To deal with the danger of Discus slime?

[Derelique]

I'll be new to discus, but am wondering about the 'discus slime' I keep hearing about which discus apparently kind of shed continuously and which tends to kind of slightly coat the walls of the tank among other things, (such as even smelling foul if not removed apparently).

Is this entirely true and actually a problem to contend with? At first I thought discus keepers were just talking about a bio-film forming because they're often kept in bare tanks without a great deal of biological medium surface area or mechanical filtration beyond sponge filters. And I thought most bacterial were generally helpful in any case by breaking down food/droppings/etc into ammonia and eventually nitrates.

But in reading about it discus keepers contend that it's a matter which must be dealt with continuously in order to maintain clean water. For if it's not removed, then bacteria (heterotrophic I expect), would multiply and perhaps somehow pose a danger to the discus. I don't understand how that could necessarily be though, unless the bacteria were then able to attack the slime coat on the discus themselves in great enough numbers to start to overwhelm it somehow.

Discus in any case do produce a rich slime which their fry initially feed on, but I wouldn't have expected them to be producing slime throughout their entire lives much differently than other fish. But maybe there is something to this which is what makes them supposedly require so much cleaner water and less stressors than other fish in order to be able to fully thrive.They do come from soft acidic water in the wild which hinders bacterial growth to some degree.

If it is a likely concern to any degree then would filtering a high water turnover (yet with minimal tank current) through a micron sock, a protein skimmer, and/or ozone reaction chamber potentially help remove it/and/or destroy it? And in that way maintain better tank conditions for them than through water changes alone? (As well as reducing having to wipe the walls which can of course be difficult in a planted tank).

Many thanks in advance!

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum Derelique.

Good question. Yes it's true that discus as well as some other fish do produce a slime to feed their fry, but in my experience this is only produced at times of breeding and under extreme circumstances, such as fish suffering from "discus plague".

During normal health, I find they produce no more and no less slime than the majority of fish.

Wiping down the walls of the tank is simply part of normal tank maintenance. Careful placement of plants should afford you access to tank walls.

Frequent water changes are an undeniable part of keeping discus. It's something that cannot be forgotten. Your discus will let you know by their behavior if you have neglected their water changing.

Most keepers will tell you that their discus become more active and alert after a water change.

Hope that helps to answer your question. :P

[Derelique]

Thanks, and here is something I read, where someone apparently quite deeply experienced with discus had commented upon the the slime/bacteria issue, which made me start wondering about it but further, which I meant to add to my original post -

"Water changes remove many things so how do you show that bacterial bio load is part of it.? Its anecdotal at best but but one thing you note once you've actually bred and raised fry is that often times, the simple act of wiping down your tank walls regularly and rinsing your sponges in a bare bottom tank can make a diffference in survival of the fry and in fact, many have noted that doing this will often turn around a batch of fry experiencing die-offs. Additionally one thing about discus that may make them more susceptible to general bacterial issues is their slime coat...its designed to produce much slime as its used to feed offspring.. sometimes we see external bacterial issues on the adult discus after they have been feeding fry alot..it appears this slime coat is a good medium for some bacterias... take a good look at the disease board and many many issues involve slime coats and external bacterial?parasite ? issues. It may be particular bacterias or just in general....no idea.

Why would discus be so susceptible to something like this...again speculation..but it may have to do with the pH and softness of the water they evolved in...its not exactly conducive to bacterias...whereas, most tanks are in the more alkaline, harder ranges that bacterias thrive in....if that were the case, it would make sense that you could offset the potential problem by keeping the tank exceedingly clean with water changes..which is infact what we see happening and one reason water changes have found themselves in the discus keeping dogma.

Thats all speculation on my part. What I do know is, Discus do best when the water in the tank is changed often and from the point of someone like myself whose purpose is to help people succeed at keeping discus in the easiest most fool proof manner...water changes solve a crucial problem by removing most things that could in theory be an issue."

But I'd like to try and make sure that if at all possible, things aren't building up between water changes and therefore optimal water conditions are being maintained continually instead of just periodically. So if slime did happen to be a concern then I'd like to try and deal with it as a precautionary measure through some filtration means if that would help.

So I suppose it's kind of a complex question, but I'd like to get a deeper understanding of these issues if I can.

[Nev]

Think.your looking for problems that don't exist!
Slime coating tank walls? Not going ti happen, fish breeding and not producing one is mote likely.