Help, I dont wanna lose another

[dam-mad]

Firstly I am one of those discus owners that will make everyone cringe as I bought a fish tank seen some nice Discus and bought not knowing or reserching anything, this was over six months ago. Since I have learned a little but not much. As per my earlier post I lost my first discus on Saturday and have grave concerns for another. My PH is 7.5, GH 120, amonia 0. I use Discus buffer and peat to try and get softer water as my tap water here is very hard.

I have smaller dicus who has gone very dark and sulks alone in one corner of the tank, it does nervously come out to eat. It still had bright eyes up til today and now has very dark eyes as well. On saturday I treated my tank with a good dose of salt and melafix bit this has not improved my poor discus. The tank is a 400 litre Jebo and now hold 11 discus, two clown loaches, black ghost, and four rainbow fish.

Please can anyone recomend a course of action or shed some light on whats wrong.

I have now fallen under the discus spell and want to master the art of keeping and breeding discus!

[Merrilyn]

Hi Dean, first thing I'm going to suggest is a big water change. I've never found Melafix to do anything for discus. Works on other fish, but it must be something to do with the peculiar slime coat discus have. Anyway, don't bother to use it on discus any more. Causes more problems than it cures.

I think you mentioned in another post that you had aquarium salt. Is that the salt that you used? It's not the same as cooking salt, which is what we use for treating fish.

Aquarium salt contains salts and minerals to make the water harder, and you certainly don't need that.

Okay, so a big waterchange today, another one tomorrow and turn your temperature up a bit, to around 32 for a week or so.

Watch your fish closely for a few days, and if you notice any symptoms like flicking against objects or white jelly like droppings, then let us know immediately.

For the moment I'm going to recommend daily water changes, warmth and nutritious food and observation.

Discus have a strong constitution. Give them very clean water and warmth, and they will often recover without any medication.

Keep us posted on how your fish are looking after the water changes.

[dam-mad]

Thank you very much Merrlyn, Did a 50% water change on Sunday but will do another change tonight. I will also be shopping for some cooking salt although I have never heard of cooking salt, lets hope woolies sells it.

Thanks again, I realy appreciate you taking the time to respond, thank you

[Greggy]

Yep Merrilyn (aka Ladyred) is 100% correct as usual...

Daily 50% water changes should be the order of the day, as some one clever once said "There are not many fish keeping problems that frequent water changes won't fix".

Also, I'm not sure about the BGK in the tank with your Discus. Yes they look and act cool but they are also not a good tankmate for Discus (in my humble opinion anyway).

Good luck and keep us posted.

Regards,

Greggy

[dam-mad]

There has been a little flicking against filter pipe and gravel? also all the fish seem to be slightly more agresive than normal.

[dam-mad]

Thanks Greggy, Will be doing daily water changes for awhile.

I have some cooking salt, what dosage should be used?

Your help is much appreciated

[zar]

If its not aquarium peat, but peat from a nuresery make sure its organic, with no other matters in it. for now i would take it out. 120ppm wont kill your discus, or make them behave like they do now in your tank.
Merrilyn, with cooking salt, do you mean rock salt?
i'm still confused as to which salts can be used for treating discus...i thought only rock salt should be used...

[ILLUSN]

rock salt or evaporated sea salt is best. table salt has additiives to stop it clumping and shouldn't be used. cooking salt that isnt "easy pour" will also be ok.

[dam-mad]

The peat I use is JBL aquarium peat in pellet form..

One the four rainbows died this morning, whish I knew what to do

[ILLUSN]

ok try some activated carbon in your filter, if there is a water quality problem like copper or other heavy metal that will take care of it.

also try a tripple dose of dechlorinater with your water change and make sure it detoxifies chloroamine in addition to chlorine.

[ozarowana]

Your water is fine, I wouldn't add any buffers or anything apart from a dechlorinator if you have chlorine or chloramines. 120ppm isn't very hard at all.

I personally think it's case of gill flukes, the fish will go dark, lose appetite, scratch occasionally and may develop a bacterial gill infection. Older fish handle flukes better than young. I also believe high fluke populations are usually a precursor to hex.

I would treat for flukes over a couple of weeks and let your tank settle.

[dam-mad]

One of my discus now has what look like a small fat worm that looks like is passing through it's top fin, small white and fat.. This might give a clue as to what is happening,, any ideas?

[Merrilyn]

Rock salt, cooking salt, kosher salt, is all pretty much the same thing. What we want is the plain unprocessed salt, not the stuff called table salt which is fine and has corn flour added to make it flow more easily.

Cooking salt is usually larger crystals. The initial dose is 1 heap teaspoon per 40 litres of water with a second heap teaspoon per 40 litres added on the second day, and maintain that level.

The white worm like thing sounds like the start of hole in the head, or hex as it is also known.

Can you possibly manage to get a picture of your fish. It would really help.

Keep up the daily water changes, but in the meantime ring your vet and see if he will prescribe some metro or flagyl for you. There is a very informative sticky in this section about Hole in the Head or HLLE with the correct dosage listed.