discus turned brown & very skinny

[Tab]

Our red turquoise discus has been looking bad for approx 2 weeks. It has steadily turned from bright colors to dull brown/dark grey and gotten darker by the day. It is also very skinny. It is still eating (blood worms, discus flakes, Discus gold). When it tries to feed it can't seem to keep its balance and floats sideways. I would have bet $ that it was 20 min from dying yesterday morning by the way it looked and acted (floating on its side, very listless) but it is still alive 1 1/2 days later. As of yesterday it also has a white substance on it's lower fin. The local discus dealer will not help b/c we did not buy it from her. Tank mates are all fine-no problems. Ph, etc are normal. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks!

[riverlanddiscus]

Hi, I am only new to this but know that the experts will ask you for all of your parameters - ph,kh, temp,ammonia, etc. When was the last time you did a water change?

Thye are very helpful here and I'm sure one of the pros will be here soon.

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum tab.

As riverlanddiscus has mentioned, we do need to know your water parameters, as well, you say the fish is still eating. Are his droppings normal, or are they white and jelly like.

A picture may help too.

[Tab]

The pH is around 6.7, Nitrate under 20 (ppm), water is soft around 75 (ppm), no chlorine. Ammonia is very slight, about 0.2 From all water tests everything seems fine. The other Discus is colorful & healthy. Temp yesterday when I checked was 81.7 F. Haven't seen it's poop, so not sure. I saw it eat a bloodworm this morning. It seems pretty weak, has a hard time getting food unless it is right in front of it. It is just a dark brown color all over. Could it be just dying of old age?

[ILLUSN]

Discus will live for over 13 years, at least dads oldest are over 13.

sounds like an internal paracite to me, when was the last time you wormed them?

if its still eating try and get some beefheart into him, if you can try mixing in some kind of antiparacite treament (prazi, levimenisole).

give the tank Daily water changes of atleast 30% you have to get your ammonia down to zero, if you can give the fish perfect water quality it will have a much better chance, the best thing to do would be remove the fish to a hospital tank so as what ever is effecting it does not get to the other fish.

[samir]

and get rid of the very slight ammonia.

[Tab]

Okay. Thanks for the advice. Have moved it to a hospital tank & have started internal parasite meds. Will work on slight ammonia in tank too.

Tab & Stehlin

[JoeDiscus85]

howd it turn out?

[Tab]

Sorry for the delayed response....

The Discus died that night. You guys were probably right about internal parasites, I'm guessing we just didn't get to it fast enough with the meds.

[ILLUSN]

Sorry to hear that mate.

[JoeDiscus85]

sorry man