Parasites and the like...

[Peaches]

Last night a friend that keeps Discus came by, took one look at our fish and said, "oooh...they're sick. Looks like Discus Plague." :shock: While cleaning the tank a bit while he's there we find little white wiggly worms...paracites. (The LFS that we got two of our Discus from feeds live Black Worms :( They were quarantined but didn't show any signs of disease or illness)

So, this dear friend gives us a few bits of advice.

We went to a different LFS and picked up some Discus Buffer (our pH is always between 6.8 and 7.1 but I think I've learned my lesson and will be maintainging a lower pH from now on) and Quik Cure, as well as upping the temp to 87'F.

My biggest question is, while dosing the Quik Cure should we do a water change b/c it recommends keeping the lights off and only using room lights. I don't want an amonia spike. I'm thinking of doing a 25% w/c and then dosing again. AND do we need to re-dose the Discus Buffer with the w/c?

[Mulisha]

With quick cure it will impact your bio filter so like you said w/c would be a good idea. While treating them feed very lightly or maybe not at all as you don't want ammonia spike in the tank..

Goodluck keep us posted how you go!

[Peaches]

I'll definitely keep y'all updated.

My poor fishies :cry: I feel like a bad mommy! They had perked up this morning so I'm hoping they're going to look better when I get home from work in about an hour.

[Mulisha]

don't feel bad things like this happen.. you might have nothing wrong with them *Crosses Fingers*. I think good w/c at the moment would be a must as well do i nice large w/c before you add the meds and try and suck up as much poo and organic matter. I was told organic matter can sometimes makes medication less effective..

GoodLuck!

[Peaches]

Yeah, right now we do 25% every other day. For the next three days, while medicating we'll be doing a 25% (maybe more?) before dosing.

I will try to vacum a lot up tonight though. Our poor plants have suffered too.

Thanx for the support:)

[sharn]

those little white worms might be planaria?

[samir]

maybe a good clean of your tank and a few extra water changes is the way to go. you will rarely see planaria and healthy discus co-exist. if you've got the lil white worms you need to clean more often and feed only as much as they eat in about 10 or so minutes. i doubt if its discus plague, if it was you wouldn't have needed someone else to point it out to you, that there was something wrong with your fish. i'd say its a water issue.

[Peaches]

That makes me feel better. I had read on here about Discus Plague and didn't think it really fit the discription. I also read the Planaria description and don't think so either, but as I've never dealt with them, I don't know.

They're already doing much better with what we've done so far.

Our little dark one (I don't know at this point if it's a Turq) is lightening up and showing his color again.

We've done regular water changes every other day of 25%, and do 4 small feedings a day. There's never food left in the tank. We vaccum as much as possible up every time we w/c b/c we have plants and plant material can cause all sorts of issues. Maybe a second filter to help with filtration? I was thinking about it anyway b/c we have to service our filter right now about once a week. The tank is FAR from over stocked but I think the filter is working too hard. Maybe a second intake?

We've removed the Balas as they were getting a little big and they are happily somewhere else.

I called the LFS and they're having and outbreak of paracites as well so I'm thinking it might have come home with the fish. They're not totally white worms, they're a little pinkish orange.

What else can I say that might help you guys piece it together. :?

Let me know if there's anything else that you'll need to know.

water parms:
Temp is up at 86'F atm
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrites:0ppm
nitrates: slightly over 0ppm
filter: Rena Xp3
substrate:Eco Complete (we have burrowing snails...any idea what's going on there?)

I know I'm bugging with all the questions but I want my fish happy and healthy. I know you guys have a lot of info to share and hope you don't mind me picking your brains.

[samir]

what colour is the poo ?

[Peaches]

Most is a dark brown, some it red from the color enhancing flakes and pellets.

[samir]

any chance of some pics ?

[Peaches]

I'm at work right now. I have some older pics (from earlier this month) but none at the moment of them before we started dosing on Wednesday.

I'll try to get some up tonight.

Wednesday when I came come there were three white bumps on the spinal line of the darker one we have, the Marlboro and the Snow White weren't acting any different except that their gill covers (I don't know the scientific name) looked like there were little plates on them...nothing wiggly or poking out. They were breathing a little heavy as well. Before Wednesday there weren't any of these things wrong with the fish, we did have the temp a little low as we were adjusting to a new heater.

Should we put a bubbler in or another spray bar and intake?

[leylai22]

Does your discus look like it's been dashed with salt? It may have Ich...not sure though but this is what I'm currently experiencing with mine: My discus is currently being treated for Ich with QuickCure combined with CopperSafe (treats for Ich,velvet and other external parasites). He started off looking velvety and his shiny blue color turned black then after a few days he developed the white bumps on his fins body and gills - it's a vicious cycle but can be cured by treatment, high temperatures and frequent water changes (which is exactly what you're doing). He would breathe fast and would scratch against the plants and the driftwood, didn't have much of an appetite either. I've been obsessing trying to figure out the best way to cure it and I've found that every site I go to and every aquarium store I visited, I would get different solutions but yet similar variations. So I guess in the end it is to your discretion how you want to go about diagnosis and treatment. Just make sure the treatments you use are compatible with each other.

Also, with the QuickCure remember to take the carbon out of your filter or else it won't work at all and continue with your water changes. I bought an airstone because I read that it's good to have during treatment (I don't know if this really is effective or not but my fish seem to like it). We've been changing 20% every other day (the first week we were doing it everyday) and our temp is always above 84F. Even though the directions say it can cure Ich in 2 days continue treatment for at least 14 days because the Quick Cure is only effective at killing the Protozoa in it's free swimming stage when it's searching for a new host. During this time the treatment and high temperatures are most effective as they can't survive in high temperatures.

Today I came home and noticed all the white bumps are gone, he's not scratching up against anything, is breathing normal and his vibrant blue color is back in full effect. I could be completely off as to what your discus may have but just wanted to give you my story since it sounds somewhat similar to what you're going through. :)

Here are a couple links on Ich:
http://www.novalek.com/kpd57.htm
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/whitespot.htm

Hope this helps! Good luck and keep us posted!

[samir]

are you refering to the tiny white worms ????? if you are, then all your tank needs is a good clean and feeding just enough. your ph is fine at 6.8 to 7.1 no need for discus buffer.

[Peaches]

I know this's late...but...it definitely wasn't Ick...I know what that looks like and how to treat it. My poor Beta got it about a year ago.

To update:The fish are doing really well, the pH leveled at 6.8 and has been there for a good week or two now. We installed an undergravel filter and a power head and the plants and fish started growing like crazy.

I really need to post the newer pics of the kids.

We've tried everything to get rid of the algae though and it's still not gone. Should we just add more plants and hope like hell it doesn't attack and kill them?

They fish are swimming around happy and the darker little guy we had is starting to show some blue striations on his fins:) Does their coloring work in from their fins or all at the same time. My fiance thinks he'll end up being a brown. I think he's simply beautiful either way.

I think that's all:)

[Merrilyn]

I'm glad to hear your little fish are on the improve Bubbles.

Often the move from the retailer's tank to your tank at home is enough to allow some parasites to take hold. The problem with your heater would have contributed to the problem too.

Glad to see eveything worked out, and your fish are growing well.

Algae, although unsightly, is pretty easy to combat. Try adding some fast growing stem plants to your tank. They will quickly take up all the nutrients and leave nothing for the algae to grow on. Once you have the algae under control, you can gradually remove the stem plants if you wish.

Currently the problem is that there are more nutrients in the water than your existing plants can use. This leaves lots for the algae. Remove that excess, and the algae will gradually die off.

[Peaches]

Thanx Ladyred.

My fiance went and bought three plants this weekend, none of which look too fast growing to me. However, Cobomba dies in our tank. I'm not sure why, but it will not live. It whithers, it's very weird.

I do have another issue though. Our Snow white is freaking out. She'll skim the top to the water like she's trying to jump out and she flails about and then stops and goes to the surface and almost floats sideways. I just did a 30% WC.

We dosed Quick Cure for three days and then stopped for 5 days and then dosed again. Could this be the problem? When we dose the Quick Cure about an hour and a half later the fish all go to the top of the tank and act like they can't breathe.

I'm so worried about our poor Snow White. She's freaking out all the other fish. Our Gourami went into hiding when she started doing it last night.

Water parms are all normal. The Co2 was a little high Saturday so we did a WC and turned up the bubbles on the power head, tested a few hours later and it was fine. Otherwise we're at 0ppm for Amonia, Nitrites and Nitrates. I'm at a loss at the moment. We've done all we can think of at this moment. She's acting normal right now, but I'm worried she'll do this while we're at work and it'll be the last time. :(

Any help?