Sick discus?

[Tommy75]

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice because I think one of my discus may be sick, and I'm not sure what to do next.

Tank setup:

• 210g bare-bottom display with a 50g sump
• A couple of potted Amazon swords, with Anubias attached to wood and rocks
• Water parameters: Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: <10 ppm, pH: 7.8, Temperature: 84°F
• My water goes through a water softener (unfortunately, that's not something I can avoid).

Stock:

• 8 discus (all around 4")
• 40 cardinal and rummynose tetras
• 2 small bristlenose plecos
• 4 juvenile Boesemani rainbows

All of the fish look healthy except for one red discus. I bought the discus and other fishes from local stores about 6 weeks ago. They all settled in well except for the two red discus. One died, and the other is the one I'm asking about.

Most of the time it stays at the back of the tank and doesn't swim around much. I haven't seen it flashing, darting, or rubbing against anything. It does come to the front when I feed the tank, but it doesn't actually eat. Its fins also seem clamped, as you can see in pictures 1–3. Picture 4 shows one of my healthy blue discus for comparison, and the rest of my discus behave and look like the blue one.

Does this look like a specific illness, or could it just be stress? What would you recommend as the next steps?

[jeep]

Did you QT the new fish? Without knowing more, I would probably move the discus to a hospital tank and run it through a heat treatment, raising the temp a few degrees over several days to 93 for 10-14 days. You could also administer metro at this time. Hex is a possibility as it does look stressed and hex can easily take a stressed discus over. I would keep up with daily water changes as well.

[Tommy75]

thank you, what details can i help you with to help figure out more?
this is a new tank that was setup with seeded media from other tanks and all the fishes were QT by the seller and went into the tank directly.

[brewmaster15]

Tommy, to me it looks the fish is fighting something internally. I would do as Brian suggests though depending on how the fish is behaving I may just jump right to metronidazole. Hospital tanks are best for these issues, but metro can be used on the whole tank. 500mg/10 gals..
10days ,dosing after large water change. If you need metro..try Jehmco.com for pure metro.. avoid seachem., it's over priced and not pure

[Tommy75]

Thank you jeep brewmaster15 !! hospital tank setup as suggested

[Tommy75]

Another not so smart question!
I added a seeded sponge filter to 10g hospital tank as always, is a sponge filter even needed if i am doing 80-90% daily water change or just an air stone is good?

[LizStreithorst]

It's not really necessary, but it can't hurt.

[danotaylor]

Tommy if you’re anything like me I would use the seeded sponge filter. Whilst having every good intention to do a daily 80 to 90% water change, I might miss a day or two or even three in the busyness of my usual routines. Any level of ammonia or nitrite present is going to significantly impact the recovery of your fish. The seeded filter means the only metabolite that will be present is nitrate and so missing a few of your planned daily water changes each week is not going to actually create a scenario that harms the fish further.

[Tommy75]

Thanks, Daniel and Liz! That's exactly why I keep a sponge filter running in my tank. A breeder friend recently suggested removing it, noting that since metronidazole technically shouldn’t harm beneficial bacteria, the filter isn't strictly necessary with daily water changes. However, I’ve decided to keep it running in the tank anyway for extra safety...