flukes + worms need advice :S

[ryry26]

stated with 4 discus (1inch) 3mnts ago (now 2.5in) added a new one (3.5inch) last week as was having a lot of bulling calmed them down, the new discus has not eaten since the day i got him (9 days ago) well turns out he had gill fukes and worms has been passed on to all bar one of the original discus. found that out 3 days ago yesterday treated them with aquamaster fluke and worm and a little salt on monday, (done a 25% water change as per directions after 48HRS, lost one this morning had to put him down had no energy left stuck on the intake tube of the HOB filter with clamp fins and black and had not eaten in 4 days ... all the rest of the discus are still "itching" there gills on anything they can in the tank the 3.5inch new discus sits up the top of the tank alone next to the heater never moves now has a very pinched belly. only the big discus and the one that i had to put to sleep had worms.
Now only 2 are eating a small BD looks very very ill now clamped fins and sitting on the bottom of the tank not eating now for 2 days.
4 ft tank with AC 70 & canister 800L/HR ( on 3ft spay bar) and 4 air stones
30deg water temp PH @ 7.2 (never had any swings), ammonia @ 0 nitrite @ 0 and Nitrate @ 0 (fully cycled B4 adding discus, i have always done a 75% water change once a week and 25% daily running bare bottom tank kept near spotless get a mix tetra gold, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, beef heart frozen. kinda at a loss of what to do next have had fish for many years my 1ST discus tank any advice would be very much welcomed!

[TURQ64]

PP or anti fluke is about all I can suggest....

[ryry26]

Thanks alot will ring the big family run LFS in the city and see if they have any PP as a last resort treatment. used 12 X 100mg praziquantel tables from the close by small LFS. would a large water change before PP be a wise idea?

[TURQ64]

Yep, change the water first..It's a short treatment; you'll have better luck finding it at a hardware store..It's for charging iron filters in homes...

[ryry26]

thanks heaps mate! getting close to bed time just had a check on the discus BD looking even worse hope he hangs on till the morning! got 50g of water ageing already glad for the quick reply so i can drop the heater in the water over nite and be fully ready 7hrs till stores open gonna be a long sleepless nite

[Maria Ashton]

would love to know how you get on, I need to treat my 13 discus for worms but having just treated for hole in the head (sucessfullly) I am letting them recover and the filter re-cycle. I am not sure if I should take the discus out in batches to treat in a separate hospital tank of 80L or just treat all of them in the main tank which has other fish - thoughts? I wonder if returning a wormed fish to a tank where others have worms will mean those treated fish get re-infected?

[ryry26]

well i'd treat them all for worms, discus tank and the other tanks i had incase was a bad batch of frozen blood worms. i only knew 2 of my discus had worms in them for sure but was not going to chance it, as for the filter re cycle if u have another tank thats healthy ( lucky i got 4 tanks) just use some media from those filters to speed things along with your discus tank re cycle. id give the discus 7 days at least after treating the Hole in the head and then treat, i will let you know how i go with my guys....

[Maria Ashton]

thanks, good luck - know what its like to have sleepless nights over these fish

[Sasha]

Would you all agree that the Hikari brand of frozen blood worms are "reliably safe"? They claim that they are free of parasites, but I have no idea how comprehensive their quality control is. Thoughts?

[Maria Ashton]

Sasha - I have read much the same from various posts on forums but have no personal experience, I think in general all frozen and or dried food is safe but I might be wrong. I also think the more expensive brands are a better bet. My understanding is that there are always some form of potential parasite present in your water, healthy adult and juvenile fish have a strong immune system and are less likely to be susceptible to worms. Any stress will lower a fish's immune system and make them prone to sickness.

[Sasha]

stated with 4 discus (1inch) 3mnts ago (now 2.5in) added a new one (3.5inch) last week as was having a lot of bulling calmed them down, the new discus has not eaten since the day i got him (9 days ago) well turns out he had gill fukes and worms has been passed on to all bar one of the original discus. found that out 3 days ago yesterday treated them with aquamaster fluke and worm and a little salt on monday, (done a 25% water change as per directions after 48HRS, lost one this morning had to put him down had no energy left stuck on the intake tube of the HOB filter with clamp fins and black and had not eaten in 4 days ... all the rest of the discus are still "itching" there gills on anything they can in the tank the 3.5inch new discus sits up the top of the tank alone next to the heater never moves now has a very pinched belly. only the big discus and the one that i had to put to sleep had worms.
Now only 2 are eating a small BD looks very very ill now clamped fins and sitting on the bottom of the tank not eating now for 2 days.
4 ft tank with AC 70 & canister 800L/HR ( on 3ft spay bar) and 4 air stones
30deg water temp PH @ 7.2 (never had any swings), ammonia @ 0 nitrite @ 0 and Nitrate @ 0 (fully cycled B4 adding discus, i have always done a 75% water change once a week and 25% daily running bare bottom tank kept near spotless get a mix tetra gold, frozen brine shrimp, frozen blood worms, beef heart frozen. kinda at a loss of what to do next have had fish for many years my 1ST discus tank any advice would be very much welcomed!

So how are things going? Did the PP treatment help?

[Maria Ashton]

Hi both thought you might be interested in this which I read both on here and another forum re foods for discus to minimise the chance of parasites, its from Andrew Soh's book The Naked Truth. Section b

http://forum.bidka.org/showthread.php?t=1911

basically says you should feed food that has been cooked and or non freshwater live and dried food

reiterated here on this forum thread post #340, page 24

http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showthread.php?87723-Very-Suddenly-Sick/page23&highlight=very+suddenly+sick

when you get the chance worth reading through both as shares a lot of valuable info about treating sick discus too

Maria