Another sick discus

[sc00by]

Hi

Now my other discus is looking slightly better, my big one is looking a lot worse.

I've been doing some pretty big water changes, and dosing the tank with Melafix to try and fix the smaller discus up.

The big one has now got very dark and seems to be almost shivering, and twitching a bit. I've added a photo but its not great. His skin almost looks like its drying out or something. I did put some aquarium salt in but less than the recommended dose and have done a 50% water change since. The tank is about 28 Degrees, ph 6.8 no nitrite, or amonia but a little nitrate (less than 20).

Any suggestions?

Thanks

[weird]

Sorry I am unable to see a picture ? You really need a more experienced discus person with this one than say myself ... however I think I can safely say you should raise your tank temperature to above 30.

Also with your water changes, make sure you are changing it with water that is identical to your tank conditions, in regards to ph and temp. I now have a plastic storage bin, with a heater and airstone, and prime added ... and I prepare the water 24 hours before a change.... actually I have 2 of these permanently setup.

There is a list of common treatments for discus, but it is best to correctly diagnose the fish than treat it for something it doesn't have ... as I found one of the medications very stressful for the fish.

Plus, as prevention is better than cure ... think what may be causing the problem ... in my case when I had a similar problem, I thought about it , and to me, there were three obvious possible contributing factors ... temperature dropping more than 4 degrees every night, introduction of a non-quarantined plant and also feeding any old frozen bloodworms. Changes I made:

1. Now have 2 heaters
2. Removed plant, and now quarantine plants like they were new fish
3. Changed over to Hikari bloodworms which are sterialised

Hope this helps.

[flukes]

Great adivce..

As stated water changes are good for the fish if your using water that is the same as the tank, temperature should be within a few degrees and ph should be close aswell.

[kalebjarrod]

raise the temp to a stable 30c - 31c, this will increase the fishes metabolizme (spelling) and will help them fight the problem faster. stableize the heat by adding a second or third heaters if needed, no night time drops.

do you have an air stone of sponge running?

remember to add salt to the water you are useing in your change, no use adding salt then removing it in the next water change.

increase the salt to the recommened rate ( i don't know what you have put in so far)

post a pic and lets see what we can get it down too.

[sc00by]

Hi

I have raised the temperature to 31 degree's and the fish looks a bit better already (turned up the heater last night).

As far as salt goes, I'm pretty happy with the dosage, (1 teaspoon per 20 litres) but how often should i add it?

Duh, just realised my picture wasn't uploading because its too big, (read the message geekboy) how embarrassing :oops:

Thanks

[sc00by]

Just realised that picture makes the fish look like its on the verge of death, the whiteness of its skin is much worse in the picture than in real life.

Getting a new camera tomorrow so will try again then.

[flukes]

Salt wont hurt the fish, might find it hard too swim too a salinty that too high but you would need too add a fair bit more than you are now too reach salt water salinty.
Just by the sounds of it, it could be velvet, although i could be wrong, i cant tell much from the pick but normally flakey skin is a syptom of velvet.