Lost Two Blue Diamonds Today

[Discmaniac]

Does anyone have any ideas on what killed my fish?

I had four Discus (two now). Three in a 29g tank and had one BD in a 10g hospital tank. The BD in the hospital tank was being treated for internal parasites since it quit eating a few weeks ago. It died this AM. I found it swimming upside down so I put it out of its misery.

Yesterday I noticed the other of my Blue Diamonds hanging at the back of the 29g tank. It looked like it was constipated (big feces stuck) so I did a treatment of Epsom salts @ 2 tsp/10 gallons of water after a 33% wc. The fish was doing better and ate like a pig that evening.

Then, this AM I noticed it breathing really hard, but not the other two which are Turquoise. I did a 50% WC and fed them when they calmed down. The BD didin't eat at all so I tried another Epsom salt treatment. About an hour ago I came downstairs and noticed this fish swimming all over the place upside down, right side up and gasping for air the whole time.

I checked the water and all is ok.

What kind of illness could hit so suddenly? I've been feeding the same food to them for months with no problems except for the one that was in the hospital tank which just stopped eating.

Could it be the food? I feed frozen bloodworms and live blackworms that are rinsed every day. I have a feeling that even with judicious rinsing that the blackworms from the LFS could harbor pathogens. Any ideas?

I do 33% WC's every day with aged, aerated RO water reconstituted w/RO right.


Your ideas will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bill :'(

[Carol_Roberts]

Sometimes it's really hard to determine cause of death. It could have been an obstruction or a bacterial infection. What exactly do you feed? Have you brought nay new fish into the house?

[Discmaniac]

I feed frozen blood worms once a day and live black worms two or three times a day. I have not put any new fish in the tank.

This is quite the mystery huh?

Bill

[DISCUSDADDYSLC]

Sorry to hear that. I had one juvy that would eat itself sick and flaot around like it lost it's bearings. Did epsom and held it upright and got it back to norm. Cut it up and look for reasons DDSLC

[Ryan]

You could lose fish from overfeeding blackworms. When I first started feeding blackworms, I would just dump a bunch in. I assumed what didn't get eaten would just live on the bottom of the tank until the fish got hungry again.

It wasn't until later that I realized the fish wouldn't quit eating, even after they'd eaten more than their fair share. Then I mentioned it to a few people, and they all said discus would literally eat themselves to death on blackworms if I wasn't careful.

That's not necessarily what caused the death of your fish but I thought I would bring it up. There's also no doubt that blackworms could be potential carriers of some nasties if you don't get them from a clean, reliable source (that goes with ANY live food). If you wanted to be sure, I guess you could send a sample of the blackworms off to be analyzed.

Ryan

[kevster]

I have a blue diamond that passes feces that sometimes
are about 3/8 to 1/2 in wide. Sometimes I see the fish laying sideways
on the bottom of the tank with a huge s... coming out. Once the fish was swimming upside down trying to go. I have done the epson salts thing but it hasn't helped. I don't know why but after doing research I have seen a number of posts that say this does happen to blue diamonds. I know it doesn't help, just thought I let you know