Discus Plague?

[purplefishtail]

Hey All,
Hope someone can help me out with this one. My discus are sick with what looks like discus plague. They started looking dark and hiding a couple days ago, and now they're beginning to scratch occasionally, have a ton of fin rot, and this morning it became obvious that several of them have a bunch of white slime on them. I started them on a metro+prazi regime this morning. They all perk up when I put food in the tank, so I am hopeful that we can nip this with a little time and effort.

My question though, is is this really Discus Plague? It looks like it, but there are a few things that seem sort of fishy. First off, I don't know where they would have picked the disease up. We've had all of the fish in that tank for months if not longer, and they've all been perfectly healthy. And secondly, my understanding was that Discus Plague only affected discus, and this morning I woke up to two dead hillstream loaches and a dead clown loach. We lost a few other clown loaches over the last few weeks as well. So whatever my discus have seems to be attacking the other fish as well.

We do 60% water changes every two or three days, and this tank has been running for a year now with no problems. So I wouldn't think it's a water quality issue. Any thoughts on what I might be dealing with?

[m.ingram]

Im no expert but sounds like your fish have a skin fluke.Mine had skin flukes awhile ago and had the same symptoms as yours.Treated it with para-cide it was gone in 24 hrs.

[purplefishtail]

Got home tonight and four rummynose tetras in the tank were dead, and it looks like my last clown loach won't make it through the night. This is really wierd.

I noticed that the wet/dry sump smells pretty bad...like someone farted. Is this the "rotten eggs" smell that is associated with a tank that went anaerobic? If so, how do I avoid this in the future? What causes this to happen in the first place?

Incidentally, I've moved all 16 discus that were in the tank into a 55 gallon hospital tank. They appear to be doing better in the first half hour of being in that tank than they did in the 160 gallon planted tank they were in.

[ILLUSN]

METRO IS VERY TOXIC TO SCALESS FISH AND TETRAS!!!!!!!!!

only use metro in a bare bottom treatment tank, the combo of metro and prazi has proably killed your filter and now you will need to recycle the tank.

the bare bottom tank has a lower biologicakl load also your DOC's will be lower, keep them there till they recover, if possible keep them there for a good 2 months while your planted tank gets back on track.

[purplefishtail]

Sorry, didn't make this clear: The rotten eggs smell started in the morning before I added any meds, and we were losing loaches in the weeks before the discus started looking bad. So I don't think the biofiltration died because of the metro. The tetras I lost today though, that makes sense if they don't do well with metro. The tetras didn't make it into the hospital tank anyways cuz I couldn't catch them, so they won't continue the treatment.

So the question remains, what makes my tank smell bad after a year of running with no hitches and no change in the way I maintain it?

Another question too, does metro & prazi kill filters? I feel like I've read a million websites and posts that say they don't effect biological filtration.

[lpiasente]

Last week we had a power failure and one of the canister filters didn't kick in properly (an air bubble). By the time I realized the whole canister had gone rotten and boy did it stink just like you have described. I wonder if that has happened to you and the filter is releasing those toxins into your tank? I pulled the whole filter apart cleaned it and replaced the all the wool. Obviously the filter needs to recycle. Just an idea

[BigDaddyAdo]

Have you tested your water?

[ILLUSN]

Rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulfide gas, this is caused by anerobic pockets in your tank and / or filter, organic matter is destroyed by these sulfur producing organisums, hydrogen sulfide is VERY toxic to fish, strip down and sterilize your tank and filter, i had a filter go anerobic and this is how i fixed it.

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10949&highlight=aquis+2400

you have to do the gravel as well to make sure you get it all.

[Andrew Soh]

Purplefish,

Reaching this stage shows that your biofiltration overloaded and crashed....due to the ammonia produced by decaying tissue.

But the death of your fishes is not caused by this...rather the death is caused by overwheming attack by micro-organisms.

The cause is probably related to change in temperature; a decay of one or more fish in one of the hidden corner; an electric stopage and an authomatic restart; an overly established filtration that has clotted up leaving little space for the nutrifying bacteria to survive and feed.....all these or one of these ....led to increase in the free-ammonia....finally triggering the organisms within the established tank to proliferate. Once they are in sufficient quantity, they attach themselves to fishes, irritate and feed on the mucous layer....leading to ever-increasing secretion of mucus. Not all of the micro-organisms are pathogenic in nature though those pathogenic ones too will proliferate under such favourable high ammonia condition.

When such a thing happens, the best to do is to make 100% water change immediately and add salt @ 2ppt and a 24 hours potassium permanganate @2.2mg per litre of water. Remove and disinfect all plants.

After the treatment, increase the temperature to 30c. and continue to add salt for a period of a week or till all visible slime gone.

Other methods are found in my books.

Take care and enjoy the hobby,
Andrew