Help! My discus are looking weird, and I think they are sick! HELP!!!!

AND, you have loaches and plecos as well - depending on what kind they are, some of these species can create problems in a discus tank as well. For sure, clown loaches are a no-no, as are some plecos, except BNP's.
Just be aware.
 
^okay, well I am pretty sure my clown pleco won't do anything, as whenever I am able to see him(rarely, max once a week) he is in one of my 8" holes in my DW.:)
And I have a ABN so no probs. there. I don't have clowns, I have yoyos. :)

I would only do clowns if I had a 180G or bigger for 6 of them.
 
nc0gnet0 said:
My medication of first choice is still kanamycin, more expensive however and harder to find. Second would be furan 2, and then the maracyn. Kanamycin is absorbed into the fish much faster than the rest, and as such begins working much sooner. A QT tank is essential, much easier to keep the water pristine, and much less costly to medicate. Not to mention the risk of secondary infections are lowered.


But seriously, you need to have a good talk with that breeder. These fish are terrible. Sorry to be so blunt, but it is a lesson you need to learn. How long have you had them? You do realize your going to spend at least 2x as much medicating these fish as what you paid for them? I wish you lived closer, I would give you six healthy fish just to see you flush these.

BTW I currently have 14 tanks with Discus in them, more than half of which have discus fry or juveniles that I have bred.
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I would love to buy some of your discus once i am ready and prepared for them. If you will ship.
 
It was probably dumb of me to suggest discus in the other thread, but I didn't realize you were 14.

They are great fish, I love them, but they are not too easy to take care of. First off like someone mentioned you need to be sure to get ones that look very healthy. For some fish like most cichlids you seldom get a weak one, and with many fish it always seems like there's one in every batch even if you carefully select only ones that are active and swimming straight and look bright. For discus it's a lot worse than that, I seldom see any that look too great, and never a whole batch that's good at least not in a fish store.

You are going to have problems with them in with so many fish, especially if you stick stuff in and out a lot. Just remember they are delicate.

But the lines on there, no I don't think that's normal. It's also not columnaris unless the guy you bought them from had them, and it shouldn't look like that anyway. It's also not flukes for same reason and other reasons.

So what's the winner? Hole in head.

Hole in head is a constant worry for discus. It's always around to some degree, but it is anaerobic meaning it becomes a serious problem when you have low oxygen. The higher your temp is, the lower the oxygen. You also have a lot of fish in there. Though I am setting myself up for the invariable idiot attack, small fish use up more oxygen on a pound for pound basis so you can't just go by pound as 99% of the people on this site think.

So what to do? First off, just ditch the loaches and add salt. You need to salt that tank, that's all there is to it. Actually, you can get away with some salt with scaleless fish after all I have quite a few bichir in a salted tank, but the problem with loaches is if they roll around on the undissolved salt that's it, it's game over. You can dissolve it first but it's a pain, and if you push it too far the loaches will die anyway.

Second, lower the temperature. Like everything, discus have a livable range - obviously they are outside so it's not ALWAYS 100 degrees outside, even in the amazon. Anything 80 or above ought to be fine. 86 is also really pushing it for the rest of your fish. That is fine short term like to treat an illness, but it is probably going to be too much for day in and out.

Lowering the temperature is going to help with the hole in head because you will have more oxygen absorbable into the water.

Third, do all you can to up that oxygen level.

Fourth, constant water changes. This gets the little protozoa out of there and gives them less to feed on.

So it comes down to hot but not too hot, and plenty of salt and constant water changes, and limit the addition of new fish as every time you do risks your discus and they are both delicate and expensive fish you really don't want to lose. I tried tons of medicine and such but if the evironment problem exists HITH is just impossible to eradicate, as far as I can tell. I'd suggest salt baths too, but you really should not net the discus unless you have to.
 
SickBum said:
It was probably dumb of me to suggest discus in the other thread, but I didn't realize you were 14.

They are great fish, I love them, but they are not too easy to take care of. First off like someone mentioned you need to be sure to get ones that look very healthy. For some fish like most cichlids you seldom get a weak one, and with many fish it always seems like there's one in every batch even if you carefully select only ones that are active and swimming straight and look bright. For discus it's a lot worse than that, I seldom see any that look too great, and never a whole batch that's good at least not in a fish store.

You are going to have problems with them in with so many fish, especially if you stick stuff in and out a lot. Just remember they are delicate.

But the lines on there, no I don't think that's normal. It's also not columnaris unless the guy you bought them from had them, and it shouldn't look like that anyway. It's also not flukes for same reason and other reasons.

So what's the winner? Hole in head.

Hole in head is a constant worry for discus. It's always around to some degree, but it is anaerobic meaning it becomes a serious problem when you have low oxygen. The higher your temp is, the lower the oxygen. You also have a lot of fish in there. Though I am setting myself up for the invariable idiot attack, small fish use up more oxygen on a pound for pound basis so you can't just go by pound as 99% of the people on this site think.

So what to do? First off, just ditch the loaches and add salt. You need to salt that tank, that's all there is to it. Actually, you can get away with some salt with scaleless fish after all I have quite a few bichir in a salted tank, but the problem with loaches is if they roll around on the undissolved salt that's it, it's game over. You can dissolve it first but it's a pain, and if you push it too far the loaches will die anyway.

Second, lower the temperature. Like everything, discus have a livable range - obviously they are outside so it's not ALWAYS 100 degrees outside, even in the amazon. Anything 80 or above ought to be fine. 86 is also really pushing it for the rest of your fish. That is fine short term like to treat an illness, but it is probably going to be too much for day in and out.

Lowering the temperature is going to help with the hole in head because you will have more oxygen absorbable into the water.

Third, do all you can to up that oxygen level.

Fourth, constant water changes. This gets the little protozoa out of there and gives them less to feed on.

So it comes down to hot but not too hot, and plenty of salt and constant water changes, and limit the addition of new fish as every time you do risks your discus and they are both delicate and expensive fish you really don't want to lose. I tried tons of medicine and such but if the evironment problem exists HITH is just impossible to eradicate, as far as I can tell. I'd suggest salt baths too, but you really should not net the discus unless you have to.
Click to expand...

It wasn't dumb of you at all:) It was stupid of me to do an impulse buy as they were so cheap:( I am still angry at myself.

Okay, I have a 24" bubble bar and 4" bubble disc aerating at full throttle with an airpump, the stress lines are gone on all the discus, the whitish stuff is all gone, 1 of the discus has recovered almost all its color:), another one is almost there too, 2 of them have a bit of stress lines, and the 5th one is at the top with clamped fins.

so

4 swimming, eating, no clamped fins, look healthy

1 swimming at top only, eating, clamped fins, and lethargic.
 
Ah so there's a happy ending. I don't see them for cheap too often and they are great fish so it was a good buy.
 
Until I found out about them being stunted, I hope they make it so I can breed them. And the seller I bought them from is sold out now, that means he sold 30 to poor customers:(
 
At the risk of starting an argument, I say no to the salt, save it for your french fries. :) More air is a plus and can't hurt. Fish that are having difficulties breathing don't need salt, and it will interfere with some of the other meds you are ordering. I am not particullarly fond of the seachem kanaplex, it is not pure kanamycin, and for what you get it is incredibly expensive. To further complicate things, thier dosage is whacked. I order most of my discus meds from here:

http://www.eliteaquaria.com/

I would be interested in seeing updated pictures as well. ;) As for the angelplus flakes here is the link:

http://www.angelsplus.com/MedsParasite.htm

Angels Plus also carries the kanamycin that you really want as well as metro. However you will need to order in larger quantities that you probably want.

And I would like to add, that Discus aren't as hard to keep as most people make them out to be. Hard work, yes. The trouble is, and why they get such a bad rap, is most people start out with incredibly bad stock (like you). Getting healthy fish from the start is 90% of the battle. I have rarely seen a discus in a LFS that I would even consider buying. Save your money, and when your ready, buy some good stock from Han's or Kenny, or any of the other fine Simply Discus sponsors.

And I highly doubt that I will ever be shipping discus, it really is quite cost prohibitive.
 
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