discus acting very strange

[mikalli]

hi there lady red am hoping u can solve my problem am very concerned.i have 9 discus which are growing and look content and very happy.on sat night i noticed white poo in one of my discus .so i treated the whole tank with worming tablets i brought them from my local aquarium shop.everything has been going fine .then on tuesday night i heard all this splashing and saw one of my discus darting through the tank so fast and ramming into the glass and shaking and onits side and then it came good.i thought it might have got hit by my clown loach as they have been swimming very close lately.so i removed loaches .i also done a 25 percent water change two days later after treatment.then tonight i was eating dinner and it happened againi have never seen this before as this time it was flapping on the gravel and i thought it was going to die .it kept on darting really quick and throwing itself into objects.i now realise it wasnt the clown loaches.then all of a sudden it was back to normal but very stressed out.it did it again 30 min later and this time it got cought in one of the rocks.i thought it was dead.but then i could see it still breathing so i netted it out and removed to hospital tank.it is breathing very fast and then seems to be okay .it has done it again just recently in hospital tank .my other discus seem very good except the one thathad white poo is still pooing white.i am very concerned as i dont know what is wrong .please can u help.water conditions are great :(

[Benny]

White Poo's are the a-typical symptom of Heximita, an internal protozoa... My fish had it recently too.. Metronidazole is the medication that should be used, rather then your worming meds (active ingred, is probably Praziquantal)... The problem is that Metronidazole (known also as metro) is a prescription only drug, you need either a fish friendly vet, or a friendly doctor to get a hold of some....

Im not sure about the belting around the tank, but i know that when a fish rapidly scrapes itself on a rock, and breathes heavily its a symptom of gill or body flukes. In a situation like this so long as the fish isnt suffocating i would strongly reccomend treating with Metro first...

I hope LR can help clarify what i have said,
but i have suffered most of these problems in the last month so know first hand how helpless you feel watching a fish suffer :(

Good luck,
Merrilyn will hopefully give you some answers in the morning,
Regards, and best wishes
Benny

P.S. Merrilyn may ask for specific water readings
pH, ammonia, Nitrate nitrite gH and kH i think they are..

[mikalli]

thanks benny none of the other discus poo is white and they just seem to be acting normal but am concerned for the other one in hospital tank feel so helpless will go in the morning to local aquarium shop as cant sleep worried am up sitting watching the one in hospital tank

[mikalli]

water parameters are amonia 0 ph 6.5 nitrate .5 temp 29.5

[Merrilyn]

Hi Mikalli, got to this as soon as I could. How is your fish looking this morning.

I've had that frantic swimming thru the tank too, and wondered what the heck was wrong. It seems like there is something biting the fish or something and it is trying franticaly to get away from the irritation. They usually recover pretty quickly, and it's nothing serious. Sometimes a high bacteria count in your tank can make them do the same thing.

Do a 50% water change in your main tank, and remove any hard objects, like rocks that could cause damage if she decides to do another dash thru the tank. Thoroughly vacuum the gravel, and do a general clean up of the tank, before returning her.

The one showing the symptoms of white poo, really needs to go into the hospital tank, and be treated with metro. Hex does not get better on it's own, and really needs to be treated. Metro won't harm your bio filter.

If you need more help, I'll PM you a phone number.

[mikalli]

thanks lady red .the one in hospital tank has settled down a little but seems to be swimming around the bottom alot it looks like he is trying to wipe something off his body every now and then and lays on his side and flicks his body on the bottom of tank .is showing no signs of stress though colours are still beautiful .is not really eating though.he still flips out and jumps around have just woke up and he has just flipped and spashing around and banging around in hospital tank he was cought up in the filter and glass have just released him .thought he was getting better but now im really concerned as it looks like he is going mad and something is really bothering him.and as for the one with white poo .do i put him in hospital tank with my other oneas i have no other free tank .and where do i get metro from and how do i treat it.i live in brisbane in the city.really worried now cause i feel so helpless.

[Bill T.]

It sounds to me as if your fish may have some parasites as well as the hex? Metro will not necessaily get rid of these, so a post metro treatment with prazi may be required.

Apart from the $$$$expense (how much do you love your fish anyway), why don't you take the ailing fish to a fish vet for a diagnosis? If I ever get these sort of difficult to diagnose & teat problems agian, that's exactly what I will be doing.

What bothers me more than one sick fish is the possibility of the pathogen eventually spreading to the rest of them. The more medication in the tank, the less clear the problem ..... end up with discus soup!

[Merrilyn]

Mikalli, I have sent you a phone number.

Check your PM box.

[Dave76]

Hi mikalli

I've got one fish doing exactly the same thing at the moment.

I've found keeping the tank covered with a towel stops the 'flipping out' - when I remove the towel a bit to vaccum the flipping out starts again.

Dave

[Benny]

if it has towels over it, how do u know how the fish is behaving 8-) :? :wink:

(unless of course u can hear it hitting things)

[Dave76]

Oh it makes a LOT of splashing / thudding sounds - I can hear it from the next room...

[Squid]

Ladyred - I saw in a previous reply that you need to se a fish vet/doctor to get praziquantel. Not so - I saw a dedicated gill fluke/tape wormer for fish in the local aquarium. My wife is a fish/exotics vet and she nearly ckoked!!. It was at least half the the price that she could get it for. If I can, I'll get the info on the product and put it here in this forum tommorrow. The 'authorities' either dont know its in the product, or it has been removed from the S4 drugs list.

[Squid]

Oops - I meant Metro on the previous reply (I've got prazi on the brain at the moment). Metro certainly hasn't been removed from the S4 drugs though.

[Merrilyn]

Phew, you had me worried there for a moment Squid. Glad we're all still on the same track :D

[nicholas76]

Treat all your fish with Metronidazole and seperate the sick sick ones into your Hospital tank.

If your "other fish " have mouthed the white faeces then chances are they will develop this too.


handy hint. - lower your water level so you can save on the amount of medication you put into your tank.

Also your vet shouldnt charge you more than a dollar or so per tablet.