Not looking good!

[Escher]

One of my young mandarine has been withdrawn for the last few days and lost some of its colour. Tonight I noticed it has a swollen abdomen and gills open wider than usual.
Water parameters are ok (I think)
Ammonia Nil
Nitrite nil
Nitrite 5ppm
pH 6.60
temp 30deg

although I had a (gradual) pH drop to 6.0 last night. (before 25% water change)
The tank has received a course (3 doses) of metro and salt as problems with juvenile diamond were not resolved (& still isn't: 2 dead, 1 on its way, the other perfect! - but different symptoms alltogether).
I have attached two pics (not the best unfortunately as the fish would not pose ); the one with two fis shows a sibling behind it with normal colouring for comparison.
Any idea what could be and course of action.
Thanks to all.
Gianluca

[Escher]

Taken a turn for the worse! Thick white soft looking poo hanging out. Looks more like his guts are coming out.

[Merrilyn]

My thoughts on this are one of two things. Worst case scenario is some kind of tumour in which case you can do nothing, but I'm beginning to think you may have a resistant case of tape worm. Tape worms can grow to an incredible 12 inches even in a small fish, and can cause the gut to swell like in the photo, causing breathing dificulties. First thing to try is epsom salts to empty the gut and follow up with a good tapeworm remedy. This should only be added to clean water with no other meds in it, so do a big water change and filter over carbon for 24 hours before trying this. I'll do some research and get you the correct dosages and post it here shortly.

[Merrilyn]

Epsom salts can be obtained from any chemist. The dose rate is 2 tablespoons per 10 gallons of water. Treat for 24 hours. Do a water change then treat for tapeworm. BTW Metro will not affect tapeworm so you need a specific tapeworm treatment. HTH

[Proteus]

This is exactly the same thing that happenned to Red, my Female Marlboro Red who I lost 3 days ago.

She was fine one day, then the next I saw her resting on the substrate, still breathing but her gut was extremely swolen.

I removed her and placed her in a clean 2ft tank with a couple of mature sponge filters and heater. I added clean aged water (same temp and pH as the tank) as well as the required dosage of Praziquantel, as I thought it was Cestodes (Tapeworms).

Well, sadly she was gone within 12hrs, there was faeces in the tank, so bloat or constipation must not have been the problem. I did feel the affected area prior to placing her in the freezer, and it was very rigid and swolen...

I dont know if it was worms or a tumour, as I didnt have the heart to cut her open, maybe I should have, but my thoughts went straight to the other 20 Discus who are all totally fine.

As Ladyred advised, Metro wont really help with this, you need epsom salts or Praziquantel...

HTH

[Escher]

As I said metro was added in the main tank targeting other problems; ig anything else this should have eliminated some possibilities.
I must have read your mind about worms, so I did place the fish in a 2ft tank with praziq. (otherwise hard to treat 800L) and added a companion. But I did not think about the epsom salts. I'll do that when I get home, if still alive!

[Proteus]

My fingers are crossed for you, and your Discus

[parasite]

I agree with Ladyred and Proteus on the epsom salts and maybe also give the article posted by proteus on panacur a read as i have had more success with "deworming discus with panacur" than with prazi with similar symptoms that ur fish is showing. good luck hope all goes well

[flukes]

The article as actually written by Alan Clarke. Just thought id letyou know, too give him his credit. As it is great article.

[weird]

Do you have a link to the article ? Not having much luck googling it.