DISCUS PLAGUE - treatment and photo's of fish UPDATED!!!!!!!

[goldenpigeon]

I have not set foot in a fish shop for many months (if not well and truely more than a year). If i want fish i buy them privately, if i want supplies i buy them online, if i want food i make it myself and so on. Fish shops are very undependable in my oppinion. sure there are some great places out there but i cant afford to be bringing anything home with me incase of bringing in disease.

After having dealt with discus plague, i have never had any fish problems since. i kept things simple and cut down on fish which i didnt need (thus reducing my chances of something going wrong if one was to fall sick).

I used to have over 40 discus, now i have 3 pairs and a spare (which i will remove when i have time). i have found this to be much more manageable...

[herefishiefishie]

I usually only deal with lfs. I have bought privately a few times discus wise. I have had more problems with diseases that way, apart from this one case now. The only time I will buy private again is if I visit someone like Rod Lewis.
There are what I consider 3 really good shops I would buy discus from here. Thats the problem with discus, the joys of so many things to look out for. Then again missing the plague or if fish are carriers, or have had it, is near mission impossible. The joy now is if I add anything, if it hasn't had the plague, it may well now get it when introduced.
IMO, lfs are the life blood of the hobby as a general overall, maybe not for discus fanatics, I can see that.
For me discus are just a small part of my fish hobby. I get great deals trading with a couple of lfs, therefore I don't have to waste time waiting for private deals to go through & I get my dry goods for a very competitive price in return.

I love this hobby, what works for one...

Frenchy

[kikoman]

OMG... i'm having this problems with my discus!!! I read the article thoroughly and I'll make sure I did all of these!!!! gudluck to me!

[kikoman]

as of now i'm doin water changing everyday and i think the discus is doin well.... they are eating now! but a little only....

[Indigo D]

Wish I had read this thread three days earlier. I just lost my favourite Pigeon this morning. It's been with me for 4 years. At first, I thought it was a fin problem and treating it with some medicine for fin, but after reading this thread, I'm sure it's a plague. Thanks God, I remove the sick fish as soon as I spotted its strange behaviour 3 nights ago. My other discus still seems healthy so far, hopefully...

What might have caused it?

Could it be the sudden weather change continuously? In my place (Jakarta, Indonesia), the rainy season is coming.

[ILLUSN]

did you introduce any new fish into the tank, usually thats how plague gets in.

[Indigo D]

did you introduce any new fish into the tank, usually thats how plague gets in.

I don't think so. The latest discus added was about 6 months ago. I did add a few pairs of small fishes like tetras 3 weeks ago, could they be the carriers?

[Daniella]

I had this disease a month ago and lots no fish. I first did a 4 days treatement with Quick Cure that did nothing and then I started permanganate potassium bath and that was like magic. My fish started to unclamp the fin after an hour or so in the bath. I did it at 2ppm for 4 hours. Did 2 days, one day rest, than 3 days. 5 treatment of 4 hours (some lasted less if the fish looked stressed) and that did it nicely.

It was so bad that some of my fish had their tail rotting in matter of hours...and the PP bath stopped the rotting right there, on the first bath.

The fish came out of this very thin for some and with lots of white mucus. Here were the symptoms:

pitch black
clamped fins
Scratching, letargic.
lots of white mucus sometimes in patches
rapid breathing
tail rotting
nauseatic smell in the aquarium and on the fish!

After 7 days on the onset of the disase, I started PP bath because I was loosing them. On the first bath they started to improve and by the third bath, I knew they were going to be ok. I continued 2 more baths and the last one was to be on the safe side.

[halo15dk]

That's a wonderful post David. Thankyou for documenting the disease so accurately. Discus plague is airborne and highly contagious, and it's common for every tank in the room to become infected, no matter how careful you are with nets and hoses to avoid cross-contamination.

Fortunately, due to good fish keeping practices, and careful observation, David was able to catch the disease early, and treatment has been successful. If treatment is delayed, the fish become weaker and deaths will occur.

With good care, the fish will recover fully, and the rotting fins will regrow. Interesting to note, that the fish are now immune from plague for the rest of their lives, although some may be carriers of the disease, and any new fish added to the tank, will need to observed carefully after introduction.

Good luck with the continued recovery of your fish David. You can be very proud of yourself for such a high recovery rate.

great advice...