Mystery Disease

[jayre74]

Hi everyone, have just joined, but I have an emergency, I was looking for help with Discus disease when I came across this site. Yesterday I did a partial water change and then today I noticed that one of my Discus has a patchy white, slime on his side, he is also holding one fin against his body. I have seen this before, but last time I lost all my Discus, I have separated him to a hospital tank and salted the water and added a multi-cure. As he is one of my best fish I really don't want to lose him and I would appreciate any advice any one could give me.

[ILLUSN]

Any chance of a photo, what are your water parameters? what has the diet been?

[jayre74]

I did a test tonight, my ph is about 6.2, I have nitrate in the water at about 30-40ppm and an ammonia reading of .5ppm, the tank has been running for 6 mnths and I haven't changed any of the filtration only cleaned them in tank water. I give my fish a variety of food from brine shrimp to beef heart and bllod worm and a discus flake as well as colour bits. I think I need to do daily water changes to get my N and Amm levels back to zero, but don't know what else to do, please help if anyone can.

[samir]

just do the water changes. you're lucky you don't have an alkaline ph.

[jayre74]

I hope these photo's may help it's hard to see the disease, because it's still in very early stages.

[jayre74]

As you can see both sets of fins are tightly clamped to the sides and the fish tend to stay at the top of the tank, but thankfully are still eating for the time being.

[pornsak]

I had this with my fish a month ago and mine occured when I did the water changes.

I found that it may cause by 2 reasons one is the temperature of the water you changed, is much different from the water in the tank and the another one is the water you change has too much clorine in the water

It will be fine in 7-10 days , but you need to reduce for the food you give to them so that the water is clean enough ( the discus will be quite weak this time )so you do not need to change the water for a while until it recover.

[samir]

the mystery disease is called ammonia. it can be treated by changing the water in the tank with water that does not contain ammonia.

[jayre74]

I had a feeling it is to do with the ammonia, but I tested the tap water I use and it contains high ammonia too. I have kept the ph at about 6 at the moment and have added an ammonia detoxifier, but it isn't working yet, trying to get my hands on some rainwater or RO water and run that for a few weeks, what I don't get is why my bio isn't breaking down these chems, does anyone know if charcoal in the filters needs replacing after a certain amount of time.

[fishgeek]

where are you from jayre?
most muicipal water supplies are restricted on having ammonia in them,could your ammonia be because of chloramine being split ? whatdo you use as a dechlorinator?

andrew

[jayre74]

I live in Bendigo, Victoria (Australia) we have had really poor rainfalls in the last 8 yrs and most water levels are very low. At the moment the chlorine in the tap water is very high, you can smell it straight out of the tap, I use a product called safe guard5, it is for chlorine, chloramaine, heavy metals, slim coat and an ammonia detoxifier (usually need to triple the recommended levels) .

I also have another product called Safe that makes ammonia and nitrates non toxic, but the tests I have done show my ammonia at .25-.5 ppm and my nitrates at 20-30 ppm. I have also recently done a water change at 1/3 with rainwater and this is seeming to help. I have salted the water with a little sea salt, added a bio booster, added a fine filter pad that also absorbs ammonia and covered the tank to minimise stress.

So now will wait to see what happens, but would like to hear any other suggestions anyone may have. :D

[fishgeek]

you may find that some of the products you are using actually mess up the results you get from your test kits

test the tap water untreated from ammonia
then test it again after using your products

also ring the water board and find out what maximal levels of ammonia are and what amount of chloramine they use if any

andrew

[jayre74]

I had the luck of running into a fish expert down at my local FS today, after a talk with him he seemed to think that my bio filter has crashed. I have since rebuilt my filter system using some of my old materials and some new ones, together with a water change and a good dose of bio booster. Hopefully watching my chem levels over the next few weeks and try to rebuild my bio filter.

[fishgeek]

but I tested the tap water I use and it contains high ammonia too. .

this isnt explained by your filter not working though

[Merrilyn]

Have you tested your tap water Jayre.


Is there still an ammonia reading from the tap?