Discus Black Help - URGENT

[STULIE]

Introduced five new Discus to tank two weeks ago. 1 is fine and eating and active. Two are very very dark black all over, wont eat anything, have a slime on them and are sort of floating on their sides alot. Two have already died.

Water is good, ph, gh, kh temp etc etc. All teseted fine.

Also in the tank are various smaller fish eg neon.

Should we remove the two black Discus to another tank?

Any ideas of a cause or solution for this????

HELP PLEASE

[scott bowler]

sounds like you have a real prob , i would lower your ph to 5.5 or lower if you can , put more air in to the tank , get some metro if you can ,

[scott bowler]

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4766
read this topic this might be close to what you have if its not , but it sounds like it to me

[ILLUSN]

Did you quarentine the fish before you added them?

Scott's on the money, treat for plague.

Good luck

[STULIE]

Thanks for the advice.

No he didn't quarentine before adding the main tank, he wasn't aware he should? Will be looking into that more now.

Will start treatments tonight and cross all our fingers and toes.

[STULIE]

Set up tank as directed and moved the sick discus to it last night, they seemed a little better almost immediately but still obviuosly very sick.

One ate a little last night which was great. Following the advice to the tea and hoping for the best.

Thanks for your help everyone.

[scott bowler]

hope it all works out for you STULIE, the will not get it again if they get over this , that is why some get sick and some dont , its nasty good luck

[Merrilyn]

Good luck STULIE.

How are they looking tonight?

[STULIE]

YEAH THEY SEEM TO BE DOING OK, THE BLACK HAS FADED AND THEY ARE GETTING SOME OF THEIR BLUE/GREEN COLOUR BACK. THEY ARE SWIMMING UPRIGHT AGAIN AND GENERALLY SEEM PRETTY GOOD. wE ARE KEEPING UP WITH THE WATER CHANGES AND MEDICATION / SALT AS ADVISED AND FINGERS CROSSED WE HAVE GOT ON TOP OF IT IN TIME FOR THESE TWO.

[STULIE]

Still doing ok, both are eating now which is great, the smaller Discus has his fins back up tall again and we can tell he's well and truely on the mend, the other is flollowing a little more slowly but seems to be heading in the right direction.

Thank you so much to everyone who offered advice and support, we appreciate it no end.

I have passed along all the info to my local aquarium store also as he had never heard of this before.

Thanks Again.

[Merrilyn]

Glad they're looking better Stulie.

Plague can be pretty nasty. Once they recover, they can't get it again, but leave it for at least 6 months before you introduce any new discus. Your existing fish can still be carriers, even tho they seem fully recovered.

[STULIE]

After all the time and effort trying to pull these two fish through this plague, which we were winning by the way they were almost looking and behaving normally again, Friday night the larger discus jumped clean out of the tank, noticed missing in the morning and found dead on a basket of washing two foot away from the tank. That was sad enough then yesterday the other one did the same, this time we were lucky in that we spotted it and seem to have been able to save it. We have now put lids back on the tank. Seems something must have scared them ????

[Merrilyn]

Oh no ! Stulie that's rotten luck, especially when you were doing so well with them.

Discus do jump, it's a known fact. The reasons can be many and varied, that's why we recommend lids on all discus tanks.

Hope the smaller guy continues to recover.

[STULIE]

Oh ok thanks, We don't have lids due to the planted tank, co2 and lighting system.

Just told Hubby, looks like he may just be getting his new discus tank afterall.

[STULIE]

Good News we have been able to pull the one discus through both the plague and the jumping out of the tank eppisode. She/he is now healthy, happy and recovered. Thanks to everyone who offered advice and support if not for you all I'm sure we would have lost them all.