floating nose up

[newfish]

I have recently treated my tank as one discuss went very dark and fins started to rot. Also skniny looking and pinched around the head.

Aquarium Science Braod spectrum tank treated about two weeks ago.

25% Water change, left 3 days and then treated with Waterlife Sterazin.
The sterazin treatment has just finished with no sign of improvement. In fact two discuss are no longer eating and one is on the bottom of the tank, nose in the air and breathing very slowly. Not looking good javascript:emoticon(':cry:')
Crying or Very sad

I have done another 25% waterchange.

The tank:

Established about 2 years now
No recent fish or additions
4 discuss with some green / armoured catfish and congo tetras
Planted tank
110 litres
PH 7.5
NO2-N <0,1 mg/l
NO2 <0,3 mg/l
NO3 40mg/l

The nitrate is high and has always beedn difficult to lower.


BTW About a month ago: Aquarium Science worm-rid

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

[samir]

seems like your biofilter is not properly established and you're not changing enough water. any kind of ammonia or nitrite reading is highly undesirable. also a reading of 40 nitrate does not help. if you expect your fish to recover while you still have ammonia and nitrite I think you're being a bit optimistic. I'd start changing a lot more water than the 25% after 3 days for starters

[FishLover]

110 litres tank is about 30 g, which should only have about 3 discus. If you add in other fish, you are over loading the tank for sure. Maybe it was ok a year back because the discus were small. Once they grow bigger, they are going to put huge stress on the bio load for such a small tank. You are slowly killing them with the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the tank. No matter what drug you put in it, you are going to have one problem after another.

The best way is to do more water changes to get the nasty things out of the water, then you need to find a bigger tank asap. Until then, I would go for daily water changes, even more if possible.

[Bill T]

As an emergency or temporary first aid measure, I have used a product called toxivec, which neutralises ammonia, nitrite & nitrate. It does not take the place of regular water changes, however (nothing does). I have found it to get me out of a scrape when I have been sick with the flu, or too busy with work & have to skip an occassional water change.

So perhaps you could combine more frequent water changes with some toxivec in between?

[samir]

I'm assuming that whatever medication you used adversely affected your biofilter . Sterazin is for flukes. I'd suggest doing 50% water changes with prime, everyday till they look better. use a double dose of prime as it will also take care of the nh3 and no2 in your tank. keep an eye on ammonia and nitrite levels. The wc's should take care of the nitrates. IMO, with that fish load, in a three footer, you need 3 X 50% wc's per week. you can avoid 99% of problems with regular water changes and good quarantine practices.good luck and i hope your fish get better.