Eratic behaviour causing damage...

[valkyrie]

Hi all,

Hope all had a great christmas, my problem is about 4 months ago I purchased 2 juvenile ss, I quarantined them for 6 weeks then added another discus from my community tank in with them for another 4 weeks to make sure nobody had any problems.

They are growing well and have been put in with other discus their are 5 in the tank at the moment, but these 2 discus have never settled, they eat well enough but always hide and one in particular keeps smashing into things, (which caused me to have to take all removable objects out of the tank) spooking the other discus and doing damage to itself including bruising, taking a piece of fin off and most recently taking a large piece out of its side.

My question is what could be causing this, I have seen it occasionally rubbing up against the filter tube.

These discus are 8 months old.

I am doing 70% water changes every second day and on the other days replacing about 20% water vacumning the tank so it is kept very clean. I use aged heated water treated with prime. Ph is 6.2, temp 30 degrees C, amm. 0, nitrate, 0 nitrite, 0. Any ideas would be very much appreciated as I have never had such a nervous, self descructive discus before.

Pictures of damage attached.

http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/valkyrie-01/IMG_0707.jpg
http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd48/valkyrie-01/IMG_0720.jpg

[ILLUSN]

if its rubbing against the filter tube it might be flukes, try a pp dip with them or a treatment with prazi.

[valkyrie]

ILLUSN

what is a PP dip???

Cheers

[ILLUSN]

pp is potasium permangenate, its a strong oxidative agent, its extreamly effective against exo paracites.

you can buy it from chemists, just ask at the counter.

be carefull with it too low its useless, too high it will kill your fish, i use 10mg/L for about 10 min or untill the fish shows distress.

[valkyrie]

Illusn

Thanks for the information I will try that as a last resort. I have treated the tank with prazi today and will wait and see if it is successful. If not and the fish is still rubbing against things I will try the dip. How long would you suggest between treatments?

Thanks again.

Cheers

[ILLUSN]

pp is good mthat once you do the dip you can repeat as soonas the slime coat re generates itself (usually 3-4 days).
If your using prazi make sure you do the repeat dose after on week, the fish may also need another 1 or 2 treatments as flukes are becoming resistant to the drug.

[valkyrie]

Illusn

Thanks, I will treat again before we go away. Also the prazi treatment says on the second day a 25% water change can be done. When can I go back to my normal WC routine of 70% every second day with a vacumn on the other days. And how long does the Prazi active in the water.

Cheers