DISCUS PLAGUE - treatment and photo's of fish UPDATED!!!!!!!

[goldenpigeon]

Hey everyone,

Well recently my discus fell sick with DISCUS PLAGUE!!!!! So i decided to make this post so that other with fish that have this disease can identify it and treat the disease.

Firstly here is my situation:

On around Sunday 23-10-05 i noticed that my DISCUS where looking quite dark and were hiding togeather on the corners of the tank bottom and top. The discus were a bit slimey (white slime) on their bodies and breathing a little fast (not rapidly thoagh). Ocassionally i would see one of the discus flick up against a plant or bit of driftwood in the tank.

This was VERY odd because i keep my tanks in excellent condition. Then i noticed that all the discus spread across 3 tanks had the same symptoms. I noticed that the young discus I have in a 2ft tank were affected first. Only the same night all the tanks fell sick.

I had done large water changes two days before as normal and had done nothing different from what i usually did in the past months. Imediatly i did large water changes on all the tanks and used seachem prime which i had bought a day earlier to dechlorinate the water. Prime removes chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, detoxifies nitrate and nitrite and replaces the slime coat on fish. Thinking something had come in on the water in the last change i did a very large water change and dosed up on the prime to hopefully clear the tank water.

The next morning the fish hadn't gotten any better..... they had gotten WORSE!!! and a new symptom. Their fins had started to rot!
Imediately i went to the fabulouse Ladyred hoping to get an answer... i got one... it wasnt what i was after.... my discus had discus plague!!!!

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Here are some symptoms to look out for:

- discus hiding in corners near bottom and top of tank
- discus have white slime all over their bodies (like webbing)
- fins look like they are rotting
- very dark in colour
- gasping for air/ breathing faster than normal
- flicking against objects in the tank

here is one point that really caught my attention:

NONE OF THE OTHER FISH IN THE TANK HAD DIED, WERE BREATHING HEAVILY, DARK, IN CORNERS OR ANY OF THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS... THEY WERE FINE....

yet the discus were in such bad shape.

*with the above point i am talking about my community tank*

fish in the community tank included:

angels, cory's, bristlenose, gibbiceps and tetras..... none were sick or had died

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Here is the treatment for this disease and some things you will need:

- aquarium salt , and lots of it
- what ever product you use to alter the ph down
- a spare tank, you are going to put all your discus in here for treatment, this tank needs to be bare bottom
- an air pump to airate the tank (no sponge filters just airstones to go with it)
- heater
- water aging drum
-Metro (Metronidazole) tablets..... and lots of them.

Metro is an antibiotic an will stop the fins rotting and keep the fishes slime coat in good order.

Treatment Method:

1. Assemble tank (bare bottom), air pump, heater and fill with aged water

2. Dose the tank with metro at 250mg per 40L, add 1 teaspoon of salt per 40L of water( you could go to 2 pr 40L )

3. Put the discus in the tank and slowly adjust the ph down to arund 5

* bacteria in filters tend to die at this ph thats why i dont mention putting sponge filters in. the water gets VERY dirty but htee is nothing you can do except water change*

4. Do 90% waterchanges morning and night using aged water from the water drum/bin. redose with metro.

*I have been doing 90% water changes, topping the tank up to about 50% water then siphoning the water out again to get the water as clean as possible and so i dont overdose on metro. then filling up again.*

REMEMBER TO HEAT THE WATER BEFORE PUTTING THE WATER INTO THE TANK!!

5. Adjust the temperature to 30 degrees celsius... maximum 32 degrees.

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Be as vigitant as possible and you will hopefully not loose a fish. The death rate from this disease is around 50%.

here are some photo's of the fish with discus plague :cry: :cry:

[goldenpigeon]

some of the discus

[goldenpigeon]

more

[goldenpigeon]

some of the discus in their recovery

i have not lost a single discus to the plague yet!

[goldenpigeon]

here are some food prep pictures

[marg]

Sorry to hear you are having problems GP. Hope they get better soon.

[Ben]

Hi David,
I am extremely sorry to hear and see that your fish have been affected with this very nasty disease. Between such an enthusiastic young man and a very knowledgeable woman, Merrilyn. I believe you will be able to conquer the plague.

I would personally like to thank you for the information you have posted up for me and others to see.

Thanks again David and lease keep us posted as your fish recover.

Ben

[Ben]

David,
i have some spare metro i can donate to help you if you like. Let me know if you need more mate.

cheers
Ben

[Lichan]

Yeah - real sorry to hear your having such problems - I would hate my tank to come down with something like that..I cant stand the thought of losig any of my Discus. I hope they all recover in record time. Quick question anyone - I have never had to use it but how much does Metro cost to puchase and it is only available from Veterinary Clinics.


Regards
Pete

[wifey of axelfaz]

Excellent post Big Dave;)

[goldenpigeon]

an update for today

well i have just made up this mornings batch of food (with metro in it) and all the fish are eating it now! even the ones that were quite sick!

i still have not lost a single fish and all are recovering well.

i am now taking the approach to water changes a little differently. because so many fish are not producing mucus (excess) now the water is 70% clearer after around 9-12 hours. so i am now trialling doing 1x 150% w/c on the first day and 2 100% w/c on the second day.

because i only have air stones running none of they debris is captured and contained so what i do is do the first siphon of 90%, top up to 50%. then i have a spare 2000Lph internal filter which i put in the tank for around 20 minutes and it pickes up all the debris. the tank i am using for the treatment is 150 odd litres. i have 2 pipes i use for water changes on my tanks. they can both be connected to siphon my 6fter, or the shorter one i use for this tank i am using for treatment as it is closer to the door. i just hook up the filter to the smaller pipe and it delivers the water back into the tank * but it is delivered with less force because the head height on the pump is 2.2m and the pipe is 5m. the fish dont get stressed and it does a great job. this also helps to conserve metro as it is quite expensive. :D

i will get some pictures so it is easier to understand when i do the next water change.

if anyone is wondering how i make the food up ill give you a quick explanation.

i get around 5mL of water in a medicine cup. put half a tablet of metro in and about 8-10mL of breeders premium discus food. you can use tetra bits or what ever dry food you use for discus. simply put the food in the dissolved metro and let it soak. this doesnt take long and metro isnt very soluable (spelling) and sinks to the bottom of the med cup. every 30 secs or so give it a quick stir and mix the metro in. the food doesnt have to be soaking wet. it just has to contain the metro. hth

ill put some more pics up soon.

Ben i will talk to you soon mate and thank you everyone for your kind comments. i hope that my work pays off!

[goldfish]

what u have just posted is very useful to everyone GP,goodwork!
how u have described it and with the pictures is just excellent, i've just printed out this page to keep as a reference.
my fish went through a similar illness as yours, i didnt treat it with metro but with paracide, 6 fully recovered to grow huge now but 4 died!

[goldenpigeon]

hey gold fish,

thanx mate and glad i am able to help :D

i have noticed that fish that are badly affected with the disease kind of get a bit of a beaked forehead. correct me if im wrong but i think the diease rots away flesh and the fisnd. i think this could be due to the tissue between the eyes and mouth is soft and therefore succeptable to infection? fortunantly i got to them in time and only one has a little bit of a beak.

cheers
David

[Merrilyn]

That's a wonderful post David. Thankyou for documenting the disease so accurately. Discus plague is airborne and highly contagious, and it's common for every tank in the room to become infected, no matter how careful you are with nets and hoses to avoid cross-contamination.

Fortunately, due to good fish keeping practices, and careful observation, David was able to catch the disease early, and treatment has been successful. If treatment is delayed, the fish become weaker and deaths will occur.

With good care, the fish will recover fully, and the rotting fins will regrow. Interesting to note, that the fish are now immune from plague for the rest of their lives, although some may be carriers of the disease, and any new fish added to the tank, will need to observed carefully after introduction.

Good luck with the continued recovery of your fish David. You can be very proud of yourself for such a high recovery rate.

[Dave76]

Good to hear you're on top of things & things are going well - fantastic informative post :)

Dave

[sammigold]

Wonderful Post GP.... I wish you continuing good luck with your discus... you seem to have done a fantastic job!!!!! :D

[goldenpigeon]

thanx for the nice comments guys :D

well i have a little bad news:

last night one of my golden pigeons sadly passed away. however he was quite bad to strat off with. probably the most affected fish. anyway i was able to keep him alive for over a week and im happy with that atleast :)

the rest of the fish are doing well and i have found that if you can catch it early while the fish will still eat they have a VERY high chance of survival.... if not well its a little more complicated.

i have finally gotten all my fish to eat now :D

ill keep u guys updated

[anti-generic]

if only you could have posted this 4 months ago
then i might be able to keep some of my old fish

But none the less..
this a great post.
a must read for anyone keeping discus

Great work
GP

Reagrds,
Eric

[goldenpigeon]

hey guys!

sorry i havnt been here to update until now. i am very busy these days.

anyways here is the update on the progress they have made.

all the fish have recovered very very well now. i only lost 1 fish to the plague sadly but that definetly beats loosing half of them.

THERE IS EVEN SOME BREEDING ACTIVITY GOING ON!!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

i am pleased i can now get back to the normal schedule lol this excercise had really mad me tired :( :lol:

i hope this post has been helpful to everyone and a big thank u to merrilyn and all of you for your support :D

cheers guys

[marg]

Fantastic news David. Glad all the rest made it o.k..

Your description of the plague and your method of treatment was really informative.

Hope you get some new babies soon.

Marg.

[Merrilyn]

Well done David. Sorry to hear about the loss of one fish, but look at it this way, you SAVED all the rest of the fish from a certain death.

You can be very pleased with your efforts, and your wonderful post will certainly help others if they encounter the same problem.

Congratulations on a job well done. Now you can sit back and enjoy the rewards of your labour. :P

[sammigold]

GP, Sorry for you loss... but very glad all the others have made it.... is this going to be made into a Sticky? IMO it should be.... what do others think?

[Mulisha]

yeah sticky would be great for begginers like me this is very handy infomation and can save lots of Discus lives and $$$ :D

Go work David..

[goldenpigeon]

thanx guys.

yeh how does it get made into a sticky?

[Mulisha]

A mod makes it a sticky I think :roll:

I'm not exactly sure though..

[Merrilyn]

A sticky it shall be. Great job Dave.

[oOAnUrIsMOo]

Great Post!!!!!!!!

[goldenpigeon]

why thank you ;) very nice of you to say so.... i dont like the pics much thoagh hehehehehehe

[sammigold]

I found this article that mentions Discus Plague and a way to treat without Meds.... anyway I thought I would place the link here and people can make their own decisions....

http://www.animalcomp.com/archives/fish/DiscusExpert.html

[goldenpigeon]

are you trying to make me go out of buisness sammi???

lol just kidding lol thanks for the link!!!

[martinchang]

Excellent sticky ...

We had four discuss with plague ... thought it was white spot and 2 died before I saw this thread ... treated as you said ... one more died but one has survived...

We put him back in the main tank (which has only has an albino rainbow shark in it and a black tetra)

Discus has been eating a little but nor regularly. ph is 6.4.

Now he seems to be swimming at a 15 degree nose up angle. He seems to "sink" and then works his way up again.

Any ideas on what is going on?

[herefishiefishie]

Just a question, I am in my 3rd day of treating this myself. How long do people advise to treat for?

Thanks in advance.

Frenchy :)

[ILLUSN]

Just finished my 2nd week of treating this disease and i am pleased to say i didn't loose a single fish. i treated for 7 days as David described ( couldn't get my ph below 6.5 but othwise, just as he has outlined). after that time all fish had regained color, no excess slime, damaged fins starting to regrow. Then as all the fish were eating i've been doing 1 150-200% change per night and just feeding metro in the food (2mg/100g discus dinner). all fish have recoverd, all have regrown damaged fins and most are now putting on ALOT of weight (must be the cleaner water). I'll be keeping my ph at 6.5 for another 2 weeks but i'll stop feeding the medicated food once this batch runs out (probably wedneday night)

[scott bowler]

i hope it all works out for you ILLUSN ,just keep up the good work mate . good luck

[kittyb63]

My beautiful Discus have been hit with the "plague" as well. What treatments are people using (I'm using Furan-2, General Cure, and T. Sulfa). Everything seemed to be working great then today my female breeder blue started darting around the tank violently. Now she is lying sideways and I'm in tears over her situation. Can anyone help me? I just did 3 major water changes and re-treated with the meds. I also turned down the UV sterilizer so it will clean water more slowly. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

[ILLUSN]

turn off the uv altogether! it will destroy the meds, treat with metro at 250mg/10L (Furan is dangerous and banned in many countires) drop your ph slowley to 5, keep up the water changes

[kittyb63]

turn off the uv altogether! it will destroy the meds, treat with metro at 250mg/10L (Furan is dangerous and banned in many countires) drop your ph slowley to 5, keep up the water changes

It's too late. I've lost them all. 1 breeding pair of Blues, 1 breeder pair of Red Pigeons, 4 Rio Rubus, 4 Cobalt Blues, 4 Green Scribbles, 6 Baby Blue Pandas,5 Hi-Fin Blue Diamonds and 3 Yellow Saffrons, 2 of which were beginning to pair up.
All of this because I was stupid enough to buy Discus from a dealer online I did not know. I quarantined the fish when I got them as I always do, and the disease spread to my other tanks through my Python cleaning hose.
I've run 20% bleach through the hose and pulled out all my cartrages and media. I'm letting the tanks run with 20% bleach in them.
How long should I let them soak before considering the tanks safe? Or should I toss everything and start over? :shock:

[Merrilyn]

Oh Kitty, that's so sad. I'm so sorry you lost your fish.

Discus plague is a terrible thing if it gets a hold on the fish. I've been where you are, had an 8 foot tank of discus wiped out, and it's such a tragedy.

Add more bleach to the water, stir up your gravel so the chlorine goes through everything, lift the driftwood and turn it over and soak all your water change hoses in the bleach too.

Let it sit for another 24 hours, then thoroughly rinse everything with clean water, and if possible leave outside in the sun for a few days till all smell of bleach has gone.

When you refill your tank, add three times the normal amount of chlorine remover, just to be on the safe side, and then begin cycling your tank again. If plague is in your area, then I wouldn't borrow any used media from a friend to start your cycle, but begin from scratch with a fishless cycle using either pure ammonia or a raw shrimp in the water to provide the ammonia. Your cycle will probably take a full six weeks that way, but at least you know your tank will be totally disease free for your new fish.

[kittyb63]

Oh Kitty, that's so sad. I'm so sorry you lost your fish.

Discus plague is a terrible thing if it gets a hold on the fish. I've been where you are, had an 8 foot tank of discus wiped out, and it's such a tragedy.

Add more bleach to the water, stir up your gravel so the chlorine goes through everything, lift the driftwood and turn it over and soak all your water change hoses in the bleach too.

Let it sit for another 24 hours, then thoroughly rinse everything with clean water, and if possible leave outside in the sun for a few days till all smell of bleach has gone.

When you refill your tank, add three times the normal amount of chlorine remover, just to be on the safe side, and then begin cycling your tank again. If plague is in your area, then I wouldn't borrow any used media from a friend to start your cycle, but begin from scratch with a fishless cycle using either pure ammonia or a raw shrimp in the water to provide the ammonia. Your cycle will probably take a full six weeks that way, but at least you know your tank will be totally disease free for your new fish.

It's not in my area, I made the mistake of buying from an importer online. Bloody stupid man, he doesn't quarantine his fish, he sells his fish as soon as they are off the plane from Thailand. He has a very nasty reputation amongst many American Hatcheries. The website where I found the poor sick little creatures is www.somethingsphishy.com so BEWARE!! He is located in Florida here in the states and I'm working with the ASPCA to shut him down.
Thanks much for the advice, I guess I'll be starting over!

[herefishiefishie]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I lost 3 all up, smaller weaker fish. What made it harder for me, was gravel, plants & other tropicals....display tank.
The carrier never came down with any symptoms at all. :roll: I always buy from the same shop, mate owns it. This "discus" came from a major wholesaler from south of where I am. :wink: {just to warn others to be careful}

I used the last of some chlor-B I had, with prazi. As I had one discus come down with whitespot & some others should symptoms of flukes. I used Indian Almond leaves to drop the water ph.
Once I ran out of chlor-B, I used an oxy family anti-bacterial. I soaked food in with metro during treatment too. Poor buggers got hit with more drugs then me at summafieldayze. :roll:

Frenchy :D

[goldenpigeon]

I have not set foot in a fish shop for many months (if not well and truely more than a year). If i want fish i buy them privately, if i want supplies i buy them online, if i want food i make it myself and so on. Fish shops are very undependable in my oppinion. sure there are some great places out there but i cant afford to be bringing anything home with me incase of bringing in disease.

After having dealt with discus plague, i have never had any fish problems since. i kept things simple and cut down on fish which i didnt need (thus reducing my chances of something going wrong if one was to fall sick).

I used to have over 40 discus, now i have 3 pairs and a spare (which i will remove when i have time). i have found this to be much more manageable...

[herefishiefishie]

I usually only deal with lfs. I have bought privately a few times discus wise. I have had more problems with diseases that way, apart from this one case now. The only time I will buy private again is if I visit someone like Rod Lewis.
There are what I consider 3 really good shops I would buy discus from here. Thats the problem with discus, the joys of so many things to look out for. Then again missing the plague or if fish are carriers, or have had it, is near mission impossible. The joy now is if I add anything, if it hasn't had the plague, it may well now get it when introduced.
IMO, lfs are the life blood of the hobby as a general overall, maybe not for discus fanatics, I can see that.
For me discus are just a small part of my fish hobby. I get great deals trading with a couple of lfs, therefore I don't have to waste time waiting for private deals to go through & I get my dry goods for a very competitive price in return. :wink:

I love this hobby, what works for one... :roll: :lol:

Frenchy :D

[kikoman]

OMG... i'm having this problems with my discus!!! I read the article thoroughly and I'll make sure I did all of these!!!! gudluck to me!

[kikoman]

as of now i'm doin water changing everyday and i think the discus is doin well.... they are eating now! but a little only....

[Indigo D]

Wish I had read this thread three days earlier. I just lost my favourite Pigeon this morning. It's been with me for 4 years. At first, I thought it was a fin problem and treating it with some medicine for fin, but after reading this thread, I'm sure it's a plague. Thanks God, I remove the sick fish as soon as I spotted its strange behaviour 3 nights ago. My other discus still seems healthy so far, hopefully...

What might have caused it?

Could it be the sudden weather change continuously? In my place (Jakarta, Indonesia), the rainy season is coming.

[ILLUSN]

did you introduce any new fish into the tank, usually thats how plague gets in.

[Indigo D]

did you introduce any new fish into the tank, usually thats how plague gets in.

I don't think so. The latest discus added was about 6 months ago. I did add a few pairs of small fishes like tetras 3 weeks ago, could they be the carriers?

[Daniella]

I had this disease a month ago and lots no fish. I first did a 4 days treatement with Quick Cure that did nothing and then I started permanganate potassium bath and that was like magic. My fish started to unclamp the fin after an hour or so in the bath. I did it at 2ppm for 4 hours. Did 2 days, one day rest, than 3 days. 5 treatment of 4 hours (some lasted less if the fish looked stressed) and that did it nicely.

It was so bad that some of my fish had their tail rotting in matter of hours...and the PP bath stopped the rotting right there, on the first bath.

The fish came out of this very thin for some and with lots of white mucus. Here were the symptoms:

pitch black
clamped fins
Scratching, letargic.
lots of white mucus sometimes in patches
rapid breathing
tail rotting
nauseatic smell in the aquarium and on the fish!

After 7 days on the onset of the disase, I started PP bath because I was loosing them. On the first bath they started to improve and by the third bath, I knew they were going to be ok. I continued 2 more baths and the last one was to be on the safe side.

[halo15dk]

That's a wonderful post David. Thankyou for documenting the disease so accurately. Discus plague is airborne and highly contagious, and it's common for every tank in the room to become infected, no matter how careful you are with nets and hoses to avoid cross-contamination.

Fortunately, due to good fish keeping practices, and careful observation, David was able to catch the disease early, and treatment has been successful. If treatment is delayed, the fish become weaker and deaths will occur.

With good care, the fish will recover fully, and the rotting fins will regrow. Interesting to note, that the fish are now immune from plague for the rest of their lives, although some may be carriers of the disease, and any new fish added to the tank, will need to observed carefully after introduction.

Good luck with the continued recovery of your fish David. You can be very proud of yourself for such a high recovery rate.

great advice...