I'm losing my discus!!

[Guilherme]

Hy everyone!!

A friend of mine has a discus pair which spawn quite regularly but he can't raise the fry (the pair is in a community tank and if the fry is left with the parents they end up being eaten). So he gave me some so that I could try.

I did manage to raise about 30 of them and now that they are about 1 inch long I started to lose them! First they all looked fine, then 1 or 2 started looking weird, getting thinner (even though they do eat) and swimming not so well and a few days later they were dead. This has been going on repeatedly and I've already lost about 15 fish.
Does anyone have any idea about what this is and how I can treat it???

Thanks!!!

[NJ Devils Fan]

We need some specs to determine what might be wrong. What is the:

p.h.
ammonia
nitrite
nitrate
gh
kh
temperature

Any kind of special treatment for the water?

[TomFromStLouis]

You might also tell us what water change routine you have for this tank. Everything I read about discus says clean water is key.

[Roland]

Do the fry have long, theadlike, white poo? If they do, and they are also emaciated and trying to eat but spitting food back out, try getting Torgyl solution from your vet. That cured mine in a week.

Just thought - Torgyl is the UK name, I think the US name in metronidazole. Im not sure if thats the spelling, but its pronounced Met-ron-eye-daz-all. Just ask your vet for enough to treat however many galons your fry are in. If I remeber correctly, its not too pricey

Hope this helps, cos if it is the same thing I had, and it goes untreated, I reacon your looking at fatalities.

Cheers

[Roland]

I just remembered - the name of the disease was 'Hexamita'

[thalassic park]

Hi,
For a cheap method of growing food for fry, a 100 litre drum without a lid can be filled with water. Add some garden fertiliser i.e. chicken manure or chemical fertiliser. After a few days mozzies will lay eggs and the water will go green. Hopefully daphnia will flourish. Then just pour a couple of litres of the green soup into your growout tank & the fry can feed as they need. Try to keep the density of food in the tank fairly high for consistant growth of the fry. The food should stay alive which will minimize the pollution from spoiled food. Unicellular algal cells have excellent protein (Highly Unsaturated an Poly Unsaturated Fats) which are essential for growing fry. The algal cells protein/carbo-hydrate ratio can vary with available nutrients for growth (of the alga) & the temperature at which it is cultured. The size of the food is important so as the fry can swallow the food and so as to prevent intestinal blockages.

Adding bio-garbage to the drum can increase the number of zooplankton spp.

[TTman]

what r mozzies?
Originally posted by thalassic park
After a few days mozzies will lay eggs and the water will go green. .

[thalassic park]

mosquitoes