Help! My discus are looking weird, and I think they are sick! HELP!!!!

[discuspaul]

You've been getting good advice here fishboss.
Many discus-keepers (including myself) have learned the hard way not to be too hasty with medicating, which could be fatal to them just as easily.
Give them a few more days, treating them as best you can along the lines suggested, observe them/their behavior - see if there are any improvements. Report back on their condition in a few days, and if there has been deterioration in their condition, medication would likely be in order at that time - but it's important to try & pinpoint the actual problem, so that the correct meds for the condition are used. (As best as can be determined.)

 

[nc0gnet0]

My medication of first choice is still kanamycin, more expensive however and harder to find. Second would be furan 2, and then the maracyn. Kanamycin is absorbed into the fish much faster than the rest, and as such begins working much sooner. A QT tank is essential, much easier to keep the water pristine, and much less costly to medicate. Not to mention the risk of secondary infections are lowered.


But seriously, you need to have a good talk with that breeder. These fish are terrible. Sorry to be so blunt, but it is a lesson you need to learn. How long have you had them? You do realize your going to spend at least 2x as much medicating these fish as what you paid for them? I wish you lived closer, I would give you six healthy fish just to see you flush these.

BTW I currently have 14 tanks with Discus in them, more than half of which have discus fry or juveniles that I have bred.

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Well, I just got back from a BMX park, and I am so sore

Now, great news!!!

None of the discus have the white stuff on them, they are eating, but still swimming at the top of the tank, so should i move them or not???
I will do a 25% WC after tennis.

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Good luck to you! I'm not sure about the space business, doesn't sound right to me, but I'm no discus expert. It seems like a fish that needs perfect water quality would be best off in the largest tank possible. I'm pretty sure the fish are stunted and were so when you got them, and I'm sorry you paid so much for them...but again, stunted fish can have healthy offspring, and it sounds like you are taking good care of them, especially given your age when most people have trouble remembering to take care of their hamsters I really hope your fish recover. Acriflavine is sold at my pet stores, Kordon makes it. It stains your seals blue, however.

Thanks. I will try to get pics of the discus from the seller too. I am not sure that they are stunted, as the seller had lots of these, and none of his are sick at all as of now, and he is a breeder. He has been breeding discus since he was 10 with his father, and now he does it solo.

FishBoss....I've been googling fish meds for bacterial infections and it seems there are not a lot of choices of meds. And the only acriflavine seems to be the Kordon's. If you can't get the Kordon's acriflavine, then out of the two that I found for bacterial infections.....maracyn plus or furan 2.....I would opt to go with the maracyn plus.

I will go get the meds ASAP.

Maracyn II, or Maracyn plus are both beneficial when treating columnaris.

Yeah, I will get maracyn plus and kordon too. I am happier now that they seem to be doing better, and going back to their usual habits of pecking the glass, the bottom of the tank, and eating

 

[Rbishop]

Well, I just got back from a BMX park, and I am so sore

Now, great news!!!

None of the discus have the white stuff on them, they are eating, but still swimming at the top of the tank, so should i move them or not???
I will do a 25% WC after tennis.

You really should skip the tennis and do a larger WC now....but they are your fish....

 

[TheFishBoss97]

Yeah, I will do it now, I am kind of sore for buckets. But my tennis is in 1.5 hours, so I am doing it now, sorry, kind of lazy/sore.

 

[Lillyan]

What size tank are they in? You do know Petco is having their $1 per gallon sale now, right? Get a 55 for $55 plus tax...

 

[TheFishBoss97]

They are in a 72G bow, I am planning on setting up a breeding rack for angels, killis, shrimps, and if these discus live, discus in my garage with 3 55Gs, and 3 20Gs. Yeah, I will go take a look at some tanks tomorrow at petco. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[nc0gnet0]

They are stunted, there is no two ways around that. You can easily tell by the eye to body ratio.


This is what healthy 3 1/2 month old discus look like:



Focus on thier eyes. Imagine stacking additional eyes one on top of the other until you hit the top of the fish. See how you can easily stack 4 or more? Now look at the picture of your discus, see how you can barely stack one more eye on top? See how much larger your discus eyes are than mine in comparison to the body size? This is how you tell if the discus you are buying are juveniles, or just severly stunted fish. Yours are stunted. NO amount of clean water or good food is going to change that, the damage has already been done.

Are you changing water straight from the tap? If so you need to do a test. Test the PH of a bucket of water right out of the tap. Then fill a bucket and let it sit for 24 hours and then test the ph of that.

When/if your fish get a bit better, you need to worm them ASAP.

 

[nc0gnet0]

After going back and looking at your original pictures once again, it appears that there is some flaring of the gill plates. Are you sure you didn't experiance an ammonia/nitrite spike?