Thin Discus And Anchor Worm On Nanacara.

[425nm]

I recently rescued a Discus who was being kept with a Leporinus. Now before I took him home he was housed away from the Leporinus for three weeks and got some time to grow back his tattered fins. Tattered fins aside he appeared healthy and was eating (had some good pudge on him at this point).

I do not know if the discus is wild caught. S/he looks like a Heckel except does not have the two more prominent black stripes.

I now have him in my 75 gallon with my four angelfish (yes I know this is a touchy subject for some people). Originally he was doing well, however a week later I noticed my male Nannacara anomala had what appeared to be an anchor worm and was quite thin to boot. I tweezered the worm off (there was only the one attached just a few milimeters posterior to his operculum and I'm pretty sure I got its head) and treated the whole tank with PraziPro (just finished a 7 day treatment yesterday).

I'm not 100% sure that the Discus brought the anchor worms in because in retrospect my Nanacara had been hiding for at least a week (I'd been really busy with work and hadn't noticed).

The male Nanacara is still hiding and I shoot food in front of him. He'll grab it but spit it out after. Does it take awhile for the fish to bounce back from Anchor worm?

The female Nanacara (who had also been hiding but appears/ed healthy and worm-less) is eating but hasn't been out in the open as much as usual (no weight loss on her).

The Discus is now displaying black stripes (not super dark ones) but is still eating and has gotten rather skinny (both head and stomach are concave). Is it possible that he has internal parasites that the PraziPro didn't manage to kill?

I also lost two green fire tetras however they were some of my juveniles so I'm not sure that its related.

All other fish in the tank appear healthy, active and wormless.

Water:

Ammonia: 0mg/L

Nitrite: 0mg/L

Nitrate: 10mg/L

Temp: 26C (heater placed in front of a canister spray bar).

I run two canisters a Jebae 302 and a Cascade 1200.

I feed at least twice a day. I use a mix of NLS cichlid, general, and discus formula plus frozen (mysis, bloodworms, and brineshrimp).

Edit:

Is it possible that my bright lights are stresing the discus. When s/he was originally introduced to the tank my plants were quite tall and provided a lot of shade and then later I pruned the hell out of it. His previous holding tank was also quite dim.

Edited June 22, 2012 by 425nm

[Quetzalcoatl]

Discus are very shy and will commit suicide, by starvation, if stressed. The angels could be bullying the discus. The discus needs a place to hide and as you mentioned something to provide a shade. Once a discus has decided to terminate his/her life it will take 3/4 weeks to accomplish its final goal. This is the time you have to convince it life in a fish tank is worth a try. Also discus are shoal fish, being lonely might be also a reason for it to be a depressed fish looking for a final solution.

[425nm]

Discus are very shy and will commit suicide, by starvation, if stressed. The angels could be bullying the discus. The discus needs a place to hide and as you mentioned something to provide a shade. Once a discus has decided to terminate his/her life it will take 3/4 weeks to accomplish its final goal. This is the time you have to convince it life in a fish tank is worth a try. Also discus are shoal fish, being lonely might be also a reason for it to be a depressed fish looking for a final solution.

S/he definitely isn't starving himself. Still eating but none the less skinny. S/he does like to hover infront of next to once of my pieces of driftwood which s/he camoflages in very well with. Doesn't spend time swimming in open water however. I haven't witnessed any overt aggression on the part of the angelfish, they're some what warry of the discus as it is larger than them (this of course doesn't rule out bullying).

I am aware of their shoaling nature. I'll pass the fish along to someone with other discus but I'd like to be sure the fish is disease free first.

[nabilbb]

Discus being aslone with other angels is not recomended at all, Get more Discus or give it away to someone who has Discus

[jvision]

It sounds like an internal parasite problem. Any fish that is eating well but is skinny, likely has parasites. If you found an anchor worm in one fish, it's likely that all have them.

[425nm]

I know there's controversy over whether angels and discus can be housed together because they can supposedly vector disease to one another. I have yet to find any legitmately documented cases of this occurring.

Unless of course you are referring to possible aggression issues. As stated above I intend to rehome him but I'd like to be sure he is parasite free first.

I figured as much. Is there a more effective means of rearing internal parasites? Has anyone had success treating anchor worms with PraziPro? Is there a more effective plant safe treatment I could try?

Edited June 23, 2012 by 425nm

[Fisher]

How are you doing with this?

[Chelsea]

maybe potassium permanganate.

[ckmullin]

fenbendazole

[Chelsea]

It looks like the potassium permanganate treatment is already available in AA's pond forum 425nm.

You can find uBroke's instructions here: http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=31776

Fisher has a post on that little gram scale that Lee Valley sells. http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=36849

It's a nice unit to scale dry meds and ferts. Fisher even mentions potassium permanganate in his post. Go figure.

I hope everything works out well for your discus 425nm.

[vicdiscus]

If you have a larger discus around 6" + alone live with angelfish and other fish are fine.

If you have a smaller less than 3" live with angelfish and other fish are not good idea.

If your caster filter have carbon, I suggest you should remove carbon because the carbon collect vitamins, water minerinals, etc are not good for discus and other fish. My suggest you can use carbon for after water change and run for 4 to 6 hours , you need to remove the carbon into a zipper bag, you will use it again in the future.

Can you tell me desperation about anchor worm? Maybe Tapeworm? or other type of worms?

If discus stomach are too thin, or poop are not darker, If poop are white or clear It is meaning infection stomach, you need to treatment metronidazole as fenbendazole first day 500 mg per 10 gal, Second day 250 mg per 10 gal, third day 250 mg per 10 gal, 4th day to do water change at 50% add 250 mg metronidazole as fenbendazole 5th day 250 mg per gal 6 days 250 mg per 10 gal 7 days 50% water change add 250 mg metronidazole as fenbendazole , you can use 1000 mg metronidazole or fenbendazole per 100 G bloodworms, mix and put into freeze. Give them med with food if discus eats little bit, it s good sign. if discus does not eat, try treatment med for one more week. If discus do not eat. It s not worth it. bec it s too far. if discus does not eat a lot and med right away, it will recovery. You need add vitamins with food and feed your fish once a day every 3 rd day.

Also med with food to feed health fish are very good.

Hope the Help.

Duncan