Fed up with Discus

[troutmaster]

Had it with my Discus. I live in Airdrie, If you want them you can have them becuase I will be sending them to the Bow river via the tiolet soon. To fed up to disuss the details but they are sick with spiro and very nervious. I have 7 in total I think only two are ok. tried treating with all kinds of stuff. Just e-mail me.

[neatfreak]

DON"T GIVE UP :

tell me what's wrong?

IN detail; PH,

water, temp ,levels,

food, TANK SIZE, how many

tank mates.

WHAT MEDS & for how long.

I'll think of more

but for now

TELL ME!

[RD.]

You can read more about Troutmaster's Discus issues here:

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=94381

Sorry to hear that they haven't come around for you.

[troutmaster]

I don't want to give up but this is nuts. My current situation is as follows: 15 gal super melow orange didn't eat in a week, noticed white poo, out of 90 gal into 15 gal dosing 600mg met day 3 (2-25%h2O /day) .... 32 gal has 1 red turquois and 2 blue turquois.. ( dosed with Paragon as per instructions on day4 )Red turq eats met soaked blood worms only about a week now poo almost looking good all the time, dorsal fin ragged on edges, colour poor, eyes cloudy but not so withdrawn anymore. Blue turqs one seems to eat blood worms of the bottom after they sit their for a while. Other guy on major hunger strike, have not seem him eat in 2 weeks. Both dark and freak out easy. Where eating pellets and happy when I got them about a month ago. 90 gal has 3 fish; 1 blue snake skin, 1 red turq, 1 super melow orange. Snake skin started to shy up then I noticed white poo starting. Started feed met soaked food again(while he's still eating) Plan to feed met soaked food again to fish in 90 for another 2 weeks. Vacuum bottom as often as possiable to prevent spreading bug to the 2 good fish. Water temp in 90 gal 86 F , 32 gal 88F, 15 gal 88F, water ph and hardness = Calgary tap water, no Amonia or nitrite, Nitrate 5ppm to 0. What else can I say. Only fish eating pellets and red wiglers are the 3 in the 90 gal. Tank mates are a pleco and 2 rams. They must be pickled with the met by now. I miss my family I want to relax and enjoy my fish like I used to with my African's which I traded for these &*^%*^ fish. I think I just have to wait things out. What do I do to kill the parasite in the tank to keep the fish from picking it up again? More damn meds. I thought a bleech but I don't really want to cycle tank again. That's the scoop so far. Problem started about 3 weeks ago. I messed up and did not quarentin properly. Like I said I would start all over again if I knew a way I could avoid this hastle. If I get rid of these fish I don't know what I will get for fish. Always wanted Discus ever since I was a kid, but I had no $ then. Now I got kids and NO $. Thanks for the encouragement.

Edited October 21, 2005 by troutmaster

[neatfreak]

to my knowledge,discus have to have low ph,

5 to 6ish[if constent].natural way is:drift wood

[turns wATER BROWN BUT FISH LOVE IT]rinse first.

peat in filter[fiber or pellets]

for meds I recommend little aqua salt[LESS than half tble per 5 gals,dissolved first.]

melafix [1 teas. per 10 gal.]

or for soaking food kanaplex is a good product[for not eating]

food[frozen discus delight is best , brine shrimp]

treat water[tap water conditioner,prime ect.]

at pet store they say,once cycled,only water change:

once a week 10%

once evey 2weeks 20%

after 5 to 7 day meds,only 25%[do not over medicate]

never more.need aged water.to much stress on fish.

lighting might be to much,they like it little darker.

they enjoy live plants as well.temp can be around 81.

please let me know if this helps!

just some friendly help.

[ronrca]

I keep discus and have of over 3 years. The best place for disease help is simplydiscus.com! Im by far no expert in the disease side as my discus have not been sick yet and to be honest, I hope never to be an expert on disease. Simplydiscus is the best site when it comes to discus.

My water parameters for my discus (you guys better sit down). My pH is 8.4, around 300ppm gh/kh, temp 84F. My discus are in bare bottom tanks to ease maintance. On my juv discus, I do 50% wc daily with an 80% once a week. My adults get a 50% and a 80% weekly.

Id like to really stress this next point. Discus must have stable water parameters. Your wc water parameters must be the same as your tank water parameters. Your tap water is fine for discus as long as you age it (heated and aerated). Why age it? My tap water has a ph of 7.0 however when heated/aerated for 6 hours, the ph rising to 8.4 because of C02 dissapation. Regarding RO water, you dont need it unless your breeding. It get as simple as that.

Id recommend placing your discus in a quarantine tank, raising the temp to 90F with lots of aeration. Dont medicate till you find out exactly what the issues are and how to treat them. Many times adding med after med is counterproductive not to mention expensive. If someone was at Dick Au's presentation on discus, you will remember that he also mentioned that his med cabinet hardly gets opened.

Any you sure that the discus are not passing tapeworm eggs? Just a thought.

O, get you post some pics also. Seeing them sometimes helps the diagnosis.

Edited October 21, 2005 by ronrca

[RD.]

7.0 out of the tap, in Edmonton? That certainly comes as a surprise. Calgary should be closer to 7.6-7.8, with a reading of 8.0 after 24 hrs.

I know a number of people that raise Discus in pH above 7.6, no problems. As far as water changes, as ronca has mentioned if you can match the water parameters in your tank, large water changes should never cause any stress, quite the opposite.

I perform 40-50% water changes weekly in my tanks, and twice weekly in juvie tanks. My Tropheus tank received a 30% water change every 3-4 days. The only side effect you should notice is good color, and good growth.

As far as disease treatment for Discus, this site offers some solid advice as far as meds, and dosages. http://article.dphnet.com/cat-02/spironucleus.shtml

I'll refrain from posting my personal thoughts about simplydiscus, suffice it to say that majority of the members there feel that keeping a Discus alive for 4 years is a success story.

[ronrca]

Tap water actually in Wetaskiwin! :thumbs:

I'll refrain from posting my personal thoughts about simplydiscus, suffice it to say that majority of the members there feel that keeping a Discus alive for 4 years is a success story

Sorry to hear that! Ive been an active member for over 3 years and never got that impression. Certainly I dont think that way as my fishroom is dedicated to discus and Im going to be starting a breeding program shortly. If my discus only have a 4 year life span, I better find another hobby or fish. If it had not been for simplydiscus, Id of given up a long time ago as I was trying to lower ph with no luck (ph crashed). Just like any forum, they are members that are misinformed and simply isnt free of them. There are members that are very opinionated and lack solid info. For the knowledgable members that I have come to know and respect, 4 years discus keeping isnt considered long term and they are not in it for the short term.

Send me a pm perhaps with some specifics.

Great link btw. dhp has excellant info.

Edited October 21, 2005 by ronrca

[troutmaster]

At this point I would settle for two years. Well I have not been aging my water only because of keeping the temp up in the resovour. ( garbage can) Well at 3 out of the seven seem to be doing not to bad. As far as the pooh type. All I can say is that it is white about 1cm to 2 cm long most of the time. Some times it does look clear. I did treat with perasite clear ( by Jungle) and found several tape worms barely alive on the sand. How fast can that parasite spread from one fish to another? Honestly I can't believe none of them are dead yet. Paragon says it is a wide sectrum med. So hopfully that at least gets me to the point fish will eat. But it sure would be nice to now exactly what bug they had.Can I mix met with a little bit of fluke tab? I Figure at this piont I've got nothing to loose. (ha.. my neighbours just brought over thier Betta to fish sit while they are in Florida for the week) With my track record they better pack him along for the trip. Well I think tomorrow I will do my big water change in the paragon tank and see if fish perk up. The meds say 3 days should do the trick. If not wait 3 days and dose them again. I hate messing up water like that.

[wandj]

I have 6 Discus in a 55 gal shared with 9 German Blue rams and 3 Ottos. (Overstocked but I have 2 canisters) Of the 3 Tefe's I had originally purchased, one died as it was gravely sick from the LFS and died on the 5th day in my care. (I was new to Discus and did not recognise the signs of ill health.)

Anyway, since then I bought 3 from Dad's and added one more from another source. My Tefe's were a bit "iffy" then and again as they are wild and more fragile. I had to treat them a couple of times due to the appearance of a pit or two around the face with pus. Cleared right up with Jungle Hole in Head Guard within a day.

My other Discus (fancy strains) are tough as nails and have NEVER shown any signs of illness.

pH 8.5-8.7

GH 220 ppm

Kh 310 ppm

Temp 87-88

Water changes: 1/3 every 2 days and straight from the tap. I match the temp but the water comes from the well so is low in O2 content: hence a temporary low pH of 7.6 as it is being added.

No problems.

That's my regimen and it breaks a lot of rules, so I wonder if Troutmaster has just been cursed with poor quality stock. It happens. My regular Jack Dempseys are beautiful and the picture of perfect health, yet my Blue Jacks are all on Death's Door.

And I treat them all the same.

Trout: go ahead and give away your Discus, get your tank healthy, and try again?

If I can keep Discus alive with the water chemistry they're in......

[troutmaster]

That is what I needed to hear. But I am a bit peranoid about Discus at this point becuse they all look healthy until you gey them home. I will try to fix these guys up and continue on with any healty survivors. No dead yet. If I can get them eating I might pull it off. Using metro and fluke tab soaked food. It will be a while before a bother with any more new discus. Thanks for all your help guys. I really don't have time to do everything by the Discus die hard hand book.