DQ
Tue Apr 13, 2004, 02:04 AM
Hello all,
I would really appreciate any help that people can offer regarding my first venture with Discus and why the result has been so poor. (This is a bit of a saga.) i have not been a fish keeper very long and thus don't know many of the tricks of the trade)
At the end of January this year I purchased 6 four month old discus and put them in my 3 foot tank, which had 2 golden algea eaters and 5 neons in it)
(Tank had been cycled, has under gravel filtration and the water conditions where fine)
After about a week one of the babies had the appearance white fluff which I guessed to be fungus on his fins. We put this discus into our hospital tank and he seemed much better after about 6 days, the fluff was gone and his colouring was much lighter than his normal dark appearance.
We put him back into the main tank in the following morning he apeared really bad and died the next day. (Water conditions in the hospital tank appeared the same as the main tank. - He looked like a mutant, perhaps from cross breading as he had a rectangular shaped head - we put his death down to the fact he was a mutant)
About a week later some of the other discus began showing signs of white poo which through some web research I found out to be a build up of parasites in it's tummy. (I may have been wrong however)
Within a day or so all of the discus had this 'White poo disease' and did not seem interested in food. The local aquarium people suggested some anti parasite tablets which where to be disolved and put in the tank. We followed this medication treatement as specified on the bottle and a couple of the fish seemed better.
Two of the discus did not get better and stayed in one place near the heater and did not eat for a week or two, one of the fish seemed better and the other two seemed like they where getting better, but then seemed ill again shortley afterwards.
We guessed that the fish where eating the infected poo and where getting sick again so we did another dose of the mediaction (about 2 weeks after finishing the first course.)
During that week the two discus that where hiding away and not eating died, leaving three left in the tank.
This medication seemed to work a bit with one fishing seeming very well and the other two seeming just ok, with bits of brown in their poo but mostly white, they where eating a bit which was good.
We where concerned that the 3 algea eaters in the tank where frightening the discus due to their erratic behaivor so we caught them and put them in the other tank.
We also began to do daily water changes as opposed to the twice weekly change, thinking that we coud syphon of any affected poo so they wouldnt get sick again.
We followed this routine for about a month and one of the fish which seemed healthy had grown to twice the size of the others.
Last week the two not so healthy fish continued their white pooing and began to act like the other who had died, we redosed the tank with the anti parasite drugs and waited.
The final straw was that our healthy discus began to get ill, he had very small amount of white fluff on some fins and a what seemed like one or two white dots on his gill area.
We did a check of the water parameters (PH, amonia, nitrite and nitrate / harnesse ect) and found the water to be perfect!
This morning we awoke to two more dead discus leaving the biggest one on his own looking very seedy indeed.
I am expecting that he will die also in the next day or two and want to know what ma have gone wrong and what to do right next time.
Other facts that may be of use:
*only thing introduced into the tank since we had discus was some plants mounted on driftwood. (All purchased at the local aquarium from tanks whcih had discus in them) These plants all looked healthy but after a began to look seedy also.
*Neon tetras where also dieing at a rate of one every 2 weeks
*Sub gravel filtration - I had some concerns about this as the was not heaps of bubbles coming out of the two bubble things - the water surface was not still however.
*Food -Discus fed on Dried Food (with a picture of discus on the container), frozen brine shrimp and frozen beef hearts (grated).
*Water conditions always seemed perfect, regular water changes and a consistant temprature.
*I noticed very mild algea build ups in the tank (tiny traces) since removing the algea eaters - we did not put any catfish in as we where worried that they would eat the infected poo and become sick also.
Any ideas of what went wrong? Could the plant have introduced disease?
Any ideas on curing the last remaining fish?
Next time round i am thinking of a bare bottom tank with the drift wood plants in side and using an external filter...
I appreciate any feedback and thank you for reading this novel! (I probably should have asked more questions as the events took place rather than wait til now.)
Thanks in advance,
CY
I would really appreciate any help that people can offer regarding my first venture with Discus and why the result has been so poor. (This is a bit of a saga.) i have not been a fish keeper very long and thus don't know many of the tricks of the trade)
At the end of January this year I purchased 6 four month old discus and put them in my 3 foot tank, which had 2 golden algea eaters and 5 neons in it)
(Tank had been cycled, has under gravel filtration and the water conditions where fine)
After about a week one of the babies had the appearance white fluff which I guessed to be fungus on his fins. We put this discus into our hospital tank and he seemed much better after about 6 days, the fluff was gone and his colouring was much lighter than his normal dark appearance.
We put him back into the main tank in the following morning he apeared really bad and died the next day. (Water conditions in the hospital tank appeared the same as the main tank. - He looked like a mutant, perhaps from cross breading as he had a rectangular shaped head - we put his death down to the fact he was a mutant)
About a week later some of the other discus began showing signs of white poo which through some web research I found out to be a build up of parasites in it's tummy. (I may have been wrong however)
Within a day or so all of the discus had this 'White poo disease' and did not seem interested in food. The local aquarium people suggested some anti parasite tablets which where to be disolved and put in the tank. We followed this medication treatement as specified on the bottle and a couple of the fish seemed better.
Two of the discus did not get better and stayed in one place near the heater and did not eat for a week or two, one of the fish seemed better and the other two seemed like they where getting better, but then seemed ill again shortley afterwards.
We guessed that the fish where eating the infected poo and where getting sick again so we did another dose of the mediaction (about 2 weeks after finishing the first course.)
During that week the two discus that where hiding away and not eating died, leaving three left in the tank.
This medication seemed to work a bit with one fishing seeming very well and the other two seeming just ok, with bits of brown in their poo but mostly white, they where eating a bit which was good.
We where concerned that the 3 algea eaters in the tank where frightening the discus due to their erratic behaivor so we caught them and put them in the other tank.
We also began to do daily water changes as opposed to the twice weekly change, thinking that we coud syphon of any affected poo so they wouldnt get sick again.
We followed this routine for about a month and one of the fish which seemed healthy had grown to twice the size of the others.
Last week the two not so healthy fish continued their white pooing and began to act like the other who had died, we redosed the tank with the anti parasite drugs and waited.
The final straw was that our healthy discus began to get ill, he had very small amount of white fluff on some fins and a what seemed like one or two white dots on his gill area.
We did a check of the water parameters (PH, amonia, nitrite and nitrate / harnesse ect) and found the water to be perfect!
This morning we awoke to two more dead discus leaving the biggest one on his own looking very seedy indeed.
I am expecting that he will die also in the next day or two and want to know what ma have gone wrong and what to do right next time.
Other facts that may be of use:
*only thing introduced into the tank since we had discus was some plants mounted on driftwood. (All purchased at the local aquarium from tanks whcih had discus in them) These plants all looked healthy but after a began to look seedy also.
*Neon tetras where also dieing at a rate of one every 2 weeks
*Sub gravel filtration - I had some concerns about this as the was not heaps of bubbles coming out of the two bubble things - the water surface was not still however.
*Food -Discus fed on Dried Food (with a picture of discus on the container), frozen brine shrimp and frozen beef hearts (grated).
*Water conditions always seemed perfect, regular water changes and a consistant temprature.
*I noticed very mild algea build ups in the tank (tiny traces) since removing the algea eaters - we did not put any catfish in as we where worried that they would eat the infected poo and become sick also.
Any ideas of what went wrong? Could the plant have introduced disease?
Any ideas on curing the last remaining fish?
Next time round i am thinking of a bare bottom tank with the drift wood plants in side and using an external filter...
I appreciate any feedback and thank you for reading this novel! (I probably should have asked more questions as the events took place rather than wait til now.)
Thanks in advance,
CY