discus is dying

[roxey64]

:oops: please help but my discus is showing signs of dying first off i have had him about 3 years he is about 7 inches in size and i have added afew other small discus to the tank over a small period of time but the tank will take them as it is a big tank
all water is fine eg: annonia nitrate nitrite and the others but he seamed to nose dive at first, just having his face in the sand all the time with his tail in the air and not been able to get up strieght.
i put him in a hospital tank on his own and after 4 days he has seamed to lost all control he just lies on the bottom and only move the two small fins on the side of his head which is pittyful to see and help would be greatly welcome

[riverlanddiscus]

Hi, Only relatively new to this, but you probably need to give the parameters for the hospital tank. Are you doing water changes? How much? Any probs I have had has been solved with large water changes.
Hope someone with more info answers soon.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Roxy, I'm so sorry to hear that.

Unfortunately it's a story we hear all too often. It sounds very much like your new fish have brought with them some kind of disease, that although they may be immune and show no signs, it hasd been passed onto your older fish, and he didn't have any immunity to whatever it may have been.

Did you quarantine your new fish before you put them into the main tank? Are they now showing any signs of problems, or are they all looking healthy?

Best thing you can do at the moment, is just to keep the water changes up in the hospital tank, and make sure it's warm, at least 30 degrees Celcius, and add an airstone and 1 level teaspoon of cooking salt per 40 litres of aquarium water, to aid with breathing.

I hope he pulls through, but I think you should prepare yourself for the worst. Sorry.

[ILLUSN]

We do see this a lot, and it is such a shame, maybe it's time for a sticky on quarentine procedures for new fish, would save alot of people alot of greif.