Advice needed for sick discus please

[lovemywestie]

Hi, I have just joined you forum and am in desperate need of help. My discus are acting odd. But not all in the same way.They have been moved into a bigger tank from a trigon 350 to a 6ft x2ftx2ft. They were in the tank for a week until i discovered the tank leaked and were moved into a 3ft round and deep container where they had to stay for 3 days. I had a heater and airline in it but no filtration tho i did water changes in it daily. Once the tank was sealed i put all 13 discus back in the tank. I used all the water from the trigon and then over the course of a week added fresh water on a daily basis to fill the tank. They all seemed ok for a week but now they are showing differing symptoms. 3 have stopped eating and just hang about the top of the tank. 2 of the others have white faeces and the rest are still eating and swimming around as normal but frequently shudder and flick on plants or airline and also dart around the tank on occasions. My water parameters are nil ammonia, nil nitrites, ph is 6.8 but nitrates is up to 80. I have been doing daily water changes to bring this down but is a slow process. The filters from the tank were turned off for 3 days so i am assuming the bacteria in them will have died. I have treated the tank for the last 3 days with esha hexamita, today i added minaroll elements but no change in the fish. They show no sign of any external problems ie. going dark or slime etc.Do i need to use wormer plus for the white faeces or is that caused from something other than worms. I am at my wits end as i adore my discus. I am on a tight budget as am housebound and on disabilty so dont want to waste time and money buying treatments that are not for the problem they have. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much in advance.

[fishgeek]

the flicking against thinks is in my opinion most commonly seen with either poor water quality(what did you use to repair the leak?) and or external parasites

the white stool is due to irritation of the intestineal lining cells and over secretion of mucous this is most commonly attributed to protozoan parasites and the hexamit treatment sounds appropriate(i am not familir with it) though this irritation can certainly occur with worms

are the fish feeding?
do they have bloated or sunken bellies between feeds? protozoa will often cause some fermentation and so slight abdomenal distension is common where as fish with worms are usually very sunken in the bellies... gross generalisations and they may help
ideally you need a faecal sample for analysis under a microscope, most hobbyists wont stretch to this and probably most vets have never looked at fish poo and so are out of practice so to speak anyway

polyfilter may help absorb anywater borne toxins.. is expensive and works well
it may also slow a cycle if that is why your nitrate has jumped( frequent watwer changes as long as source good work probably just aswell)

andrew

[lovemywestie]

Hi Andrew,

thanks for responding to my plea for help.

I repaired the tank with aquarium silicone and waited 3 days for it to go off.

All but 3 are still feeding as normal as they come to my hand as always and take food. No bloated or sunken bellies as far as i can see. 2 of them that are not eating have white faeces but its not stringy like i keep reading about but quite thick with a very pale pinkish tinge to it.

Have completed a 3 day course of hexamita but has made no difference at all. It is suppose to cover the majority of discus diseases. Am now doing daily water changes to bring the nitrate down and also have added stresszyme to build up bacteria in filters in case this died when filters were turned off.

Just a case of sit and wait with fingers crossed and hope they recover. As i dont know what else i can do.

thanks again

[Merrilyn]

Your water tests are giving confusing readings.

If your filters were turned off for three days, then certainly your bacteria colony has died off from lack of oxygen.

When you turned your filters back on, all that fermenting gunk in your filter has been blown into your tank. I think that's why your fish are having problems.

You need to clean out those filters, and start again to build up the bacteria colony. Give them a thorough clean, including cleaning the inside of the pipes before putting them back on your tank.

You need to do several large waterchanges over the next few days, to remove some of the pollutants from the tank.

Unfortunately, your tank is going to have to cycle with the fish still in there, so if you know of another fishkeeper with a disease free tank, ask if you can have some used filter media to seed your tank again and give the bacteria colony a boost.

Don't add any further medications at this stage. Your fish are under stress, and you may well find that all the symptoms clear up once you get the tank conditions stable again.

[lovemywestie]

Hi thanks for replying.

Have been doing large waterchanges daily to try and clean water up. Fish still about the same. Maybe not flicking and shuddering quite as much. Lost 1 but he was a small one that never grew, was runt of the babies i originally had but was the friendlist so i kept it. So that possibly was to do with his growth i dont know. Still have 3 non eaters although they swim about happily and are not hiding like they were before. The rest are acting as normal pretty much. Just done tests again and ammonia is still reading 0, nitrite is 0 nitrate is 40 so has come down from 80 but still needs work on. gh is 7.
i did what you said a week ago regards cleaning filters and pipes.
Dont think there is much more i can do now but keep doing water changes.