Help - Live food - bloated discus

[salza80]

Hi,

I've made a big mistake in feeding my 5 4cm discus live worms and brine shrimp on the weekend. The absolutly loved them, i'd fed it to them once before with no problems. However this time, i woke up the next day and i had 4 floating quite distressed discus. The one that was ok was the one that didn't eat the live food, he only likes his sinking pellet food (wise old fish). So i know it was caused by the live food. I went to my 'discus man' who told me to turn temp up to 32degrees C, and gave me antibiotics. I did this and they were looking better but 1 day later by biggest fish was dead (he ate the most and was the worse effected), the others are swimming ok, lil blue is kind of swimming a bit funny and they aren't as responsive to me and still seem quite sick.

Am i treating them correctly? is there anything else i can do for them.
I have read live food is dangerous but i didn't listen... :( I won't be doing it again
what causes this...is it parasites? or could it just be over eating?

help please, i'll be very upset if my lil blue dies

Sal

[Benny]

If they're bloated, best bet is to remove any catfish and tread with epsom salts (a sort of diahoretic, helps them clear their bowels).

Look for one of Ladyred's posts on the forums for treatment, but i think the dosage is 1tbsp per 40 litres.


It could be a parasitic problem, but IMO the first detail that needs attention, is their bloating...

Regards
Ben

[salza80]

Thanks ben,

The bloating went down, and they seemed to be swimming ok but one more fish died a day later. He was looking a bit sick before hand, swimming around funny, kind of off balance, just not himself.
The others look ok now, they have started eating again, and are swimming well.

I was wondering what do you think was the cause. All the fish that ate the live black worms were floating the next day, so i don't think it was just a case of overeating/bloating ? Most likely something to do with the live food?
I fed them both live worms and brime shrimp, and now i'm to scared to feed them any live food again... but i'm not sure which caused it. Are the live brime shrimp pretty safe? i've read since that it is the worms that are risky? i don't want to deprive them of thier fav food, but i don't want this to happen again.

Sal

[Nathan]

u dont need to worry about the live brine they dont carry any parasites, to me it sounds like over eating, how much did you give them?

what type of worms are they? ive heard live bloodworms can sometimes cause intestinal blockages due to there skeletal structure thats why i feed mine black worms.

anyway really sorry to hear about your losses, hope everything is alright now

[salza80]

They were live black worms. But, i did feed them quite a bit, about 3 feeds over 5 hours or so,,,they kept begging me for more! They didn't look bloated after the last feed before i went to bed, next morning they were all bloating belly up! but i guess i did feed them more than usual... ?? prior to this incident they were perfectly happy...

[Nathan]

sounds possibly like over feeding, im not 100% sure. i kno they keep coming up to the glass when you come over an it is entertainin watching them eat but gotta have a bit of control, id only feed them black worms once a day if you really wanted to feed them black worms.

i usually feed them blackworms once a day for 7 days every 3 or 4 weeks. i just keep it as a bit of a treat.

[Merrilyn]

I wonder if the live worms you fed them were a bit "off".

Live worms tend to deteriorate very quickly and often the worms you get from the shop have been kept bagged for quite a few hours before you buy them.

It's always wise to rinse them really well with running water before feeding them. They should look a dark red/brown colour and very lively and wriggling strongly. Any that have begun turning grey should be discarded. They cling tightly together in a ball and the inside of the ball can hide dead and dying worms. When you wash them, break up the ball with your fingers so any dead worms will be flushed away.

If you intend keeping worms for more than a day, either put them in a bucket under a dripping tap, or if that's not possible, then keep them in a covered container in the fridge and wash them daily.