Need To Vent

[DiscusKeeper403]

After 3 weeks of vacationing, and visiting my relatives I have to come home to what seems to be sick fish. I got my Dad to be in charge, doing weekly water changes on the adult Discus tank, and twice weekly on the Juvy tank.

In the adult tank I see one of my discus in the corner just sitting there. Paper thin, the caudal fin is sagging and clamped. I am pretty sure it's old age, as the person that sold it to me said it was quite old, too old to breed anymore. So, I separated her into a hospital tank.

Next, I go to feed the Discus. 2 or the 4 Discus eat vigorously on the Brine Shrimp I gave them (smells a tad off and its spirulina enchaned), 1 takes a bite of food and then spits half of it out, and the next just sits by the side of the food and doesn't eat. (I have noticed the ones not eating have moved down in the hierarchy and have lost color.) So I try some Mysis shrimp (again smells some-what off) and no one really touches it.

Next I go to feed the juvy grow out/wild tank. The Juvy has grown ALOT since I left him, which seemed like a good sign, and it was. I went to feed them one of their favorite foods Hikari Discus sticks. The always hungry wild fish swims up to the food and just looks. IT LOOKS LIKE HE HAS STOPPED EATING TOO!!!

I am not sure what to do. I am going to dose the tanks with some praziquantal and check stats tonight a long with another water change. Might try to get some live food for the wild. I really hate leaving my fish with my dad, although I love the guy, he really can't take care of fish (especially needy Discus.) I actually have to fly off tomorrow for a week I was thinking of leaving them but I might need someone to come in and check on them if they remain not eating.

Thanks for letting me vent. Feel free to comment!

 

[shibby]

i had to leave my discus for 6 weeks! i dont think they got many waterchanges but were well fed luckily!

hope you get them feeding well soon again

 

[shelaghfishface]

ive read a lot of your posts,and have every confidence in you making them well again

 

[bugsy66]

I had some frozen foods once that were bad. The thing I look for is if there is alot of ice inside the blister packs they are in I will not touch them. There is one lfs that has food like this and I know that this food has thawed and they just put all the pack back into the freezer and refroze it, not a good idea.

Another thing I look for is Hikari, I have never had issues with this brand but have had bad food from other brands.

In your situation I would do a nice big water change just before you leave. Just have your dad top up the tanks if they need that with water you have put aside for it. They would probably fair much better if they had just water top ups with very small feedings.

As for the food, if you feed alot of frozen foods cut up the amount you would normally feed and put this into a container so he cannot overfeed underfeed etc.

If you use dry food I love the empty camera film containers for this, I put the required amount of food into them and all he would have to do is open one lift the lid and dump.

I have been feeding like this for years and I have my two "teenage" boys looking after my tanks all the time. I have never ever come home to a disaster yet or any ill fish.

Sorry to hear about the fish, with a nice big water change hopefully they will perk back up.

 

[kribensis12]

Awww , im sorry. I hope they make it.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Thanks for all the encouraging comments! Unfortunately my Dad is accompanying me on this trip, so one will be here to clean/feed the fish for a week. I hate to put the burden on my friends as most of the haven't the slightest clue on what to do for feeding or water changes. I am going to hope for the best, but send a friend over mid-week and just check on all the fish. I have to wake up at 4 in the morning so I'll do a quick water change on all the tanks tonight and just hope for the best. It seems as if maybe the Discus in the big tank aren't feeding due to the dominant one not letting them eat. They seem to have come to terms with it and almost just given up... poor things. I hope they can last a week and I'll start treatment.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Got back today and found everyone still alive. I changed out water from all the tanks, and added some General Cure. I was suprised that the fish I hospitalized would be alive by the time I got back. Wasn't sure if I needed to put him down or not. Found him dead a few minutes ago... Hopefully it was old age as the previous owners said it was too old to breed when I got it a year ago.


Some fish are still not eating...

 

[rabbut]

Sounds dodgy to me Sorry to hear of your issues Discuslova, as you have always been a great help to me. I asume you have looked for the obligatory Flukes, Worms and Protazoan infectons?

I know you know more than me with discus in general, but if it were me, I'd crank up the temperature as much as safely possible (I go with 35c) to increase apitite and speed up the motabalisum to help their imune systems. This should put disease organisums at a disadvantage. I would then add a Flubendazole based med (I would make use of my black-market Flubenol source here tough it's available on percription from a vet in the UK with a worm or fluke infection)

The praziquantal should cover the same stuff but I have no experience with it directly...

Best of luck sorting this Might be worth PM'ing Wilder?

Hope I'm not telling you stuff you already know
Rabbut

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Sounds dodgy to me Sorry to hear of your issues Discuslova, as you have always been a great help to me. I asume you have looked for the obligatory Flukes, Worms and Protazoan infectons?

I know you know more than me with discus in general, but if it were me, I'd crank up the temperature as much as safely possible (I go with 35c) to increase apitite and speed up the motabalisum to help their imune systems. This should put disease organisums at a disadvantage. I would then add a Flubendazole based med (I would make use of my black-market Flubenol source here tough it's available on percription from a vet in the UK with a worm or fluke infection)

The praziquantal should cover the same stuff but I have no experience with it directly...

Best of luck sorting this Might be worth PM'ing Wilder?

Hope I'm not telling you stuff you already know
Rabbut

Hey. Thanks for the reply.

I am going to finish up dosing with general cure. Yes, I did look for the obvious signs of disease but didn't find any.

I have some good new though.

I found the my Angelfish (who had grown HUGE in the time away) had started to pick on my Discus. I didn't really find out till' today. So, as a birthday treat, I went out and bought a bunch of stuff for my new 25 gallon. Got a Ram and a new small Angel. I have those in quarantine and have removed the other Angel to put into the 25 gallon. I also bought some new food.

I added some Blood worms in and to my surprise I found both the not eating Discus picking at remains at the bottom. The other swam up and both the not eating Discus chased it away. One of them has regained it's color a little. The General Cure might be helping, so I will finish up with my course of it.


I will hopefully be able to add the fish in quarantine once the other fish are healthy.

I think the best b-day present I got today was healthy fish.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Hey guys,

In case anyone was wondering, I finished up my course of general cure today, and did a water change. All the fish are eating again. Even the wild one, who won't take is previous favorite food, but will take blood worms, which I have never fed him . They don't have huge apetites but are taking food in which is the most important part right know. I am very glad.

 

[tHE SCRiBBLEs]

Well thats good news! Im gettin a 55 gallon tank tommorrow and will put discus in it once i get the money to buy them and all the stats are right.

Got any last minute suggestions?

Could I mabey try and stick 6 in there or is that pushin it?
It will have great filtration and I will preform two 25-50% water changes weekly.
What should there main source of food be, Flake, bloodworm, etc?

Thanks for the info

 

[rabbut]

You'd get a better responce with your own post Scribble

DiscusLova; Glad to hear your fish are eating again. That is deffinately promising. I hope they make a speady recovery for you

Scribble; IMO 6 would be fine. A good dry staple should make the base of your diet, suplimented with a good quality tropical quintet frozen food mix I use Discusin granules, they make a very similar product to Tetramin granules. Hikari, tetra and New Era all also make good discus foods, though New Era is only available in the UK ATM

HTH
Best of luck DiscusLova
Rabbut