My Discus is Dying Please Help

[legni08]

Hi all new to this forum there is lots of fantastic people here with excellent information so I am really hoping someone can please help me...

I have two discus in a small tank, recently the smaller of the two began changing colour, as I am new to discus I didn't think anything of it!

Now, it is a very dark colour and its not eating around 5 days... I have also noticed that other fish, Rummy Nose and cardinal tetras have a fungal infection white fury looking fungus around the mouth and fins?

I was told this was cotton mouth and to treat with Primafix (Pimenta racemosa) which i did for three days, but to no avail! Then read on this forum it was a big mistake so I stopped.

I went to the shop and the manager said to do the following!

1. Do a 20% water change and add three tables of triple-sulfa
(seems to be working ok, 1 day now and fish is lightening up)
2. Add 1 teaspoon of tropical water conditioner with contains salts per 20 ltrs.
3. Do 10% water changes over three days replacing salts
4. Slowly increase the PH to 6.5
5. Add O2 with air stone.

If the condition doesn't improve then use Aquari-Cycine tables which contain tetracycline hydrochloride. Remove plants!

I dont have a hospital tank like people talk about so I have just been treating in the same tank, here are the water specs...

Water
PH: 6.8
Ammonia: 0mg/L
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 10ppm
Tank Volume = 80 litres

I have darkened the tank and turned the light on for some photos, but the tank is starting to grow some white moss looking stuff around things, no dead fish in the tank!!

Anyway here are some photos..

http://www.bdirect.com.au/assets/fish/1.jpg

http://www.bdirect.com.au/assets/fish/3.jpg

http://www.bdirect.com.au/assets/fish/6.jpg

It is very thin because its not eating, I really do hope it pulls through how do I fix this problem! :?

[Merrilyn]

He's a very sick little fish.

Discus that age are the hardest of all to raise, and the first ones to stop eating, definately not recommended for someone new to discus.

How long has your tank been running? It sounds fairly new.

In an 80 litre tank, with discus, you would need to be doing 20% water changes each and every day to raise juvenile fish. Discus need really clean water, and juvenile discus need the cleanest water of all.

I go along with all the things the aquarium shop manager has recommended, except perhaps the aquarium salts, but that depends on where you come from, and what your local water is like.

Start with the tri sulphun and see what effect it has. If you have to go to tetracycline, remember that it will kill off your bio filtration too. Tetracycline kills both good and bad bacteria, so you would need to start recycling your tank again, which would cause a huge amount of stress to your fish, that's why we recommend a hospital tank. Doesn't need to be another tank, even a big plastic tub will do, so long as you can keep it warm and you use an airstone in there.

The mouth fungus is pretty serious too. If not stopped it can eat away at the whole mouth parts of the fish.

What sort of filtration are you using, and what temp are you running the tank. Juvenile discus need it very warm, around 30 degrees C.

[samir]

you can treat it in a bucket with a heater and airstone, if you don't have a hospital tank. whereabouts are you ??

[legni08]

thank you so much...

yes I have had the tank for around three years, its all well balanced I would say very little to no fish loss over that period!

I have the temperature set to 30 and the water is from Sydney, however I have noticed the colour has been slightly green over the past month, this is when the infection began.

I am feeding them a mixture of fresh and frozen blood worms and flake, is this any good.

I have a whisper 70 filter and in tank BIO filter

Should I remove the three infected fish with this as it hasn't spread?

Ok I will start with the 20% changes tomorrow, what can I do to get it eating again?

thanks again...

[legni08]

I just feed them some flake and he started eating in little bits and the going back to the corner! Woohoo maybe getting better!

I have setup the bucket with a spare heater and air stone, tomorrow if he is still looking black I will move into there then hit him with the Tetracycline.

Thanks keep ya posted.

[samir]

.will they eat beefheart ? If you can drop by, I could give you a bit of beefheart mix that will probably fix them. not sure about the tetras.
can you drop the ph lower to say 6 ? and try the tri sulfa first. tetracycline is a rotten good for nothing drug.

[legni08]

Thanks heaps, can I get it from a pet shop? If not is there a recipe that I can use, I think he is getting better its 3am and he is swimming around better now!

Found it:

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1013

[legni08]

ok so I made up the food like Matt posted, only thing I couldnt get was the colour enhancer so, orr well next time!

I cut a few pieces off and they are sitting at the bottom, but not touching it! Is there a trick in feeding discus?

Cheers,

[samir]

oh... my mix has something "extra" in it :shock: . your fish is way past it, you need to treat with metronidazole and deworm with levimasole. It should start eating in a couple of days, if you do it right. It will take a couple of months for that fish to come back. I'd just give it a 24hr levimasole/prazi/metro treatment, together.

Unfortunately the fish will always be runted. Once they are at that stage its very hard to grow them back. Probably better to start over.

If you're starting off with discus, its better to keep them in a bare bottom tank and do the regular wc's Merrilyn mentioned. Your water has to be ammonia and nitrite free and there must be no bullying. The longer you leave things the harder it is to treat. Its best to have them in a group of at least 5.

[legni08]

thanks heaps..

Well he died :-( very sad for the guy, he was fighting for hours and I felt really helpless!!

Anyway, I have one left for now which looks great! Anything I should look out for with this one?

Cheers...

Nigel

[mistakes r crucial]

If the budget will stand it buy some more, Discus don't do well on their own, they're a schooling fish. If you do buy more quarantine them, it's a must.
MAC

[ILLUSN]

Hey samir can you please post up your combined metro,prazi and levimenisole treatment?

I'm looking more and more at wild caught heckels and i think thats something I'll need to know for when i get them.

[samir]

wouldn't try that with heckels or any valuable fish. If they're razor thin and on the verge of dying then maybe.
if you get heckels from Bayfish ask the lfs if you can pick them up when they arrive, in their bags. put them in a small tank that is sterile and treat them with metro (I prefer the old dose,500mg/40l every 12 hours for 3 days) and ph of 5-5.5. After a day or so they will start eating everything. Then prazi treatments, thrice, every 72 hours. Then do your levimasole. When they are clean move them to another tank (properly cycled) It will take them a day to settle if your water is okay.

they are very aggressive so you may have trouble if you get a small number, otherwise they are not at all hard to keep.