White hole is getting bigger. Please help

[bianca22]

Started off as a little white dot and has gotten bigger over time. Salt bath seemed to help it however it kept coming back. tomorrow will be day 2 of protozin. He is eating a little but not like normal and is sticking to one corner of the tank. Been doing water changes every 3 days before I started treatment and water is testing fine. Temp is 31. He is dark in colour and need help to know I'm doing the right thing for him. Thinking of adding salt tomorrow to help with the hole?? Please please help

[Sabrina]

Hi Bianca,
From what i know salt isnt good for Discus, mostly not good for freshwater fish as a hole either. Do you think it is white spot or otherwise know as ich? Is your fish in the main tank
with other fish too? If so the whole tank will be infected. Jump on google and look up Ich in fish. This link is helpful, it says to remove all the fish from the infected tank and then turn
the heat up to kill off the Ich in a couple of days. And there is also treatment foe the fish themselves there too...
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=16+2160&aid=2421

[Sabrina]

There is also a sticky post here on the Emergency board about ICH, please read it :)

[sayid]

Hi Bianca;
We need to know a little bit more to be able to advise ,please let us know ,tank volume ,how many fish ,size of fish ,filtration ,BB or substrate ,how much w/c and how often ,ammonia,nitrite ,nitrate,ph,gh,kh, how long having the tank set up and if having any fish or plant recently introduced to the tank. a few more pictures of tank and the fish will also help,have you got a QT tank,the above information will help our more experienced members to help you .
Good luck

[bianca22]

My first guess is ink because of how this all started . however I'm looking for advice on what people think because the spot is so bad and big.

[bianca22]

It is a 4 ft tank about 200l bb with plants. Added two new fish 2 weeks ago. A bit of bullying has been going on. Been doing water changes every 2 days at about 20% to try and grow my fish. Amm 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5 pH 6.5. No qt tank but have a large tub I sometimes use and just put a air stone and heater in..no filter. I have 7 discus all around the same size. Every good filter 2400 something liters an hr . tank has been set up for nearly 2 yrs

[sayid]

I don't think its white spot ,white spot is much smaller than this ,its like small particles of salt also it is unlikely to occur at 31 c temperature .

[bianca22]

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[bianca22]

So any advice on what to use on this guy. Seems to be getting bigger and cant really affored to wait and see if what I am doing will work

[sayid]

The picture is not clear but if it is an open sore it could be a bacterial infection , in the case of bacterial infection it is advisable to reduce the temp down to 27 c and use an antibiotic like Furan-2 in a QT tank ,keep the water as clean as possible to minimize secondary infection ,the use of salt at one table spoon per 40 L of water is a good start ,i have not used protozin my self so i can't comment but i am sure more experienced member would comment and help you.

[sayid]

Hi Bianca;
Just saw your recent pictures of your tank , it looks much cleaner that i thought ,the fish look generally in good shape ,it is stocked to the max but that is ok ,the recent additions seems to be the cal prate ,you have started the treatment with protozin so i would continue till the end , you have got a lot of positives like BB tank that will help you to keep your water clean.
let us know how you go

[bianca22]

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[bianca22]

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[sayid]

hi Bianca;
Furan-2 is made by API ,last time i bought it on e-bay,have a read on line,if it is an open sore either red or gray or dark ulcer then you might need a strong antibiotic ,if you decide that is the way to go you need to order it now ,it will take a week to come from U.S ,by that time your present medication would have finished and you mightbe ready to go to the next medication ,if protozin has worked well you can keep it in your cabinet for next time ,all antibiotic do they give the fish a chance for its immune system to kick in before it gets a secondary infection , the other point you might consider is to get a QT tank with a mature sponge ready so if and when you want to use any medication i.e Furan-2 you can start immediately ,you also will save money on medication and will not put your healthy fish under medication unnecessarily ,you can pick up a 60 liter for $ 50 .
good luck

[bianca22]

As u can see in the picture the hole is white. He isn't eating today however tomorrow will be day 3 of med so fingers crossed. Seems a little better tonight then this morning. I have put a divider up to keep other fish from annoying him and iv kept the lights off tonight

[sayid]

i keep my fingers crossed, let us know how he goes

[Hollowman]

You can always take the fish out in a net, get some of your med, put it on a cotton bud and topically apply to the sore. This direct form of treating the site of the wound can really help.

[sayid]

very good point Hollowman ,why didn,t i think of that ,one of the reasons i love these forums .

[Hollowman]

Your're welcome sayid. I have had good results from this before, and know of others that have too. It's just people don't like to handle the fish out of water very much, but done carefully it is often a good choice.

[Hollowman]

Oh, I forgot to say, just go careful not to get any med in the eyes or gills

[bianca22]

What medication is the question though. Everyone is giving different thoughts on what I should use. If I just knew I wouldn't be wasting time

[sayid]

hi bianca;
you only have protozin at the moment ,i would do as hollowman have advised ,i would get some cotton tips ,deep in protozin, get the fish in the net and while he is still in the net apply the protozin by rubbing the cotton tip on the sore ,count to 30 and then put him back in the tank , i would do that twice a day for a week and see if he improves . as it was mentioned before be careful not get the medicine in to the gills or eyes. good luck

[Greeny]

You can always take the fish out in a net, get some of your med, put it on a cotton bud and topically apply to the sore. This direct form of treating the site of the wound can really help.

Agree with Hollowman. i apply this method and it works every time.

if i were you, i will do lots of water change because open wound like this is very susceptible to bacteria infections.

water change of 2 or 3 days once with 20% is too little imho. if you could, please do 50% daily or at least 50% every other day. this will definitely helps a lot.

i would apply metronidazole with 1/4 teaspoon per 20 gallon everyday for at least a week. water change before each dosing. Since you are using protozin, i guess u should stick with it but you need to up your game on water change ;)

[bianca22]

I am very happy to say my fish is on the mend. So after using lots of different meds and asking a lot of different shops what I should do and what I should use a guy in springvale sold me a powder med which I will upload a pic of and told me what a few people on here having told me to do . take the fish out and put the powder on the sore. I decided to move him to a qt tank because he was getting stressed when I was trying to net him out. Use the med in the water as well as on the fish. Was doing wc everyday and putting med on him twice a day . I also decided to mix together the other 2 med I got adviced to use in a cup and was putting that on him too. He stopped eating and it was over a week that he didn't eat for and I was sure he wouldn't make it because he was eating. Once he settled into the qt tank and the sore started getting better he started eating again which I was over the moon about. Was doing all this for over a week and this morning put him back in the main tank. He seems very happy to be back and eat straight away.

[bianca22]

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[bianca22]

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[bianca22]

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[Hollowman]

That's a good result. Well done. Just keep up the water changes, clean water is the best medicine.

[sayid]

It is good to hear a good ending result,well done ,keep up the good work.