confused over plague and flukes, plz help

[arjones]

I have kept 3 discus successfully for 6 months, however when i visited my LFS i saw a beautiful pink pigeon blood that i just had to have. 2 days later my weakest discus died with no visible symptoms on any of my fish.
At first i thought it was a coincidence but another 2 days later my weakest angel died and my discus went very dark and there slime coat started to come off. They flciked their fins and hid which are all signs of discus plague which i was pretty sure it was. However today( a week later after introducing my new discus) I went back to the shop to speak to them about giving me the plague to find 3 of their discus tanks with the same syptoms as mine and of course removed from sale. I spoke to the manager who claimed to have done a skin scrape and said it was flukes(causing the sympotms) and he had dipped them in potassium permangaate which was working well. He wouldn't give me any of his permanganate and couldn't sell me any either so i have used wormer plus which claims to get rid of flukes but am not sure if flukes can cause these symptoms or if it is the plague. None of my fish were ever holding one of their gills shut or breathing particuarly rapidly so am confused over diagnosis.
Any help or comments is appreciated thnx

[arjones]

also i am feeding them bloodworms as part of their diet is this bad, i don't want to make the situation worse by feeding them bloodworms but my remaining two discus won't really eat anything else at the moment and i want to keep their strength up to fight whatever it is they have got.

[samir]

you will nearly always find a greater amount of flukes when your discus are very sick. adult discus don't drop dead from gill flukes. they are probably trying to shake off all that excess slime in their gills.

if you can get your hands on potassium permanganate, give them a 10mg/l 30 minute bath or as soon as the first one starts facing upwards, but never more than 30 minutes. Then transfer them to a clean tank.

metronidazole 1000mg per 40 litres every 8 hours will completely treat "discus plague" within 24-48 hours. If you catch it fast and do the above then it will only be a minor inconvenience with zero fatalities.

[arjones]

I can't really get hold of metro cos i don't have a fish friendly vet near me and my fish probably won't survive the journey.

If i get potassium permanganate will that save them from plague(if it is that)?

how long should it take them to recover and how long before i should re-stock?

[samir]

give them the PP bath, but keep a close eye on them, then move them to a clean tank, change water everyday, lower the ph to 5. keep the water as clean as possible. aerate heavily at all times (especially the PP bath)

you can use tetracycline for 10 days after the PP bath and dont forget to cover the tank, also be very accurate with the PP dosage.

[arjones]

where would i get tetracycline from? what dosage wuld that be and can it go straight into the aquarium?

[arjones]

I've actually found some metro tablets that were prescribed for my dad as antibiotics(i think) they're only a few months old so can i use them to treat my discus? Shall i do it in a bucket like u would a pp dip if so how long?

[ILLUSN]

metro wont help with gill flukes! dont waste the tablets, save them for when you have hex.