Sick discus hanging in corner

Good day everybody,

I added a new discus to my collection 2 weeks ago.
All went well for a week or so and then last week all my other discus was hanging in one corner.
Rushed to Pet stop and was told that they might have parasites transferred from the new.
The medication recommended was frozen food soaked in garlic guard,sea chem Focus,sea chem Metronidazole .
All fish recovered except the yellow discus who now since yesterday has also got slight white film over the eyes.
They also try to feed but is struggling.
Tank size:475 liter
There is 8 discus in my setup
Temperature:29 C(Jaeger heater)
Filtration:Build in gutter filtration with filter wool,peat and cubes.
PH:7.2
NO2:0
NO3:20
KH:3 d
I feed brine shrimp altered with blood worms in the morning.
During the day there will be 3-4 more smaller feedings including tetra bits and good quality flake foods.
Biggest mistake i know was to not quarantine first!!!

Can somebody please let me know what else to do?

Water changes will happen every second day with 25-40 liters at a time.

Many Thanks
Fish Mad

 

A very quick reply because I have to go to work.

This is a bacterial infection that was brought in with your new discus. You will have to treat with an antibiotic.

Phone your chemist and ask him if he can get chloromycetin capsules active ingredient chloramphenicol.

Will respond again later.

Dirk

 

sick Discus

Morning Dirk,

Thank you i will try and get today.
Will then hear from you later how to do treatment.

Keep well.
Fish Mad

 

Ok Fish Mad,

First thing that you should learn from this is THAT YOU NEVER BUY DISCUS AND ADD THEM TO YOUR COLLECTION WITHOUT QUARANTINING THEM.

Discus carry bacteria on their slime to which they are immune and they will not get diseased from. If you mix discus from different sources then the new ones can carry different bacteria to the discus that you have and the other way around. So the new fishes infect your fishes and your fishes infect the new ones in turn. This often means that they all get sick and they can easily die from this problem as well. This problem is often called discus plague, but this is not caused by one type of bacteria it is this mixing of bacteria from different sources that causes the problem. This has nothing to do with parasites, they cannot cause discus to get sick so quickly.

This morning when I saw your cry for help, I read your post quickly and I did not see that you fishes were actually improving so before I recommend any treatment, I actually want to know what the symptoms are now, how is this one fish? I can then recommend a treatment, but I do not want to recommend treatment unnecessarily.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Feedback on sick discus

Morning Dirk,

The normal blue colours are all doing fine and back to normal behaviour.
I have taken out the 3 yellow discus and placed in quarantine as they are still struggling.
They will every now then try to eat one or maybe to pieces of frozen food(very small amounts)barely anything.

I have also noticed that on one or 2 of the small fins on the side of the body is breaking up?
They are just staying close to the bottom of the aquarium and not really swimming around.
Please let me know what you would recommend as medication please.

I have definately learned my lesson now on new fish and quarantine.
When i quarantine a new discus,must i place something in the new fish water or just keep seperate for a period of time?
Must i quarantine for a month or so?

Many Thanks with all the help/advice!

Fish Mad

 

Hi FM,

OK, the yellow discus are pidgeon blood related and have a thinner skin/epidermis which explains why they are battling more than the others. I am always careful not to recommend heavy medication for discus because I know that the medication can also have very negative effects on the fishes, so one is in a difficult situation here. If your blue fishes have recovered then these should recover as well. For the moment I would recommend that you add a tablespoon of salt per 100 litres and that you move the temp up to 32C with good aeration. The aeration is very important because at this high temp, the oxygen does not dissolve in the water at very high levels and you need to make sure there is enough oxygen or else the fishes suffer even more.

When you buy new discus you need to put them into a quarantine tank, settle them in with higher temp for a few days and get them to start eating. Watch them carefully and only if there are symptoms of disease would you treat them with anything. You must quarantine for about a month before adding them to other discus and even then you can have problems.

Let me know how things progress.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Hello Dirk,

Will this be normal table salt?

 

Normal table salt is fine yes

 

thank you very much.