Fluke?

[Sabrina]

Hi all,
I have a young discus that is breathing fast and its seems as though one gill in clamped closed and the other one is working very fast. What is wrong with him? He is happy and swimming with the others and eating well though. I already have another young one in QT tank being treated for fluke the past few days. Is fluke contagious? Should i salt dip this little one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxZCEmK-6jM

[sayid]

Hi Sabrina;
Discus especially under 6-7 month old can get fluke ,i have had success both with salt bath and potassium permanganate pp both ,there stickies under disease section in here ,just make sure that fast breading is not due to spike in nitrite or ammonia and you have plenty of oxygen ,i personally found the above two method better than praziquntel or strazin .90 % of the tanks have fluke and most discus has fluke it only becomes problematic when their number increases and it restricts breathing .once the discus becomes adults they generally can manage the flukes .HTH
SAYID

[Hollowman]

Could be flukes, could be water quality. Is the fish behaving strangely? flashing, rubbing on things. Flukes are a little parasite that hook themselves onto the fish, they will be in the skin and gills causing clamping and closing/breathing through on side. Flukes will be present in most fish you get, but sometimes lack of good conditions can make them multiply. Keeping your tank really clean is paramount now. When you do a water change, wipe all the sides down, (glass) if you run your finger over and it feels slimy they need wiping.

As for treatment, salt dips can work. There are other treatments, but salt is easier as well as really clean conditions and good water.

[Sabrina]

Hi guys,
I noticed this little one after i had done a 60 liter water change on the main tank, i forgot to mention that yesterday.. I also forgot to grab some water from the tank this morning to test before i fed them, so i have to wait until tonight before i can test the water.. What is flashing? The little one is showing no strange signs but the few bigger discus i have noticed they sometimes skim off the plants. Maybe i am over feeding them, i feed 4 times a day.

[sayid]

Hi Sabrina;
Flashing is when the fish rub themselves against objects in the tank ,they actually try to detached flukes from their skin or gills ,i would go with Steve 's advice regarding general house keeping of the tank but the difficulty in your case is that you have got the plants and gravels /sand and various decors which is aesthetic but difficult to keep clean ,the other problem is that the discus you buy are from LFS which are the runts of the breeders and normally would be culled ,these fish are prone to different disease despite your good effort so don't be hard on yourself .I also think you are right regarding your over feeding ,i would feed them 4 times a day like you do but half the amount ,that will help your water quality as well.
sayid

[Sabrina]

Thank you Sayid, i have taken all the decor out of the tank a week ago, there is only plants and driftwood in there now.. I just tested the water, i think its been about 3 hours since i fed them last.. 7.0 PH, 7.4 High Range PH, 0.25 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 10 Nitrate, 53.7 KH and 179 GH... Now i dont know whats happened to the PH as it was 7.6 one week ago? Also i think the ammonia is from foods. I will test again in the morning before feeding.

[Hollowman]

Sayid is right, half the feeding. Feeding so much, I would expect at least 50% falls into the gravel and rots. This would give you your ammonia reading which you must address immediately, also not good for the fish. Keeping it clean is so important, specially as younsay the fish are rubbing(flashing) themselves on objects in the tank. Parasites cause them to itch, you need to wipe down the glass as I said before and really clean well.

[Sabrina]

Thanks Steve, Im trying not to feed as much and im about to do another water change of about 50L.. I scrubbed the walls of the tank with the magnet cleaner, they came up well with no slime on the glass now. :)

[Sabrina]

I ended up doing a 50% water change, i had noticed a few little snails that came on the plants weeks ago, id been picking them out as i saw them, well i moved the driftwood to vacuum and by god there were at least 50 or more of them under the wood, some dead most alive! So i quickly pulled the wood out and ran it under hot water to get rid of them, then i scooped up as many as i could from the sand in the tank. Would these snails have brought parasites into the tank?? I might have missed 1 or too, some are tiny baby snails :(

[sayid]

some people don't mind them ,i personally don't like them ,yes they can bring parasite with them they can also spike your ammonia if lots of them die and you discover it a bit late , you can't get read of them by picking them , praziquantel kills them for good . HTH
SAYID

[Sabrina]

Hi Sayid, where do i get that stuff that kills them please? And will it effect my Discus? Here are some photos of the water change..
2124421245

[Hollowman]

I would stick to the larger water changes even if it is more hassle. For me snails are a pest and almost impossible to get rid of. They lay eggs that are difficult to see and when you think you have got rid of them all, there they are again. Always wipe the glass and remove snails when you see them

[Sabrina]

Yes i agree Steve, i hate these little pest snails! I want them gone out of my beautiful tank. Will wipe glass and keep the tank super clean with large water changes every few days, thanks!

[sayid]

Hi Sabrina;
Praziquantel is sold in every aquarium shop ,the price is between $ 22 and $ 32 depends where you buy it ,it is sold as blue planet fluke and tape worm tablet ,it is used to eliminate or reduce fluke it also gets rid of tape worm ,if you use as directed there is no side effect , read the direction of use i am going by memory before buying make sure it eliminates snails.
good luck.
sayid

[Sabrina]

Thanks Sayid! I will check it out next week on pay day :)

[Sabrina]

Hi guys,
Just wondering about this young discus that i thought might have fluke. It now seems to be acting strange, It was very skittish yesterday darting around the tank and im pretty sure it jumped out of the water hit the hood and splashed back into the water last night. Its been taring around the tank making the others duck for cover, its also turned darker. I dont know what to do, what could be causing this? And to make matters worse today i had new carpet put in my house, and the guy used a air nail gun which made very loud bangs so i think this added to this fish feeling a bit crazy. Come to think of it all the fish seem to be ducking for cover a lot in the last few days, one second they are up the top of the water, next they are hitting the deck. What could be wrong? Im a bit worried

[Hollowman]

Check your water immediately post up the results

[Sabrina]

Checking it right now, give me 10 minutes please..

[sayid]

I am not sure what it is but most probably some thing to do with water quality ,the last time i saw some thing similar it was spike in nitrite , a general rule when you want to make your fish little bit happier , small water change with temp 1 -2 c higher and add 1 TBS of rock salt or table salt . good luck

[Sabrina]

2125621257
PH 7.6
High Range PH 7.4
Ammonia 0-0.25 its yellow but with slight green tinge, but not quite 0.25, its more yellow.
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5.0

[Sabrina]

Kh 53.7
gh 179

[Hollowman]

Water looks fine to me so that eliminates problems there. It could be it has some parasite, add the salt as sayid suggests and monitor for a day or two. Sometimes fish can really damage themselves when they zing about, so make sure you look for damage too.

[Sabrina]

Thanks Steve, they all seem fine this morning, though they are still ducking for cover for some reason. I will watch and keep a close eye on that young one today and if it think it needs a salt dip i will do so tonight.