia reading 0

- nitrite reading ____

- nitrate reading 5

- well water ____

- municipal water ____

Adding peat to the water

7. Any new fish/plants added recently

my qyestion is , what is my course of action here, i suspect internal worms or something but cant say for sure... the fish are new to the tank altho the other 3 heckels and 3 blues seem perfectly fine

Something else to add, i ve used carbon before adding the med when i saw him go nuts the 1st time just in case smthing was in the water, nothing changed !

jimg
04-24-2011, 11:06 AM
I don't know what beaphar is but some meds/treatments can burn them if they have open wounds. Double check all water parameters keep light salt dose and clean water only see how it goes.

Chaotica
04-24-2011, 11:13 AM
i dont think that the med is burning him cause he doesnt have open wounds, some scratches but nothing severe.
the med contains Formaldehyde 43.2g/l , sodium chloride, magnesium sulphate and allantion. so i dont think thats the problem : /
also he shows his stress bars more than the others , something is wrong but i cant put my finger to it yet !!

brewmaster15
04-24-2011, 11:34 AM
Are these darting episodes after a water change? I've noted Heckels can be very sensitive to dissolved gases ...I believe the "micro bubbles" irritate their gills.

If no correlation with water changes...then its possibly a case of Flukes or other parasite and most likely IME to be on the Gills.

You may want to try a course of Formalin...dosed every other day for a total of 5 treatments... Do daily water changes and dose after the wc. ( you can use Formalin malachite green (quick cure) for the first and second dose...but not all 5)

See if this makes a difference in the behavior.

hth,
al

Chaotica
04-24-2011, 11:42 AM
well the 1st episode of darting happened some hours after the 2nd water change i performed, altho it happened and the next 48h since that but....
altho i cant catch the guy now to put him on quarantine cause i ll make a mess with the wood and stuff, i ll have to treat the whole tank.
i ll wait for some days with the next water change and see what happens !
if something else comes to mind, plz do share !
thanks in advance :)

Chaotica
04-25-2011, 08:37 AM
update : its not related to the water changes UNFORTUNATLY : ( today it woke me up from the hitting on the glass and the splashes , so what medicines should i get just in case it doesnt stop , one is Quick Cure as brewmaster recomended
Any other advise will be really appreciated , since i cant move him to Quarantine, i cant just started shooting meds in the main tank : /

brewmaster15
04-25-2011, 09:53 AM
Formalin when used as directed is a pretty safe medication... and if you are going under the assumption that this is an external parasite...Its a fairly safe bet, all discus in the tank now have this parasite to some degree..so treating the tank is best...

If you use quick cure, it may stain your wood and filter material, straight formalin is clear and will not affect it.

another option is parasite clear tabs by jungle....(make sure the tank is well aerated) or any medications containing Trichlorfon (meds like "clout".)

My first suggestion is formalin.

hth,
al

Chaotica
04-25-2011, 10:15 AM
thank you for your suggestion and time , really appreciate it !! the fact that the other fish do not show the same sympoms could in fact be the proof that this is not external parasite but smthing else ?

also i ve used a med with formaldehyde in it , shoundnt that have the same effect with formalyn or did i understood smthing wrong ?

well , update : Another one started the same symptoms now ... good for me for getting new fish... : /

brewmaster15
04-27-2011, 01:15 PM
Formalin is basically Formaldehyde..... :)

Chaotica
04-28-2011, 04:44 AM
quick update : formaldehyde didnt seem to work, after 2 treatments and the fish kept doing their crazy stuff. yesterday tried a med with green malachite, as it seems it worked !

Eddie
04-28-2011, 04:47 AM
quick update : formaldehyde didnt seem to work, after 2 treatments and the fish kept doing their crazy stuff. yesterday tried a med with green malachite, as it seems it worked !

Which one exactly?


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Chaotica
04-28-2011, 05:24 AM
the one with formaldehyde is called Bacteria control from Baephar . Ingredients : Formaldehyde 43.2g/l , sodium chloride, magnesium sulphate and allantion.
the other with green malachite is also from Baephar called White spot control. Ingredients: Green Malachite 0.44g/l , Actiflavine 0,06g/l , magnesium sulphate 0,04g/l .