Help with diagnosis and treatment.

[BigDaddyAdo]

All 4 Discus have gone very dark. Sometimes they shed a bit of slime coat but not all the time. Fins are only very slightly ratty. They are all clamping their fins from time to time and holding one or sometimes both fins down against their sides. They dont appear to be breathing rapidly. Two of them (one a lot more than the other) appears to kind of convulse or have a sort of severe shiver type spasm every now and then. They are still eating.

Ammonia and nitrites are 0 and Nitrates are <5.

2 water changes each week. 1 at about 40% and a smaller one a few days after.

All help is very much welcome.

[ILLUSN]

doesn't sound good mate, can you get them into a hospital tank for treatment?

[BigDaddyAdo]

Can i treat them in the tank they are in now? What do you think it is?

[ILLUSN]

kullies, ottos abd shrimp arnt going to survive treatment if you treat in the tank their in.

I'd personally start treating for plague, are the fish still eating, if so mix 2g of metro in 100g of food and feed the discuas only 2x a day.

[BigDaddyAdo]

I figured as much. Any other possibilities you can think of?

Discus plague only affects discus doesnt it?

How long before i can add them back into the main tank after being treated?

[ILLUSN]

I'd treat them them keep them on their own for a month or untill you notice them putting on a decent amount of weight, you want them nice and healthy before they go in so as their immune suystem can keep any other infections at bay.

it could also be a paracitic infection with a seconday bacterial infection but this is less likely IMO.

[BigDaddyAdo]

From what ive read it usually comes in on an infected or carrier discus. I havent added any new discus for 6 months or so. Can other fish be carriers?

What are the chances of recovery?

[ILLUSN]

The paracites that cause this disease are still in dispute, so far spironucleus is the prime suspect, even normal healthy fish will have some flagellets in them as part of their normal flora of their stomach, the immune system keeps these in check.

when the fish is under stress (usually caused by bad water quality) these opertunistic bugs get the upper hand and start overpopulating, the end result is the fish gets sick.

tanks with good water parameters can still have not so good water quality, although ammonia no2 and no3 are in check, phenols and other disolved organics can build up, this is a massive problem in planted tanks as the organic load is so much higher and well decorated tanks with thick layers of substrate.

in such a tank every 6 months you should do a complete strip out srub and clean just to make sure you can reset all these untestable componds to zero. its a lot of work, that why all my discus are now in bare bottom tanks.

your filters also need to be maintained on a very regular basis to stops organics buuilding up in them i like to give my media a rinse in tank water every month when i replace the floss and change the sponges when i can no longer get them to squeeze clean in a bucket.

[BigDaddyAdo]

Thanks mate.