Discus dying!

[sdg3972]

I have had my discus for about 7 months. Been through a few things with them in that time (a bout of ich when I received them, a bacterial infection) so I feel pretty good in my ability to take care of them. I do water changes twice a week.

I did a water change on monday evening. Everything seemed fine until last night. The fish were acting fine and eating until around 11pm. At that time I noticed they were all breathing at the water surface. Two of them were swimming on their side and looking bloated. I did a 50% water change then watched them a bit longer. The other fish stopped breathing at the surface but the 2 sick ones still looked bad. So I treated for bacterial infection. I stayed up for a few hours and the fish were actually looking better so I went to bed.

When I got up this morning one of the fish had died and the rest were gasping at the surface again. I did another water change, around 70% this time. This perked the remaining fish up and they looked good the rest of the morning.

I left the house for like 3 1/2 hours. When I came home THEY WERE ALL DEAD but 2 !!!!!! Thats 8 fish that died in 3 1/2 hours. I have 2 other fish in the tank that don't seem affected at this point. The 2 remaining discus are floating on their side and will die soon I am sure. I did another water change anyway.

What has happened??!? I am so sick right now. One of the remaining 2 looks perkier since the water change. A few of the dead ones looked bruised in their abdominal area so I'm wondering if they didn't have some internal bleeding.

The only thing new was I used Jungle Start Right as a water conditioner. I tested my water and pH, nitrites, etc were all normal.

[sammigold]

Hi sdg2972, Welcome to the forum. Sorry that it has to be under such sad circumstances.

You mention that the only thing different you did was use a new water conditioner... you may want to check whether that water conditioner rids the water of Chloramines as well as chlorine... If not, then I am afraid that your fish may have died from toxins in the water that your other conditioner was removing and that the new one hasn't.

Have you tried doing a water change with the same water conditioner that you usually use.

It sounds as if they have suffered some sort of toxic poisoning. (Nitrite poisoning has similar symptoms as do other toxins)

With the two remaining that have survived, you may like to try getting the water conditioner that you normally use and do a large (50-70%) water change add an airstone to help oxygen circulation and add salt (cooking or Kosher at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 40 litres. This will help the discus relax and enable them to process oxygen better and promote slime coat growth.

Note that if you have any catfish or scaless fish you will need to remove them and if your tank is heavily planted you may prefer to move your sick fish into a hospital tank and treat them separately as plants dont respond well to heavy useage of salt.

I would not treat them with any medications as I believe the cleaner you can get the water the better in this instance.

You may still be able to save them... this is of course assuming that it is the change of water conditioner that caused this.

I would like to add that due to all the large w/changes you will find that your tank will probably go through the cycling process again, so you will need to keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite levels once the main crisis is over.

Again, I am sorry that you lost so many fish... lets hope we can save the others.

[sdg3972]

Thanks so much for the reply. Sadly the last 2 died as well. That makes 9 discus that died in less than 24 hours. My new water conditioner does remove chloramine. Very weird that they would act better after the water changes then die or go downhill again so fast. This is a tank that has been established for a long time with no problems.

We have had a bad drought here in GA and in reading through the forum it makes me wonder if the water quality took a sudden dive this week or something.

Anyway, I appreciate your response and I am very saddened that my beautiful fish died :(

[sammigold]

I am so sorry, I know how devastating that would be...

all I can say is, don't let it stop you from starting again...

water conditions seem to be greatly affected by the drought. some councils add higher amounts of certain chemicals such as ammonia etc in order to "clean" the water for our consumption... so it is hard to know what the cause could be. But I believe that it definitely be something to do with the water....

anybody else have any ideas?

Where is GA? (pardon my ignorance)

[Merrilyn]

So sorry to hear of your loss.

It's especially tough to lose discus. We seem to form a special attachment with them.

Like Sammi, I too think it has something to do with your water quality, especially after you have been experiencing a drought.

It may be worth while to ring your local water board and ask if they have been adding anything new to the water.

[mistakes r crucial]

The only thing in my experience that sounds similar to that is a huge fluke invasion which had them lined up like ducks in a row at the top of the tank gasping for breath, heads up and bums down.

Sorry to hear you lost all your Discus SDG, I know how it feels, like crap is an understatement.
MAC

[Creedy976]

i had the same thing when i was hit with a big amonia spike.
all my fish at the top of the water gasping for air.
and after a big water change they would come good. then after a few hours they would be gasping again.
in the end i saved a couple of my fish but lost many.
but if it was anything like amonia you would as the water goes cloudy white.

and very sorry for your loss we all know how you feel.

[sdg3972]

GA is Georgia, USA hehe. Yea I am in shock really. They were such lovely fish, very friendly.

[sammigold]

there were lots of meanings I could think of for GA but Georgia wasnt one of them ;-)