White Spots On Discus

[Gankutsuou]

Yesterday a few appeared, but today they're all over!

It's Pretty darn bad. I do have white sand mixed with my black... but I think something has gone wrong....

And I think I can safely blame it on my filter shutting down while I was gone on vacation. The bacteria probably restarted as did the cycle.... My little and big brother keep fish and knew the filter stopped, but did nothing about it. so my peacock eel died, and now it looks like the discus may too. Everything else is AOK so far... and even though the discus isn't in my final tank plan, I'd rather him not die. anything I can do?

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

do these spots look like grains of salt or more fluffy?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

yeah... it could be ich. have you started doing any water changes yet?

i don't have time to look up all the info on all your fish, but see if all of them can do ok at ~82 degrees for a week or so. add an airstone or two and get a medication. i had excellent luck with Maracide a while back; wuv recommended it to me as having been safe for betta fry (which will keel over if you sneeze at them).

if you're in the Uk, ask around in Emergencies for a recommended medication.

 

[Gankutsuou]

I'm in the us, and it looks more like salt, and has spread horribly....

And also, no my twig catfish looks like it has bloody spots all over it... something may be attacking both and causing stress... but I'm not sure what...

 

[annka5]

keeping one juvy discus is always going to lead to its' being stressed. They do far far better in groups of 6 or more. Also... the tank size...
However, that said it sounds like itch, which is unusual in discus tanks because usually the temperature is too high for the itch parasite to get a hold - what temp is your discus tank at...?
I would recommend several good water changes (you reckon the tank is having a mini-cycle), increase the temperature (discus should be maintained at around 28oC), and a bit of itnerent research - find a picture of a fish with itch just to confirm that it is itch, then treat it with over-the-counter meds once your sure thats what your dealing with. Alternatively, can you post a picture here?

 

[kev_kb]

It's such a shame you didn't follow our advice.

If the tank is cycling again you need to get an established filter in there quick. Could you get some gravel or filter media from an established tank? If you can't do this I don't hold much hope for your discus, I'm sorry but they don't handle these conditions well at all.

It does sound like ich, but you should already be keeping the tank at a high temperature because of the discus. If your not already raise the temp to 30C, as I've told you before I'm not sure how your other fish will react to this so please try and find out first.

With the high temp it will accelerate the ich life cycle and in a few days it will leave the fish and become free swimming. This is when the meds gets to work on it. You'll also need to do plenty of gravel cleaning also.

Another thing to consider is you should know exactly how many litres/gallons your tank holds. I'm not talking about the tank size, but exactly how much water it holds with all your decor in there. This will tell you how much to medicate and you need to get the dose right as discus can be sensitive to meds.

Good luck, and when you solve these problems please reconsider your stocking.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

why is your discus in the 10g? if one fish in a tank has ich, then ALL of the fish in the tank have ich! congrats, you just contaminated your 10g and will need to medicate both.

something that occured to me during all this madness is that you have quarantined none of your purchases over the last few months. while you should have no reason to acquire any additional fish, if you were to do so in the future, i would strongly encourage you to quarantine all new purchases for at least 2 weeks. your tanks are very heavily stocked and you don't have a lot of room for error. high stocking levels make tanks vulnerable to poor water conditions (such as a filter crash) and cause your fish to be more susceptible to disease (especially free-swimming parasites such as ich). quarantining allows you to discover disease outside the main tank and helps preserve the health of your fish.

 

[Gankutsuou]

Yeah.... Honestly, you all do care about fish very much.... and I understand it, but with me being freaked out and sad, all this just makes me want to give up and do nothing almost.

But I'm not. I'm going to keep trying.

And the only thing in the 10 gallon besides it is the dead/dying eel, the bullied glo lite, and my candy stripe pleco. So luckily not too much will get infected. it is at 82 in that tank right now.

I'm hoping to be able to do something about this. I could move the 10 gallon media into the 38, as it's still cycled.

 

[mrjames]

sorry to bash u abit but if you are keeping discuss you should be able to reconise itch when u see it and he shouldnt be the only discuss in the tank...re-stocking does sound like a good idea.dont take that the wrong way dude.

 

[Gankutsuou]

I know that, but it's not like I have much of a choice until it gets bigger.

None of my LFS wanted to deal with a discus, as it might infect their own, unless it was bigger. I can't exactly just dump it on them, especially now that it's sick.

and circumstances came to give me the discus. I'm just trying my best to deal with it.

 

[kev_kb]

I know that, but it's not like I have much of a choice until it gets bigger.

None of my LFS wanted to deal with a discus, as it might infect their own, unless it was bigger. I can't exactly just dump it on them, especially now that it's sick.

You have every choice which fish you keep! Your right you can't dump it on them now its sick, but thats exactly what you should have done weeks ago.

In short, you need to get mature filter media in both tanks, you need to keep the temp high and you need to treat for the whitespot all ASAP.

Oh, and if you think the eel in the 10gallon is dead then please remove it!

 

[Gankutsuou]

The eel and the discus have both died.

The eel had white fluff around it, which the discus contracted today and died.
No other fish has showed sign of itch, but I'm going to raise the tank to 82 degrees for a week and put all my fish in the 38 with the matured filter media from the 10.

ammonia testing done - it is .1

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

water changes and medication. thats all i can suggest for you. sorry about your fish but i saw it comming

 

[Gankutsuou]

yeah, I saw that coming too when I found out the filter stopped while I was out of town....

I'll be doing a temp raise and water changes. And since it appears there is no direct correlation in harm to the eels, I may add some aquarium salt to try and help out with erradicating whitespot.

 

[kev_kb]

Such a shame.

It's a bit worrying that you don't seem to be intending to medicate the tank...