PLEASE HELP

[discusfantasy]

Hi,

Can someone please help,

I have a 400lt tank with 6 adult discus at the moment (only discus in my tank)

i use a external canister filter
temp on 29-30
nitrite-0
amonia- 0
nitrate- below 5
ph 6.6-6.8
tank been running about 1 year
water change 100 ltr every day
feed them blood worms, beefheart,frozen brim shrimp,tetra color bits
feed them 4 times a day
age my water atleast 24hrs with prime,heater on 27 and air stone


My problem is from time to time my discus dart around the tank like crazy, sounds like the tank about to crack. This keeps happening untill it dies wich usally about 3 days, then the same happens to the next discus and so on untill they are all dead.

So i just go and buy more and at times everything is fine for about 1 then bang the same darting things happens again.

There is no sign, they be perfect and eating and out of nowhere this darting thing starts 1 by 1 untill all dead.

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME PLEASE

Thankyou

[shannon]

Sounds like flukes to me :wink:
Search on the forum for information & treatments on flukes
Best of luck :)

[DIY]

25% w/c a day for 6 in 400l is good and your regime and setup in general sounds very good!. Death in 3 days is pretty quick, a few questions to try and help identify what it could be.

Is there any signs of problems prior to them darting about the tank like crazy - things like heavy/rapid breathing, loss of appetitie/stopped eating, dark and apart from the others, flicking of fins, open wounds/scratches etc

Anything external that happens just prior to them darting around - insect spray somewhere in the house, heavy rain (can change tap water qaulity), new additions to the tank, change of filter / cleaning of filter etc?

Are all your discus from the same source?

How long have you had them?

Until we have some idea what it could be, don't buy anymore. If you lose all of them and we still aren't sure then I would disenfect the whole tank with something like Bleach, PP, Hydrogen Peroxide etc before getting anymore. Let's see if we can help the ones you still have first :wink:

[discusfantasy]

Hi

Treated them for gill flukes just 2 weks ago i used praz, no insinct spray, no heavy rain.

From time to time they can breath heavy but then normal again.

I notice a day befor the discus start to dart it stops eating and bang will dart away for few days then dies, then the next discus starts and so on

my discus come from different people. I have had these ones for about 5 weeks

Thankyou

[DIY]

Hmmm...

Do you add anything else to your water other than prime? ferts, excel or sometheing similar.

Filtration - what do you use, and what sort of media (carbon, filter pad material) and how often do you change pads etc?

You say when one dies, then the next one starts darting about, how long between the deaths/darting around the tanks, and do you ever have two discus darting and dying at the same time?

[discusfantasy]

never had 2 discus dart at same time or died at same time


i just add prime to my aged water


i use a fluval 404 external canister, with wool, bio balls and ceramic noodles

[DIY]

The main things I can think of of are -

Environmental issues:
This includes poor water (not in your case) poisining (again doesn't seem like it in your case) or something else. At this stage I don't think this is your problem becuase it would'nt affect only one discus at a time...

Disease:
Again I'm thinking this isn't the case as I don't think it would attack one discus at a time.

Bacterial:
Same as disease, it would affect more than one discus at a time

Genetic / internal organ deformities etc
You have gotten your discus from different sources so I think that can be ruled out. It would help explain the deaths not occuring at exactly the same time though.

Parasites:
usually not one host at a time specific. For example gill flukes release eggs into the water and the newly hatched fluke freeswims and attaches to the first host it can find. Your symptoms indicate a parasite that attaches to a host and gets to proporitions on that host alone which kills the discus quickly, then the parasite leaves the dead host and finds the next one. I don't know what sort of parasite that could be to be honest, but to me this appears the most likely culprit.

I would try a general anti-parasite treatment. To treat for non speciic external parasites you have a few choices but probably a formalin/maclachite green based med (like whitespot remedie available from your lfs) would be an option, or IMO a better choice but more dangerous would be a PP treatment.

[discusfantasy]

Thanks

[DIY]

If it is a parasite that leaves a dead host to find a new one, then removing the discus that darts around into a seperate hospital tank might help avoid the parasite(s) attaching to the next victim, so I'd also isolate the sick one.

Good luck, and keep us posted