Plague???? I don't think so, but then what?

About a month ago, we got a batch of Discus in at the LFS where I've been working. They were doing very well, 'til last week when then they suffered through an accident which left them stressed and highly annoyed; they never recovered, and by this morning they crashed.

All the fish turned black after the accident, but this morning 2 of them were mottled yellowish. Slime coats are blotchy, and they're huddled in a corner. 1 of the 2 mottled ones actually gave up the ghost while I was at work. About half of them still seem vaguely interested in food, though they aren't actually eating anymore.

I took 1 of the mottled ones to someone with Discus experience to get a diagnosis; he diagnosed it as the Plague. On the other hand, going through the posts about the disease, things don't add up - no copious amounts of slime, no rotting fins, GP's pics show at least some of his Discus with some colour whereas these ones are all black, etc....

Does anyone have any suggestions, ideas, thoughts about what we may be dealing with and what course of treatment to follow? Currently, we're treating with a product that contains a combination of Metronidazole (250 mg/40 l) and Prazi (just under 2 mg/40 l), we're keeping the pH at around 6, adding salt and keeping the temp at around 90 F. Anything else we can do? We're kind of at the cure or kill stage.... :(

What was the accident?

Someone tripped on a cord and dumped a bunch of food in the tank. The food was removed with a major water change, along with the wood & silk plant for cleaning. The plant went back into the tank after having been rinsed, the chunk of wood was left out for approx. 24 hours.

k9outfit
what you are doing is ok but lower the ph more and add air stones as many as you can 2 or 3 is good get the ph down to about 5.0 or even lower if they can take it , becareful not to fast, keep adding some salt and dont do a water chane for a while . then cross your fingers and hope for the best . good luck with it ,keep us posted

Thanks for the advice! So far, shockingly, we've only lost 3 out of 10 or so in the store. They look like absolute he**, but they seem to be holding their own. Noticed one of them was quite disfigured by the soft cartillage (or whatever) between the eyes being completely broken down.

Managed to get the pH down to 5, hopefully won't rebound too much overnight.

I'm starting to panic though, since over the last 3 days, 2 of my Discus at home have gone dark. Both are still eating like hogs, but...

The 1st one to go dark is in a 230 gallon tank, with most of my other Discus. He's 1 of my original Discus, had him for well over a year already. Thought it might be gill flukes, since 1 of the new Discus was only using 1 gill, and there seemed to be an innordinate amount of flashing and squirming going on. (Had the new Discus in quarantine for almost 2 months, but had to move 3 of them out of quarantine, due to aggression issues; thought it would be fairly safe to put them into the 230.) Treated the whole tank with Prazipro yesterday.

The second one is still in the 29 gallon quarantine tank, along with 3 other Discus; 1 large and 2 small ones. Again, I've noticed some flashing. I'll be treating that tank also with Prazipro after a major water change.

Question is, am I bringing pathogens/viruses home from the sick Discus at work or is it sheer coincidence? What should I be doing to prevent an epidemic? Should I just treat for gill flukes? Treat the fish for Discus Plague? How long before the fish get their normal colouring back after having turned dark?

Any suggestions, advice or ideas would be really appreciated!!!!! :(