Possible cause of discus fatality

Hi every one;
I have a marlbro red in hospital tank who looks and behaves like a healthy fish but refuses to eat, which brings me to this point ,which disease has given you the most case of fatality , in my case apart from one case of swim bladder infection 99% of my losses have been due to hex .
In my experience if a fish does not eat more than 10 days the outcome is not good ,i read that people cure it with ease using metronidazole 10 -15 mg per liter for 12 days but i have rarely been successful in treating hex .
I was interested to know what is the number one cause of your discus fatality.
regards
Sayid

I think the problem with Hex is that by the time most people recognise it, it is already too late. If you know your fish, you can treat sooner, giving your fish a fighting chance.
With Hex, noticing the fish is not eating or maybe distancing itself from the others, noticing white poo is key. I have lost a few from this early on in my keeping, probably because I bought rubbish fish from my lfs and then going back to them for their advice and treating with meds that helped them on their way.
I guess raising fry I have lost more. Two week syndrome has got me a couple of times.

I have had better luck with Azoo anti endoparasite and kusuri than metro. i have had fish recover fully after several weeks of not eating.

My biggest problems have been very resistant gill bacterial infections from Asian imports and head down problems after worming. After years of keeping and breeding I am convinced the head down issue is linked to worming in acidic water.

I did suffer from 2 week syndrome until I starting always using prazi at 2 weeks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mattgoanna

I did suffer from 2 week syndrome until I starting always using prazi at 2 weeks.

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I also linked it to over feeding, constipation

That is also a distinct possibility. I have definitely had problems with decapuslated brine shrimp eggs causing constipation in baby discus

I used to hatch brine shrimp to feed. You see their little bellies turn orange and fat, which is ok, but I think even at around the two week mark, the competition to eat is more distinct and they eat to bursting point, this is where I think trouble starts for me. Difficult to restrict feeding when they look so hungry lol

I think my problem is inexperience mostly. My first little discus died from bulling and my lack of knowledge in treatments. The second one died of what i believe was hex, but could also have been stress. And the last little one was bullied and starved himself. The bully, whom i have had since the start, has now been permanently removed from the main tank and is in isolation with a few cory catfish and mini mollies, I will never return her to the main tank after what she has done.

Thanks guys for your input ,when i started this thread i was thinking mostly on fatality of adult or nearly adult discus ,when you deal with very young discus it is completely different scenario i.e 2 weeks syndrome ,as the matter of interest i am still persisting with my discus who refuses to eat.
Sayid

Sayid
If you get to the point where you are getting nowhere, increase the temperature to 36. Just make sure you have no plants or other fish in the tank. The other thing that is good for hex is 3 percent Epsom salts in food. Given the fish is not eating, I would throw some Epsom salts in the water anyway. If nothing else it will flush the gut of the fish. I use about 3 tablespoons per 100 litres.

Here are some pictures
http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5insnze.jpg

http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/...pshgi6xsty.jpg

Update;
After 6 days Waite ,using 1 TBS of epsom salt for 40 liter per day for 2 consecutive days ,30 minutes ago i notice loads of poo in the form of gray slime on the bottom of hospital tank ,my temp has been on 32 c . I am happy that he has flushed his system and also that the colour of the poo is not white but gray which is one step below black ,still long way to go but at least it is an improvement to the stalemate situation that i was in before .
Sayid

Lovely fish too sayid, let's hope he gets an apitite back

He is beautiful Sayid, hope he eats again soon!

U p date;
I decided to take Matt's advise regarding the high temp treatment.i put marlbro red discus together with 2 other smaller discus who have hex and very thin in a 80 liter hospital tank with eihime heater 200 w and over 6 hours increased temp to 35 c ,i know matt recommended 36 c but one discus got spooky about 35.5 c so i kept at 35 c ,at beginning the fish wear extremely active after 3 days they reluctantly start to eat only FDBW ,i maintained 10 mg metro per liter of h2o ,25% w/c twice a day. , their appetite increased every day till day 8 after that i think they got use to the warmer water and not as active as before ,i have maintained the temp for 10 days and tomorrow i will start to reduce the temp , they all have started to eat but not with gusto . I also will wind down the metro as well , i am not out of the woods yet ,but cautiously optimistic .
forgot to mention i changed the air pump to a bigger one with 4 times the air ,there is very little oxygen at 35 c .
sayid

Fingers crossed Sayid

Hoping all will be ok Sayid

Up Date;
Hi guys. its about 13 days that these fish have been under treatment and i am happy to say that they all are eating FDBW with gusto ,i had to settle at temp 33 c it seems the magic temp that their appetite is at their maximum ,i have to say that before this they stayed a few days at 35 c to kill the spiro nucleus parasite ( not sure of spelling ) having said that they are only interested in FDBW but i am happy ,their color has improved and two smaller ones who had lots of peppering have gone clear again , so i have turned the corner ,i am going to keep them in hospital tank to fatten them up a bit more .
http://i1378.photobucket.com/albums/...psjdg44ghh.jpg
Thanks for your interest.
Sayid

Thats awesome news Sayid, long time coming but well done with your patients on this :)

Well done Sayid, looking good