Discus acting strange

[mrthient]

Woke up this morning and noticed my discus were a little strange, usually they would swim around mid-tank, but this morning they all huddled in the corners hanging around the bottom, some were even lying on their sides. Done some water tests and noticed my nitrates was pretty high , 40+ppm. Did 3x 30% changes throughout the day and brought it down to 10ppm, thought this would fix the problem but it didnt. When I feed them beefheart they all swim up and eat as if nothing was wrong, after they finished eating they would go back to the bottom and hang there again. :(

Breathing seems normal, dont seem too stressed, but rather too relaxed.

Tripple Filtration and UV steriliser.
250L tank 120ish babies 2-3cm, with a 4-5 4cm.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates 10~
Ph: 6.5
Temp: 29c

Here are some pictures.

My Tank
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/5306/photo0018yd7.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/)

As you can see in this picture some are lying sideways.
http://img261.imageshack.us/img261/1219/photo0025ol9.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/)

and here...
http://img114.imageshack.us/img114/4964/photo0023rv4.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/)

Sorry if pics arent clear, they were taken on my phone.
Any idea whats wrong with them?

-Mike

[rwel4809]

I'm thinking that is way too many babies in a 250l.

I thought we were supposed to aim for around 40 -80 litres per fish for growing out juvies...

What's the temp, PH, amonia and nitrite readings??

but I'm no expert on juvies, so I'll leave it to the breeders to tell you what's wrong, but it seems clear to me that the cause is extreme overcrowding...

R

[Merrilyn]

It looks like a water problem Mike. Welcome to the forum by the way :P

With babies of that age I do a 50% water change twice a day, especially when I'm feeding beefheart.

I think your problem started with the high nitrates. Although nitrates aren't necessarily toxic to fish, at that level, they will affect babies.

Okay now first thing is to remove that substrate. You can't keep a grow out tank pristine when you have gravel in there. It's just impossible to do a thorough enough gravel vac job.

What are you using as a dechlorinator? I find Seachem Prime to be the best as it nukes heavy metals as well as removing chlorine and chloramine.

Your babies look to be around 6 weeks old, and that's the age that gill and body flukes strike. Have you treated them for flukes, and were the parents treated before you put them in the breeding tank?

Last thing, what part of the world are you in, and water is different in each area and it may give us some clues as to what is going on.

[mrthient]

Hi guys. The high nitrates definitely had an impact on these poor babies, i wasnt able to waterchange for the last 10~ days cause of work commitments, but i was able to bring it down to 0.5 ppm earlier today, they still seem the same. I live in Sydney. Im using API stress coat as the dechlorinator, will get some Prime tomorrow if work doesnt call will also take gravel out asap.

After spending a few hours observing them, im beginning to suspect that they have gill fluke unleashed by the high nitrate, they are starting to show symptoms, rubbing gills on gravel and other objects, paralysis, sudden bursts of movements, none of them are really breathing heavily atm, i guess they havent reached the end stage yet. Gave them a salt bath, i put 8 tablespoons of salt and increased temp to 32c some are now beginning to swim again, but the majority are still lying around. The parents and babies werent treated for flukes.

I am preparing 3x 60L hospital tanks atm, still waiting for the bio load to build so these guys are gonna be stuck in this tank for the time being, i was definitely caught off guard.

My Tank specs are now:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0.5
Temp: 32c
pH: 6.8 (went up from many water changes :()

Am i on the right track?

- Thanks, Mike.