Help with white spot

[glstine]

Can anybody tell me what this is? It looks like a white pimple on the side of the fish. Actually has it on both sides at about the same location. Can't really see it very good looking directly at the side has to be angled to the light. If I treat with salt, will the salt hurt my plants? Sorry the pictures are so bad, haven't really practiced taking pics of the tank.

[Merrilyn]

Hi Greg, difficult to tell from that shot, but I'd like you to check the pH of your tank. This could be a case of acidic water. Also the caudal fin looks a little ragged, like a pH burn. If your pH is right, then I wouldn't be treating with salt, I'd be looking at an antibiotic to treat that. Salt will affect your plants definately, but the right antibiotic will have no effect on your bio filter or the plants.

See if you can get Flagyl and treat at the rate of 250gm per 10 gallons twice per day for 5 days with a 30% water change between doses.

[glstine]

Just tested water
ph - 6.6
ammonia - 0
nitirite - 0
nitrate - 10
kh - 2

ph is down from what it has been by about 0.8. Been slowly bringing it down, but apparently it has suddenly jumped down a bit more rapidly. Will try to find Flagyl tommorow.

[glstine]

BTW - thanks LR, this is actually the first discus I got and he's been with me for 2-1/2 years and been through some big time stupidity on my part. Was just commenting to my wife 2 days ago aobut how good he was looking since we moved and got a bigger tank and all of the sudden he developed these two white spots and also (I forgot to mention) is darker.

[Merrilyn]

Greg, any update on this fish. Were you able to get hold of Flagyl ?

[glstine]

From searching the internet it looks like flagyl is a brand name of Metro (hope that's right). The fish store around the corner from me had some so I got 7 days dosage worth and started treating last night.

Hard to tell if it's better, the white spot appears to be diminishing. Behavior is still good, still eating and active anyway.

We'll see how it goes over the next couple of days.

[Merrilyn]

Keep us posted Greg.

[glstine]

Fish is doing better, will probably move back to main tank this weekend.

One of my other discus, on the other hand, is shifting between light and dark. All other activity is normal. Is he probably just getting stressed about something or is this a sign he could be getting sick.

[Merrilyn]

Well it is a sign that you need to keep a close watch on him. Is he getting bullied at all?

[glstine]

Since the biggest one is in the QT, he's the bully now. Is it wrong to be pre-emptive and go ahead and take him out and treat with metro? Probably so I would think if you don't know what's wrong.

Also, I've never wormed my discus and after reading a couple of post thought I would do that. Do I just add Prazi to the main tank and that's it. My concern would be I've got 2 giraffe catfish that eat anything and everything that touch the substrate, would any worms that come out hurt them? Sorry for getting off topic.