Sick discus or maybee not

[Narny]

I've kept discus for about 2 years now, i have 8 of them. And love em to bits. I have 6 in one 4 foot tank, and 2 in a smaller 3 foot tank (this is my breeding tank).

A short while ago, i had a breeding pair of 5 inch tangerine discus, unfortunately, the male died very suddenly. The female i put into the community so she did'nt pine and she recovered fully, about 3 weeks have passed. She's started to act like she wants to spawn, she's bowing and generally harrassing all the males in the tank. However, she's recently got into the habbit of clamping her left fin to her body, and swimming with her right. I don't think she's ill as her eye's are bright, her colour is vibrant, and she eats like allways (her fin clamping stops when she eats, bizzare). She also leans to one side a lot, but only when it seems to suit her, as like i say, feeding and she's back to normal, or if it seems to suit her she swims normally too. Her dorsal fins are up and she's looking in good health other than the leaning and fin clamping (left side).

I've recently obtained another tangerine / pigeon cross, mainly tangerine, so i moved her and her new (slightly smaller 3") friend to our breeder tank to see how they get along. They've been swimming up and down and kissing a bit, and allthough better than she was, is still displaying this fin clamping behaviour, i'm starting to wonder if she's just developing a habbit rather than an illness. Anyone else shed any light on this?

Also, is a 3" capable of breeding with a 5"

I use only RO water (have my own supply)
RO right added to the water and heated before changes.
PH 6.5
Soft water (Nutrafin test kit)
Slightly acidic
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = Don't check as i change water no less than twice a week
Eheim filtration (2 * 2210)

My other 7 discus are fine and no illnesses in over 6 months (had a slight problem with trichodiniosis (think i spelled it correctly but sorted it out with protozin, she's not included in that batch as i had her afterwards)

Cheers

 

[fufanu360]

myoscar was doing that for a while, but only maybe 2 hours B)

i seem to think they are jsut ''resting'' that fin, i think it looks worse than it really is

 

[Dwarfs]

Clamped fins for a prolonged period of time can often be an early sign of illness. Do a water change, and see if it helps. If the fin remains clamped, a medication may be needed

 

[Narny]

Well, it's been about 4 days of clamped fins on and off. Untill now there's been no signs at all of illness. Yesterday a friend of mine took a look at her, and she seems to be breathing a bit heavy, also her gills appear to open a little more than usual, he thinks maybee gill flukes?

I've added a waterlife tablet he gave me, it's an anti worm / creepy remedy, and he swears by them, will look up the name. He's recommended i get somthing called sterazine??? Will look for that today.

I've allready changed her water about 3 times, i change them every other day at about 20% using RO water (They are after all discus). And i'm also treating with melafix, it's good stuff usually.

 

[trimacdevilconvict]

sorry too here about the clamped fins i have keep discus in the past and found that fin clamping for more than 3 days was a early sing of illness when mine first clamped i thought nothing of it carried on the 2 weekly water changes as usual then my turquised(sp ) ) ones would go very dark and sit hiding at the back of the tank my problem at the time was a protzin disorder i treated with suitable anti protazin (however you can treat the fish until you know excatly the problem cos @ first i treated my discus with oxatin )