Discus Blackened, And Dying.

[chaz61998]

Hello,
I have 4 discus in a 60 gallon tank with a sand substrate and 3 amazon swords in it. There is also some driftwood. Tankmates are 6 harlequin raspboras, 3 german blue rams, 1 oto, and 11 corydoras. I once had 6 discus, but 1 disappeared after a short vacation, another died about 3 months ago from this very same problem. The discus is blackened, and laying on its side about to die. I recently checked parameters today and the pH is at 7.5-7.6, ammonia nitrites and nitrates are all at 0. I do 15% water changes twice a week. The discus are fed omega one super color flakes and I also drop in pellets for the corydoras. 2 of my other discus are doing fine, they always eat and I have never had a problem with them. The last discus is my biggest and oldest, about 7 or 8 months old. He has been showing signs of the issue I am having with the dying discus. He does no longer rise to the surface to eat and is much less active, usually hiding in the corner of the tank. His poop has also been whiteish yellow and stringy recently.
I have done some research and I think it is discus plague, but I am not sure. Any medication advice will help.
http/imgur.com/a/y23tk
That is a link to the pictures of the discus. The first one is the dying discus, with the bottom fin of a normal discus on top. The second picture is of the other infected discus, leaning against my driftwood.
Thanks in advance.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Best advice I can offer is find a discus site and post there. Start here http/www.simplydiscus.com/library/disease_medications/index.shtml

 

[Zante]

Ok, nitrate at zero is highly suspicious.
Take a water sample to the LFS and ask them to analyse it, just to check your test kit is ok.
I lost 3 discus to a bogus test.

White and stringy poo is a sign of internal parasites, I would go for a course of Hikari de-wormer.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Why would 0 nitrate in a tank that well planted be highly suspicious?
 
Are you seeing any signs of slime coat sloughing off?

 

[chaz61998]

Why would 0 nitrate in a tank that well planted be highly suspicious?
 
Are you seeing any signs of slime coat sloughing off?

Yes, the slime coat appears to be gone.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I will offer a suggestion. Its likely to later. You can look for and try a medication called Binox. Treat the fish in an H tank.
 
I had a similar experience with discus a number of years back. I had four discus and lost 2 so I went right to discus folks for help. They started me off with 2 discus in a 10 gal H tank with the temp over 85 and 2 full cups, yes cups, of salt in the water (I was told I could go up to 3 cups). It took 2 days to get it in. After several days where I was not happy with the progress, it was suggested I try the Binox. Because it contained sodium, I first did big water changes to get a lot of the added salt out of the tank and then began the Binox treatment.
 
I managed to save the two fish having lost the other 2. But I started treating the last two before they lost their slime coat.

 

[Sophie]

Why would 0 nitrate in a tank that well planted be highly suspicious?

3 Amazon Swords is heavily planted? Would two 15% water changes a week be enough to keep it at 0 too?

 

[chaz61998]

Also, yesterday 1 corydora died and just now another one has died. So it can't just be a discus issue.

 

[Sophie]

How long have you had all of them? When were they each added? Other fish too. Did you introduce anything before the first death 3 months ago? How do Discus disappear?

 

[chaz61998]

I got my first two discus about 5 months ago and put them in my 29 gallon. Then, for Christmas, I got my 60 gallon and moved them over, along with 4 new discus I bought. 2 of the new ones were the first to go. One disappeared, the other died just like this guy. The discus that just died was one of the original 2. The other one that looks like it may be dying is the other original one. The corydoras that died I had bought in a group of 8 3 weeks ago. One major change that may be a cause is that I built a spray bar for my filter out of PVC pipe. I had to use PVC cement to hold parts of it together, and I spray painted it. Could any if these leech deadly chemicals into the water?

 

[Sophie]

The spray paint surely? What type/brand did you use?

 

[chaz61998]

It was Krylon brand, black meant for plastic surfaces.

 

[Sophie]

Hmmm someone who knows better will probably say but is the paint coming into contact with the water and then flowing into the tank? I'm only going by what I know with how toxic the chemicals are in those things for us as human beings let alone gradual leeching into water - not to mention how sensitive Discus are anyway. Hopefully someone who knows more will help.

 

[chaz61998]

Yeah the spray bar is set partway into the water.

 

[Zante]

Why would 0 nitrate in a tank that well planted be highly

In my discus tank, 400 litres, I have two amazon swords, a tiger lily, a java fern, a patch of long eleocharis, about seven hygrophilia and four blyxa, and I don't consider that to be particularly heavily planted.

... and I change 25% weekly.