Help my Discus is SICK

[Chow]

Hey guys,

One of my golden discus for about the past week has been hiding up the back of the tank and not eating. Today for the first time he was up the front but is extremely pale and i've noticed he has a bloated stomach with some distinct lumps does anyone know what this is/means and if anything can be done.

Ive had hime for about 9 months and he used to be in perfect health. I feed him on colourbits and frozen blood worms but as i said he hasnt touched anything in a while.

[scott bowler]

it may have worms i would treat with octizon and see how it goes how many water changes have you been doing and how is your water test all of it and have a look

[Chow]

I do water changes once a week religiously and gravel clean, water quality it perfect. PH was a bit low but fixed that.

[scott bowler]

ok chow treat for worms

[Chow]

Sadly he passed away over night, i had watched him grow from about 5cm

Im still gonna treat the tank to make sure no one else is infected.

[Merrilyn]

Sorry to hear that Chow.

I tried to respond to your post last night, but unfortunately had computer problems that kept me offline.

I was going to tell you that there are three main things that cause a fish to bloat like that in the stomach.

First one is worms, which is fairly easily fixed with a worm treatment.

Second is a bacterial infection in the gut, which is not so easy to fix, and needs to be treated with antibiotics.

Third is a tumour of some kind, and unfortunately there is no cure for that.

As you fish became ill so quickly, I'm inclined to think it's either a massive bacterial infection or a tumour. Did you palpitate the lump. Was it hard or spongey? Hard would probably mean a tumour.

Either way, I really don't think you could have done much more for your fish.

I think treating the other fish for internal parasites is a good idea. Use a product like "Sykes Big L" Pig and Poultry Wormer, which contains levamisole, and is effective against roundworms and threadworms in fish.

[scott bowler]

oh im so sorry to hear that ive lost two fish in the last month 1 was sick and not responding to any treatment and the second jump on the floor with out me know ing so im sorry to hear you r news all the best

[Chow]

Hey ladyread,

Yea it was kind of hard, but i wouldnt want to go cutting him up. I know it would be better to know to possibly treat the other fish but once you get attatched ot a certain fish it feels disrespectful.

I went to LFS today. They gave me a profuct called Sterazin for gill and body flukes and internal worms. I treat for 10 days every second day. Ill see if it works. Hopefully.

[Chow]

Hey ladyread,

sorry bout typo on your name ladyred, pressed an extra key by accident.