38 replies to this topic

[s007]

Hello this is what one of my discus has which looks like a fungus or semthing:


Ive been dosing API Melafix for 2 days now and it doesnt seem to help at all, exept there was this white fungus looking thing on his tal which seems to be gone now.

[theshadowinc]

Is it a blue tourquist and red tourquist to the right, not sure but they look stressed.(Why is there black in the fish shouldn't it be blue and black all over stripped?)

Whats the stats of water and what heat is it??
Knowing this will help some of the ones who know them best to help you, with out this it could be hard to actually know. Plus looks like a fungal issue but I am not sure at all.

Malefix is only for fin damage not for fighting off parasites!(Promotes healing)
Wrong product for the Wrong application!

Is it on the gills, or is it on the fins can't really tell from the picture?

[beechey]

fish looks very dark

[s007]

The water temp is 82/83 (28/29) The water stats are OK for discus as far as i know, i do 2 water changes every week of about 25-20% PH is 6.7-7.0 Nitrate is 10 and Nitrite 0

The fungus looks like its not on the gills but behind them on the skin there use to be one of those white fungus on the tail right before tail starts but its gone now. All that i have with them is 2 Cardinals 2 glow tetra and one common small plec and its a 70 gal tank.

If they are stressed i have no idea from what. Maybe thats because i only have 2 of them and 3 more comming this week (i wouldnt like to place 5 of them as same time because of benefisial bacteria needs to settle down for them which is now done)

Ive added Melafix to help them out and thinking of adding abit of salt and maybe even get stress coat to keep them smyling. But still i need to help with that fungus!

[theshadowinc]

The water temp is 82/83 (28/29) The water stats are OK for discus as far as i know, i do 2 water changes every week of about 25-20% PH is 6.7-7.0 Nitrate is 10 and Nitrite 0

You missed the ammo test, that is the most important part especially with discus! Any signs even .1 ammo in the tank I have notice with mine that they lose there colour that is when i do a water change and boom they are fine. Usually caused from overfeeding(I test my water for PH, Ammo, Nitrite, Nitrate, CO2 every day)<- Been through that so I actually know that. I have seen tanks with high ammounts of ammo, 0 Nitrites and 10 Nitrates, How long has this tank been setup for 6 months????

The fungus looks like its not on the gills but behind them on the skin there use to be one of those white fungus on the tail right before tail starts but its gone now. All that i have with them is 2 Cardinals 2 glow tetra and one common small plec and its a 70 gal tank.

If they are stressed i have no idea from what. Maybe thats because i only have 2 of them and 3 more comming this week (i wouldnt like to place 5 of them as same time because of benefisial bacteria needs to settle down for them which is now done)

Is this tank cycled??? I won't go into anything about keeping just 2 together lol, cause I only keep 3 and people say should have 5 or more, and well they are right they should be in a scoal of 5 to create what is known as a pecking order.

Ive added Melafix to help them out and thinking of adding abit of salt and maybe even get stress coat to keep them smyling. But still i need to help with that fungus!

Never add salt stop right now STOP! Get the advice first, you are sapose to do salt water baths but I have never done it with discuss and won't advice you to do it!

Go to your local library or your local book store and pick up a book about discuss on taking care of them etc. Right now you need to help these dudes out and get educated like you never have before!

I am going to do some looking up to see what this is but will take me a little bit to try and figure it out just hold tight!

[theshadowinc]

Does it look anything like cotton, like cotton balls???
What colour is it pure white or grey???

[s007]

theshadowinc thanks for help mate really appriciate it. The ammonia is 0.02 not even one especially as i did water change yesterday and today. Yes the tank has been cycled (quick way as i have added filter media from my old tank which was rurning for about 3 years then it cycled for abut 7 weeks with the fish which was transfered from old tank) Ive done all tests daily and all was accoring to fish in cycling and help from users in this forum. Those 2 discus been doing fine cince i got them its just last 3 days was abit hard for them as i can see.

Its pure white not really grey colour it might look like cotton ball but its too small to tell.

[WILDER]

Its sound like columnaris so take a look her to make sure.
http://www.flippersa...flexibacter.htm

[theshadowinc]

Its sound like columnaris so take a look her to make sure.
http://www.flippersa...flexibacter.htm

lol was going to say its eaither Flexobacter (Chondrococcus) Columnaris which is the white one or Saprolegnia which is the grey one.

I guess known as cotton ball to most, you beat me to the punch

[s007]

I guess this is it guys! ive lowered temperature to 75-76ºF (24ºC) and increased airetion tomorrow morning will have to go and get INTERPET ANTI FUNGUS AND FINROT NO 8.

I hope my discus till get well and hope they will be ok to cope with 24 C temperature for 10 days

Thanks again to all for help if discus survives then you saved it!

[WILDER]

Don't bother with the intepet anti fungus and finrot med its crap on columnaris. Also a members just said it knocked some of his fish out for 4 days.
Myxazin by waterlife and pimafix for columnaris in the uk.

[theshadowinc]

I guess this is it guys! ive lowered temperature to 75-76ºF (24ºC) and increased airetion tomorrow morning will have to go and get INTERPET ANTI FUNGUS AND FINROT NO 8.

Stop don't do it, you will lose them for sure I would say they like it hot no matter what not only that, you will make them parasite magnets gaurenteed! Its hard to treat discuss, well atleast I have found its hard to treat mine they like temps of 82-83 and thats it, if 85 they turn black on me and if lower than 82 the same. You have to remember to kill off any parasites they hate heat!

Give me some time to look up a few different treatments this will be advance and something not normally seen, but a few are good and a few actually will dump the fish and kill of the bacterial supply in your filtration. I recommend get yourself a hospital tank a farly big one if possible something like 20gal should be okay for 2 discuss if you run into issues later on. And don't add new discus to the tank! At least not for now.

[s007]

OK, well ive increased airetion, left temp at 28/29 and will try to get Myxazin by waterlife as said by Wilder (that one was mentioned in there too i think)

Edited by s007, 18 March 2009 - 12:00 AM.

[theshadowinc]

Okay the treatment now sorry had to actually read here for a second and understand some of the meds and what is involved to get rid of this one. I will tell you right now I have never had this issue in my life, just know about it and how to identify it and the treatments. With discus being expensive as they are you have to be 100% on what you are going to do. I am going to take it little by little on what you can do. I have all the information here just need to type the important stuff for you out here. And really look at getting yourself a book about them to help you out in rough situations and this would be a rough situation

First Thing
A prolonged bath in potassium permanganate solution, daily in a 1:5000 dilution by weight remember by weight. This is very important. Its about 75mg/gallon 3.8l remember everyone's gallons is different so 75mg meds/ 3.8Litres of tank water. Remember to have the bowl clean very clean this is an oxidizer med and the bowl needs to be very clean I can't stress this hard enough. You are going to do this daily although what a poor book this is, it don't tell you how long to do the treatment for. Read the bottle it says that they are given out in different dosages for differnt animals. Follow what it says for time, lol I just read that now. Want to make sure I give all info to you that is really important.

Next thing
Sodium Chloride(Salt) ~ 1tsp for 3.8l of water, this will cure the fungus in 2-3 days if it is a mild case of it. Discus can handle the added salt for the time being, but remember the only way to get rid of the salt is by dilution, water changes. Okay now you have a planted tank, this will kill every snail and plants in your tank. So where i reco you have a hospital tank this is the reason why. And yes you have guessed it put the salt right in the aquarium. We do know what we are dealing with so this method is recommended only if its a mild case if its not a mild case it won't work. Just remember that salt don't cure everything. And to be honest with you, this fish should be taken away from this tank and put in qaurtine cause your other discus and prone to catching this, I am thinking you should treat them both just to be safe. Time is ticking on this matter and the life span is becoming shorter and you need to act quick.

Definitly last resort!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If all else fails, treating with oxytetracycline will kill off this infection. However, this med will also kill off your bio-filter and all bacteria in your system. It's also been known to adversely affect the digestive systems of some fish species through damaging intestinal flora.

Keep your water at the same temp about 30C will do the trick for ya just remember to watch the behaviour of the fish.

Another question are they eating okay??

Hopefully this helps for you and does the trick, remember 1 thing you want to actually treat this as it is a spreadable issue. Hope this helps, like I said I have never tried this with discus I have done salt treatments to babie fry before and also adults with success as far as some of these products go I can't warrent anything but its a really good book called Discus Fish, its an owners manul and its up to date kinda lol. Well main thing is it works.

Just remember discus are hard to adapt to a place but once they do they are usually okay and you will be able to tell signs when water changes are needed etc. Watch for the colours it will tell you alot that is going on in the water.

[s007]

i dont know how to thank you shadowinc, this morning the Discus looked much much better and all coloured up cince ive incread airation. Temp at the moment is 28C. The cotton wool seem to become slightly larger id sa 1mm or something but most of it gone as before it looked white now its more sea through (probably fell off)

I def got some salt and shuld have potassium permanganate. Wll follow that steps and see how it goes but as i said the both discus look much happier this morning.

Cheers! Will update how it goes.

Edited by s007, 18 March 2009 - 07:52 AM.

[s007]

Ok i found potassium permanganate (lol my brother got it ages ago as to soak feat he-he) the question is are you sure its 75mg per galon (it means 15 tea spoons of that stuff lol)? Mate one tea spoon has 5mg or 5ml the whole bottle that i have has only 25G something not right here. maybe you ment 0.75 mg (tho i still think its too much)

Ive transfered 2 discus to other hospital tank and will add salt as directed by you above.


Sergey

Edited by s007, 18 March 2009 - 08:47 AM.

[Tolak]

1/4 tsp is about 400mg if I remember correctly. That would give you 1600mg per teaspoon.

PP is nothing to mess with if you don't have a bit of experience with it. It is a strong oxidizing agent, easily capable of removing the slime coat & burning gills.

Pick up the dry PP at a pond supplier, or supplier of water softening chemicals. You want to dose at 2mg per liter at first. Take a quart of water, add 10 teaspoons. Use 2 drops per gallon of tank water to give you 2mg/l.

Hydrogen peroxide will neutralize PP, 2ml of 3% hydrogen peroxide per gallon.

[s007]

The 2 disus at the moment are in 25 liter hospital tank, ive aded 6 and a half tea spoons of salt 25liter/3.8 liters =6.5, the stress bars cam up on the ill discus and now gone. Trying to keep temp constant at 28C. Ive aded lots of airation and will try to keep solarity of water at 3% will do water change every day of about 70%

Im still not so sure about potassium permanganate as said if its just started the cotton wool the sault shuld get rid of it as its only about 3-4mm in size. Ill keep close eye on them and see how it goes. Im going to work now might get online from there im just afraid when i come back home they will be dead as this is the first time i used salt to threat fish (hope they can handle it)

Serg

[theshadowinc]

The 2 disus at the moment are in 25 liter hospital tank, ive aded 6 and a half tea spoons of salt 25liter/3.8 liters =6.5, the stress bars cam up on the ill discus and now gone. Trying to keep temp constant at 28C. Ive aded lots of airation and will try to keep solarity of water at 3% will do water change every day of about 70%

Im still not so sure about potassium permanganate as said if its just started the cotton wool the sault shuld get rid of it as its only about 3-4mm in size. Ill keep close eye on them and see how it goes. Im going to work now might get online from there im just afraid when i come back home they will be dead as this is the first time i used salt to threat fish (hope they can handle it)

Serg

If its a mild case of it, then salt will get rid of it for you. <-- It only applies if its a minor case give it a few days but you should also be using the oxidizing method to help

potassium permanganate is an oxidizing med and really works good, problem that is here you don't have experience with using it and unfortunitly I don't neither, but I do know about the product and how good it is. They should be blue crystals if I remember correctly. But doing this with the salt bath will definitly help get rid of it. The bath time won't be that long, it should say the times on the package somewhere, it can range from 1min bath to 5min bath reason why is it comes in different dosages from our lfs here not sure about London England. Its a process that usually has to be done quick, reason why is that the oxidizing of the agent will run out in a hurry. Can always do it for 1min then remove the fish and usually safer especially if its the first time you have ever used the med to use a lower dosage like stated above. And I repeat I have never used the Oxidizing med before just heard of it and read about it in a book and seen the product in our lfs.

and 1 tsp = 2670mg remember that the statement above is wrong for how much is in a tsp, really you are using very little of the product. To measure 75mg its best to have a scale when talking mg if you do EI dosing you should know how much 75mg is its not alot. 250mg of powder is pretty darn small, and 75mg is even smaller you are looking at somthing like 1/16 of a tsp may be in the area but still best to weigh it.

Stick with the salt and since its in a hospital tank with salt you could always dose with oxytetracycline, only thing to remember is that it will actually kill of all bacteria even the good stuff. There is also an Ammo bath you can do for this but I have no experience with it. Heard it works sometimes but not all the time this is another thing you could try if you are scared of using the PP method. Ammo bath I am not sure about the mesurements. Its something I would have to look up but I am heading out and will be near a lfs I will have a look at what we have here and what you could do. But sounds like the salt solution is actually working for you

[WILDER]

Here a link to potassium permanganate
http://www.fishdoc.c...ermanganate.htm

Edited by Wilder, 18 March 2009 - 05:40 PM.