New discus, is it fin rot? UPDATE! ALL BETTER! W/Pics

[2discus]

Hi all, as of today I am new to discus. I got a pair of white butterfly in a trade. I am pretty sure the fish have not had top care recently, and one of them looks like part of its fins are sheared off (the best way to describe it is it looks like someone gave it a flat top), and its grey on the ends, and the tail is a little tattered. I think its finrot but I want to be sure. I have them in a 55 gal with a few homegrow guppies and 2 cory cats. I added a teaspoon/10 gal. of aquarium salt and plan on doing 25-50% daily water changes. I dont have any basis to say if its a bad case or not, I would take pictures but I guarentee they would not show up clearly. Do you think I will need antibiotics or should it clear up on its own if I keep up with the salt and water changes?

ETA Some other things I have noticed! The male seems to have an ok appetite, but the female hasnt ate hardly anything at all. Also right at the base of the females tail she has a lump, I tried to capture it in the pictures but it didnt really show.

Here she is, you can see the fins, the tail has ridges in it, its not smooth. You can also sort of see the lump at the base of her tail too.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/audrey-mae/DSCN1056.jpg

Just another pic of her
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/audrey-mae/DSCN1052.jpg

Him, does he look ok to you all?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/audrey-mae/DSCN1053.jpg

[the german]

welcome to tyhe forum 2discus

send some pics please,and you water parameter like ph,oC,kh,gh,wee need as much info about your tank as possible to help.

michael

[fish_r]

i had fin rot starting on one of my discus a cpl of weeks ago, looked like the dorsal fin was melting a little and it had a white edge. i treated with a 5 day course of waterlife Myxazin and it cleared it up.
HTH...

[2discus]

Thanks for your replies.

The german I just got the fish yesterday. This did not happen in my tank!

I just wanted to make that clear.

My camera is not a good one, any pictures I take will not show up well enough for you to see anything more then a blurr. But like I said, the one it looks like someone gave her a flattop and then the same on the bottom, and her tail fin is a little ragged. I assume its the female because it is the smaller one. THey are a proven pair.

I need to get more test strips, but the tank is well established, I just moved my angelfish pair out of there to make room for the discus, yesterday when I got them. The ph stays around 7.2-7.4, I dont know what the nitrate/nitrite levels are exactly, but I know they are good, again I dont know amonia either but this is a long established tank that I have not ever had problems with. Its not my tank I am concerned about.

It is a bare bottom tank and I will be putting some paper under it today because the poor fish have been staring at themselves ALL night LOL.

ETA I notice tiny black dots on her body today.

[the german]

m8,doesnt matter whos fault is it,there are sick and you want to heal them when i understand right.

you need to get some tests,amonia,nitrit,nitrate,without them i wouldnt recomendt keping discus.
your ph has to go down,at least to 7 better to 6.6-6.7


michael

[2discus]

Well its the plague, its got the cotteny strands coming off of it this morning. I am giving them back and demanding real payment, not a huge hassle of sick fish as a payment. Thanks again for your replies. My short lived time as a discus owner will hopefully be over tonight.

ETA: Maybe I am too quick to judge. I dont know what is wrong with girl fishy. I got a friend to come take pictures with her nice camera, so hopefully they will help in diagnosing what is wrong. I dont want ot give the fish back, I have wanted discus for a long time nowI just dont want to get screwed on the deal is all.

[the german]

when you can give them back than thats the way to go,its just not worth to have all tthe hassel with a sick fish,better watch out for some nice healthy ones.

michael

[Merrilyn]

Welcome to the forum 2discus.

They actually don't look too bad. I would say they have had fin rot, but are now recovering. The fry feeding on the parents can also cause damage to the fins, and as you said, they have raised fry, so that may be the answer to the damaged dorsal fin.

The black spots on the side of the fish are very normal and to be expected on that strain of fish. It's called peppering, and will become more noticable when they are feeding fry. Nothing to worry about, just part of their normal colouration.

I'm not convinced they have the plague, just because some of the slime coating is coming off. That could be due to a lot of things, even transporting or a change in the pH of the water they were used to.

If you're going to keep discus successfully, you really need a few test kits. Main one being pH, because you need to know what is coming out of your tap and also to alert you to any changes in hP in the tank, which can affect the discus quite quickly.

Another test you should have is Ammonia. That will tell you the health of your water and your bio filtration. Every fish keeper should have an ammonia test. A nitrate test kit is good to have, but not absolutely essential if you are doing regular twice weekly water changes, which you should be doing for the health of the discus.

If you want to keep those fish, I'm sure with a bit of good care and top quality feeding they can be brought back to tip top health.

[2discus]

Thank you German, I know you are very knowledgable and I appreciate your advice.

Thank you Merrilyn for the words of encouragement. I dont really want to give them back, because I know I wont be able to get them any cheaper then I got these two. Thank you also for the good info. I do have a pH tester, I just recently ran out of test strips, I will get more first thing next week. I generally do 10-25% changes 3-4 times a week just because I hate seeing poop in the tank. They are both eating a little better now too, so that is very encouraging for me.

[2discus]

Check out my pretty girl now!! I cant believe I was able to get her better! (I do best with land creatures lol) I am so happy I stuck wtih them. I didnt have to use any antibiotics, just changed their water every other day and have been keeping aquarium salt in their water while she heals up. Besides her fins completely growing back, they are both so much more vibrant in color, and the male is starting to show a little bit of personality!

Will the color return to her newly grown back fins? Or will they always be grey like that?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/audrey-mae/DSCN1383.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v630/audrey-mae/DSCN1381.jpg

I am so happy! Now that they are healthy I just need to get them spawning :D

[samir]

good to hear that they got better, you seem to be a regular water changer :lol: keep the ph low and you wont have any problems.

[the german]

you did a good job m8,well done

[2discus]

Thank you!