Sick discus

[EddieWalnuts]

I have a blue diamond discus and it has 2 patches where it looks like its scales are rotting. He is in a 75g tank with 2 other discus that are fine, danios, rasboras and some cory cats. water parameters are fine. I have been using melafix in the tank for a week and a half and it hasnt done anything. What meds do you guys recommend and how often should i be doing water changes for the discus to heal.

[pinkertd]

Hi Eddie,
I currently don't have a suggestion for you, I've never seen or heard of anything like that with discus.

We can rule out attack by another fish with the stock you listed. And doubtful that it's an injury since it's in two different areas of the body.

What does the flesh look like where the scales have come off......white or red and irritated.

Have any of the other fish been added recently or are they long time tankmates?

What exactly are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph levels?

What is their regular diet?

And, what is your normal tank maintenance routine?

Sorry for all the questions, but we need to rule things out to try to figure out what it might be and how to treat it.

[bs6749]

We can rule out attack by another fish with the stock you listed. And doubtful that it's an injury since it's in two different areas of the body.



I'm not sure that you should rule out discus aggression so easily, especially since there are only 3 discus in the same tank. Discus like to be in groups, as you are aware, and if a pair is forming or has formed then one of the fish in the pair may be picking on the BD. I've seen my discus go after other discus, and I've seen scales peeled off before like that. Being towards the base of the tail to me shows that the BD was trying to get away and the aggressor nipped at it while chasing it. Watch your tank more closely and see how the 3 are interacting. Most likely only one of the discus (same sex as the BD) will be chasing the BD around the tank. If so, I'd say that's the cause right there.

I recommend 50% water changes every day for the next 5 days to provide your fish with some fresh water. You could also add some salt to the tank to prevent bacterial infections.

[pinkertd]

bs6749 ruling out discus aggression wasn't done easily and without thought. I've seen lots of discus aggression time and time again in my own tanks. I've had discus killed by another discus ramming it and causing internal injuries that have lead to death. The extremely flat shape of the discus body and where and how the discus mouth is formed and positioned would indicate to me that a discus could not remove scales in a round fashion as this fish shows....definitely not in one shot. And to presume that the discus could do this in the same spot perfectly more than once to cause a large scalesless area like that to form is impossible. One of the areas is located directly behind the pectoral fin yet the pectoral fin is intact.

[Dkarc]

The fish isnt sick, but rather injured from something. It could be another discus, decorations in the tank, or just about anything else. I honestly wouldnt worry about it...just keep an eye on it and so long as it doesnt appear to look anyworse, it'll be fine. If it starts to turn a different color around that area (white, red, etc) then treatment is obviously necessary.

-Ryan

[EddieWalnuts]

Ammonia is 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 25 (is that too high) and ph is 6.5. I feed them frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp and flakes. I never see the discus fight and if any of them is the dominant fish its the blue diamond. Where the discus has its injuries it looks white. Recently i have been doing 30% water changes 3 times a week. The patches started out smaller and have gotten bigger over time.

[pinkertd]

Nitrate of 25 isn't bad. Mine can run as high as 40 since I'm in a rural farming area with fertilizer runoff ending up in my water supply. If it's white, that would indicate to me it's not infected since fish tissue is whitish underneath the scales. Red would be raw and might be an indicator of infection. But the fact that it is spreading is troubling. Infection will eat the wound away and make it bigger. First line of defense for skin and fin wounds is to increase water changes for a while. Lots of clean water does wonders for wounds. Up your water changes to 50% 3x a week. I'm a believer in dabbing on a topical antibiotic for small fish wounds. Lifting the fish out of the water, holding him in a towel that's been soaked in tank water to prevent any damage to him and to confine him and using a Q-tip to swab something like neomycin on. It's not a new practice, just not used a lot. Now there's a new product on the market just for fish wounds called Bio-Bandage. Drs. F&S carries it and...tada....it is a neomycin based medicine to swab on the fish wound to prevent further infection and help heal. This is my recommendation rather than throwing broad spectrum antibiotic into a tank of water. It works!