White scratch, whats wrong?

[Nathan]

hey guys my semi adult discus looks like he has a white mark sort of scratch on one side of him. im not sure if its a scartch or bacterial related, im really sure it isnt ich i treated that in another tank a little while back. ill post a picture tomorrow but does anyone know what this could be?
I dont think that its an injury caused by another fish as all i have is a 4 other juvinille discus, neon tetras, 2 bolivian butterflys, 1 blue ram and 5 golden sucking cats

water params
ph 6.9
ammo 0
nitrite 0
nitrate0
tamp 28-30 (the temp swings a bit, im workin on gettn another heater)

[samir]

he's probably darted and banged into something

[Nathan]

thanx samir ill post a pic when i can probly sometime tomorrow, that should help ppl judge what the problem is

[samir]

dont know about the sucking catfish. i was told by the guy who sells me fish not to add sucking catfish with discus as they suck the slime off. dont have any personal experience but you might want to ask around just in case

[mistakes r crucial]

Hi Nathan,

Discus injur themselves quite easily from time to time and especially if they are spooked for whatever reason. I notice on a few of mine every now and then that they have a bit of a scrape so I use Bettadine to help steer them clear of infection. Just net the fish, place it on a wet tea towel and brush a little Bettadine over the wound. I find that the ladies cosmetic brushes are great for this, they have a sponge one end and a little brush the other.
MAC

[marg]

Do you mean the Bettadine that you get at the Chemists (I think it's Brown coloured)?

[Nathan]

the suckers have never bothered any of the fish in the tank before, they usually have a bit of a go at eachother but nopthn serious, plus they are well fed and eat basicaly every scarp in the tank. thanx for the help though guys.

ive got a uv sterlizer running so that should help a bit with the risk of infection

[mistakes r crucial]

Yes Marg, the brown stuff.
MAC

[marg]

Thanks Mac, I'll get some and keep it aside in my little box of tricks.

Every now and then mine get the odd scrape (the ones in the Community tank that is).

Regards,

Marg.

[sammigold]

I used mercurachrome (spelling???) once on a silver dollar.. (the red stuff) when I put him back in the water it reacted and turned lime green!!! (the mercurachrome that is... not the silver dollar) I had read it in a fish book on treating ulcer type lesions on fish... (I dont think it really did much as most of it washes off as soon as you put fish back in.. its not like you can wait for it to dry!!!! LOL)

[nicholas76]

5 golden sucking cats - bad news coming your way.


Once the realise how yummy the discus slime is,,, they will pester them non stop!

thats coming from experience :wink:

[Nathan]

thanx nick il definitely keep an eye on them an at first site of them bothering the discus theyll be gone. can anyone suggest a bottom feeder that helps a lot with the algea and is great with even the harder algea to get rid of, an is there any that will eat the black hair algea?

[Bill T.]

Nathan. I got some "flying foxes" from OAFI & they do a pretty good job of controlling that black hairy algae. They also take car of anything on the tank bottom - I had a dead cardinal recently & they gobbled it all up within about an hour.