sos discus is dieing

[Flip03]

Hey all Found one of my discus today has gone nearly black and is super skinny and the filter was blowinng him round the tank. ive set up a hospital tank and set the heater to 30 degrees. what else can i do for him.
my first thought was that he had worms but havent noticed any funny poo's. HEEEEEEELP

[Tracey73]

Flip the first thing the experts will ask is your water parameters.. Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, Ph etc etc Put up as much information as you possibly can!

[Flip03]

PH 7.0 Kh 3.0 gh 9.0 had nitrites and nitrates tested 2 weeks ago and came up perfect just read the artical on discus plauge and the only sympon thay he has is that hes black. no fin rot or white slim. he has totall no energy just sitten on the bottom on his fins :cry: really dont no what to do for him

[benkk]

if the fish is super skinny. That means that fish was not eating well for long long time which means it;s been sick for long time.

[Flip03]

have been giving them much attention for the last 2 weeks as ive been renovating my house and had the tanks all coverd up just been doing water changes as normal ive been a real bad dad feel heaps bad. have notices that he has been eating though.

[Tracey73]

Flip how is your discus? Sorry I can not help you but im a newbie to discus, you need one of the experts! Is it possible something got into the tank while you were renovating?

[Hollowman]

I am sorry to hear you have a sick fish, but as has already been said, he must have been sick for a long time, discus do not get skinny overnight. If it were my fish, I would do the right thing to stop any further suffering. Use some Clove Oil if you have any.

[Flip03]

sad to say the little fella passed away afew hours ago :cry: not sure what it was so im gonna treat it as the plauge and not put any new discus in my tank for 6 months im doen well for my first attempt.

[Hollowman]

Sorry to hear he died, but it wasn't the plague, this is just an urban myth. Now I dont mean to sound hard here, but the thing that caused its death was lack of experience, ie: not noticing the symptoms months ago. Discus stop eating and wither because they have some sort of problems, and this can be seen relatively easily. Discus 'are' easy to keep, but do need daily attention. These are beautiful fish when kept in the right conditions and cared for.

Just a tip, make sure that when you are decorating, you have very good ventilation, and cover the tank well, I have heard that some chemicals in decoration materials can affect the fish, but not in this case.

If you are still worried about the 'plague' them empty your tank and bleach it out, or use some PP on it. Bleach everything, tools, nets etc, and start again. But the 'plague' ? no, too many people blame deaths on this, but what is the palgue? If you know your fish, you notice change that can be treated.

It is sad, but lesson leant this time I'm afraid .

Hollowman

[Merrilyn]

Sorry to hear about the little guy Flip, but we live and learn. You're doing well for your first time with discus so don't feel too bad.

You've learned a valuable lesson, that discus need to be carefully observed every day, so that any signs of illness are noticed early. Bit difficult under the circumstances, with the renovations. If things had been normal, you may have noticed the fish getting skinny a couple of weeks ago, and medication may well have solved the problem.

After thirty years of keeping discus, I'm still learning.