Next step?

[DiscusDave]

Hi,

I've got 2 sick discus in quarantine and I'm wondering what my next step should be.

Originally there were 4 sick fish, they started getting bloated bellies and passing white stringy poo and not eating. One fish died soon after. I treated with Metro since I was under the impression that white poo was a symptom of HEX/HITH, I also did a treatment of Prazi as I was advised it could be tapeworm. The fish started to respond after a second treatment of metro and 1 started eating - at which stage I added some metro to my frozen food and it's now eating normally.

The other 2 fish still showed signs of poor health, not coming to me to get food, hiding and white poo.

I decided to remove the two sick fish to a hospital tank, I've done a course of metro and prazi followed by a 50% water change. They're now eating a lot more and looking somewhat better.

I noticed a few days back a white worm protruding from the head of one of the discus - it eventually dislodged and now there's a hole in the forehead of the fish. So I'm wondering what my next step should be?

Regards

Dave

[Merrilyn]

Dave if they've begun eating, then keep treating with metro in the food until the droppings are back to normal.

The worm like thing in the head is a sure sign of hex. It's not actually a worm, but a discharge from the hole. Feeding a diet high in vegetable matter and vitamins seems to help with the healing of the holes, so a change in diet may be called for.

What are you feeding at the moment, and what's your water change routine?

[DiscusDave]

Hi Merrilyn,

I feed 1 cube frozen Discus Dinner daily, plus colour enhancer. Unfortunatly I ran out of Discus Dinner the other week and the LFS only had frozen boodworms. I've got a couple of cubes left which I'm feeding them - their droppings do look normal at the moment, I've not seen any white discharge so my main concern is the hole.

I've got some liquid vitamin supplement from Sera - is it worth adding that to the water?

Interstingly when the fish were in the main tank they used to eat my plants, and in the hospital tank they're picking at the veg's in the frozen food - guess it's like when dogs eat grass when they're not well.

[BigDaddyAdo]

I feed mine a pea or two once or twice a week. They love it.


Ado

[DiscusDave]

Hi Ado,

How do you prepare the peas?

Regards

Dave

[Merrilyn]

For frozen peas, just thaw and squeeze the flesh out of the shell and drop it in the tank.

If you've got raw peas, they need to zapped in the microwave first. You want them just slightly softened, not cooked.