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DiscusKeeper403

DiscusKeeper403

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Hey guys,


Sadly, my Discus passed away a few days ago. I ended up quarantining him, jacking up the head and using the Metro heavily, but it didn't do much. He was already on his way out by that time.

For some reason, it seems like only the small Discus in the tank are affected by this for whatever reason, because now my other Discus will not eat. I decided to go down another route for treatment and am trying 250 mg per 10 gallons of Sulfathizole. So far it has been a dosage of it once a day, but I may jack it up to twice. 0.01% salinity was also added (1 tablespoon. per 10g.)

If this doesn't work in the course of a week, I am going to try Malachite green (Nox Ich in my case) and Formalin if I can find it.

Since the other Discus are fine, I may just clean the quarantine tank, and stick this guy in. Jack up the heat, and hope that this will help with the medication.

I wanted to know, if the other fish do end up getting sick. Will my heater last? In the main tank, it is a Elite 150 watt powering the 50 gallon tank. For the heater to get to 34 degrees, it has to be on the maximum setting. Do you think this will put a lot of strain on the heater, considering the tank is the maximum size that sized heater should be used for?
 
Sorry got cold and might be missing something, but what do you think the fish have.
 
I thought it was bacterial really. As said, I was dosing with Metro, and nothing. One of my Discus has gotten pretty thin, still eats but doesn't have as much of an appetite. He also has a more dark dot coloring to him (he is a pigeon blood strain.)

The other fish just hides all day, and doesn't come out for anything. Color is more bland.

Someone on a Discus forum told me to treat with Formalin and Malachite green, but I thought those medications where better on external parasites? Don't know.


I thought I would finish a 5 day course of this Sulfathiazole, then switch over to something like 2 tablespoons per 10 gallons of salt, and possibly something like Jungle Parasite clear "tank buddies."

Not sure if these have a good kill spectrum.

I am not sure exactly what it is but I saw a picture of my Discus that I posted on ratemyfishtank.com, and didn't realize how much weight lose he has experienced.

I tried prazi-pro before, and it didn't seem to do too much. But then again, neither did Metro...


Wilder, please help!!! I'm at a loss and ready to give up!!

I'll try to post a picture tomorrow.
 
Being thin is the fish still eating well and not lost weight due to not eating.
Being thin means internal parasites, fish tb, flukes, old age.
Internal parasite signs are long stringy white poo, being thin or bloated, bent spine, enlarged or red inflamed anus, worms prutruding from the anus.
Check the gills over to see if there red inflamed, or pale with excess mucas.
In most cases being thin usally points to internal parasites most of the time.
[URL="http://www.dallasdiscus.com/diseases.htm"]http://www.dallasdiscus.com/diseases.htm[/URL]
Taken from the link above.
Metronidazole - Used for protozoan internal parasites (i.e.Cryptobia,Hexamita,etc.) Also excellent antibiotic for gram negative bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract infections. With metronidazole, we mix them in small amounts of water. Then we soak them in dry foods (i.e. Tetra Colorbits, Hikari discus, etc.) Wait ten minutes until drug has soak into food before feeding. Again, we pretreat with Epsom salt 24 hrs before metronidazole treatment. We find that this pretreatment step with Epsom salt has a synergistic effect.
 
Thanks for the link, but I am still confused...


I had been treating the tank with both Metro and Prazi at one point. It didn't really help...

I'll switch over to Epsom salt.


Anyways, the Discus in question, is skinny, but still eats. I haven't really seen him pass a bowl movement lately, but I assume he must. The other Discus in question doesn't seem to have lost weight so far, but doesn't eat. That was the case with the last one. He didn't eat but didn't get all that skinny. At first he passed long stringy, yellow feces, but at the end of his life, they where more of a normal looking poo, just yellow. I suspected this was puss...

The big Discus that eats and is skinnier, is probably about 4 years old, although the person who sold it to me could have been lying... but I don't think so...

It's kind of weird, because they are showing different symptoms. Gills look okay, no redness.

Could it be Discus Plague? (knock on wood)
 
being thin can be old age, to be honest not sure how long discus live.
One fish don't go to the toilet it can be organ failure.
Do you feed any yellow foods.
Any red streaking or red patches on the fish.
Tolak great on internal parasites with cichlids contact him he's nice and won't mind.
 
How much metro were you dosing with, how often, in water, food, or both, and how often were you doing water changes & how much?
 
Tolak said:
How much metro were you dosing with, how often, in water, food, or both, and how often were you doing water changes & how much?
Click to expand...


Hey Tolak,


I was dosing 250 mg in the water. I put about a half a measure of the powder metro into the food and fed this twice a day for a while. It didn't do much, and the very sick Discus in question was not eating at the time. I treated the tank twice a day at the end of this, and did a 30 percent water change in between. Each time I treated, It would be a full dose.


I saw the small Discus come out today, and swam a little with the other fish. One of the bigger guys doesn't really like this Discus, so it chased him till' he went back into hiding...

Do you think I should force feed this discus some food laced with Sulfathiazole and Praziquantal?

I got an eye dropper I think I could use for this. Should do the trick.

I will try to get some pictures up of the two Discus in question, but I have a lot of homework, and we got final exams coming up so I am not sure if I will have time today.
 
I have an older heater, I am going to try with my new heater and see if we can get it up a few degrees.

I think i'll just try another course of Prazi for the next five days or so with the Sulfathiazole.


Epsom salt is okay to use with this treatment?


I'll try a epsom salt course for a day or two, depending on results.
 
Good news!!


The small Discus has his color coming back. He is starting to swim about in the open again!

Today I finished my water change, and fed some brine shrimp with garlic juice and medication. He came very close to eating it. Swam up eagerly, and let it drift pass his face. Nothing great, but definitely and improvement. This is the 3rd day with the Sulfathiazole, and It seems to be working. 4 more days left!

Here are some pictures of the big discus that seems to be getting skinnier. Color is dark, had to turn up shutter speed, and guess I turned it up too high. I can tell his previous owner must not have given him the greatest when he was a juvenile.

Before:

Thicker, and less of the black coloration. Half the time it would show less then this, or none at all.





After:



Loads of black coloration now.



As you can see, going for the food. Just very skinny...

 
Ir bless him he's a little cutie.
Good luck hope he pulls through this.
 
Sorry not been up long, brain not in gear.
He looks well to me his colour good, dosn't look skinny.
 
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