Guidelines for use of the Emergency Room

[Proteus]

Please only use this area if you have an urgent question regarding the health and well being of your Discus.

[Proteus]

In regards to urgent questions regarding illnesses or other issues with your Discus or there environment, please refrain from sending other members or advisors Private Messages for advice.

Whilst I know of this happenning in the past and currently, we must keep in mind a few things. All advisors are volunteers, they do this for the love of it, and whilst I know they are happy to answer your questions, there is a time when they should be able to take a time out, with the knowledge that messages arent being left unanswered.

Another reason why questions such as 'Why is my fish sick' etc should be kept on the forum rather than in a PM, is so that other people can learn from others experiences, plus the advice from 3-4 people can quite often be more valuable than that from one member. (whilst the information provided is probably fine as is, there may be a better treatment or suggestion available).

I thank you in advance for understanding and respecting this request.

[Merrilyn]

Before you post in this forum, it's a big help if you do some tests on your water (because we're going to ask for them anyway) and include the results in your post.

A few other things which will help are :-

Age of fish, and how long you've had them.

Tank size - is it newly set up or established, and the tankmates.

Symptoms - describe as fully as possible and include how long they've been showing these symptoms.

Eating or not - and colour of droppings.

A picture is often a big help. Include one if you can.

And finally, please remember that we are just hobbyists, like yourself, and not trained vets. The advice we give is based on years of experience, but we don't have a magic 'cure all' and sometimes you will need to go to your vet for further tests.

Thanks,

Merrilyn and the advisor team.