Sick Discus

[Concode]

I have been having a problem with my discus in my tank, I have found a couple of them have had thin white poo, I spoke to the oakleigh discus guy who said to raise the temp. of my tank from 28 to 30, which I have done. Last week I noticed that one of my discus had a thick gel like poo, which I have moved to another tank and am trying to medicate, I think he has Hex.

I have also noticed a few fish banging against my sword plants, which I am thinking is gill fluke. I haven't seen any white poo in the last few days from the rest of the discus. In my large tank I also have several bristle nose, some cardinals and a few clown loaches. I looked at a worm treatment today but it says it is not suitable if you have cardinals and loaches.

My wife spoke to Merrilyn today who suggested using a worming treatment, but I wanted to check whether that was suitable if you have other species of fish in the tank. Thanks

[Merrilyn]

Hi concode. The discus world is a very small world isn't it. :P

Yes, I did speak to your wife on the phone about worms. She thought the worms looked like thin strands of cotton, which would indicate threadworm. Do you think it looks different to that?

The treatments for threadworm, hex, and gill fluke are all quite different.

The fish will the white jelly like poo is probably suffering from hex, and needs an antibiotic, like Metro (Flagyl) to treat it.

The treatment for threadworm is Levamisole, which can also be purchased as a wormer for cage birds.

Gill and body flukes need to be treated with Praziquantal, which needs to be repeated at least a second time to rid the fish of all the parasites.

Can you give a little more detail about what you are seeing with the fish in the main tank. Describe as many of the symptoms as you can, such as breathing behaviour, swimming, fins (clamped or not) and eating.