Bouncing back internal parasite (pic)

[albatrozz]

One of my discus has an internal parasite that always comes back, it has come back twice now and i am wasting alot of med trying to get rid of it. This particular discus when i saw had the white poop, i straight away treated it with hex. Mixing the med with tetracolorbits. Hmmm... about 2 days of feeding it, with 4 feedings a day, the discus' poop returns back to red or black/brown. Then about 2 weeks later it poops white again, i do the exactly same thing. Once again i feed the medicated food until i see the poop back to normal. Now about 3 weeks after that it has yet again.... come back! I'm thinking of treating it again but might be starting to think that its gaining resistance. What do you guys recommend me doing?

[ozarowana]

What temp do you keep the tank at? How often and how much water gets changed? How long do you feed the medicated food for?

[zar]

Fish usually get hex outbreaks when they're under stress.
(i'm assuming your tank is cycled) Make sure you don't stress your fish, avoid sudden ph changes, do waterchanges with aged and correct temp water only, remove bullies from tank. Regular waterchanges are also very important.
From what i've read and done myself, metro should be fed for 5 days maybe 2 days is not long enough. Also, increasing the water temp to 34 degrees helps with metro.

[albatrozz]

Hmm maybe ill try medicating for 7 days instead of 5. Fish are'nt too stressed, gets daily WC's, alot of food and surprisingly he isnt getting bullied, he is the bully. My temp is fluctating between 26oC to 31oC. Depends when and how often i do WC's. pH is 6.5 exact. So far so good, i havent seen anymore white poops from him yet. :P He still looks healthy as :D

[ILLUSN]

keeping your temp constant will go a LONG WAY towards reducing stress.

Keeping it at 31C will also boost his metaolisum so hes gets better faster and stays healthier.

[albatrozz]

i need to get a new heater. The heater currently in my tank just malfunctioned yesterday night and doesnt sense the temp. So if i leave the switch on it will heat 24/7 :shock:

[samir]

you've probably created your very own flagellate super strain. dont treat before you check dose rates. if it is recurring lower the ph to around 5 and leave it there for a month.

flagellates dont do well when the ph is under 5.5 so if you treat with a combination of metro and low ph,you may get better results, also check if you have any ammonia / nitrite readings.

[albatrozz]

I have spotted the poop again this morning. Don't know who did it but here is a close up shot of the whitish poop. Yes i know it isnt white but all the other poops are black/brown like the one pictured on the left of it.

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii268/albatrozz_photo/P3200150.jpg

[zar]

You would probably need to analize it with a microscope if you really wanna know whats going on.
But that does not look like hex, maybe your fish are nearly over it or the picture is bad but if your fish have a hex infection, faeces looks like a white/transparent string.

[fishgeek]

make a proper diagnosis then you can decide whether your treatment is failing or just plain incorrect

looking at the poo and listening to your healthy sounding fish , i would guess that there is nothing wrong with the fish

andrew