Discus Plague... Dying

[lexylopez]

I had this red turq .....(okay it died just this morning)... and I wanted to know what was the cause of its death.. Heres' a pic.. as you could see its belly is very swollen... then it eventually died...

[lexylopez]

I have this Red stone and it had this small lump on its left side... at first it looks like loose skin, then now it got bigger and looks like its rotting... I dunno what this is, I'm not familiar with fish diseases... This one is still alive, and am trying to save it... Please help me on this!!!

[Merrilyn]

Lexy, it's not discus plague. The symptoms are wrong, but I have a feeling it may be fish TB. I'm going to do some more research, and get back to you, but in the meantime, remove the affected fish to a hospital tank with salt in the water. It's highly contageous. Sterilize your net after moving the fish, and wash your hands carefully after doing anything to the hospital tank. Some forms of TB can be passed to humans as a form of skin infection.

Give me a couple of hours, and I'll post some more exact information.

[lexylopez]

Its laying on its side now!!! Help!!!! Tell me what to do!!!

[sammigold]

Have you moved it to hospital tank?

If so it may be laying like that because its a little stressed at the move and may right itself...

As ladyred has said at the moment put some salt (rock salt or aquarium salt) in at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 40 litres..(this can help in healing and also relax your fish a little)

Other than that I would say just wait for LR as she will investigate this thoroughly for you before she suggests a treatment... you would hate to treat it for the wrong thing...

Hang in there!!! I know its hard waiting but nobody wants to give wrong advice...

[jim from sydney]

i would also a w/c more frequently whilst in the hosp. tank, like at least twice a day 50%, sometimes increase the temp a bit may assist.....32C wont harm....keep the parameters correct.....Jim

[Trebs]

Does your digital camera have a macro mode? If so you will be able to take clearer close up pics which will hopefully make diagnosis easier.

Good luck with the rest of them.

[lexylopez]

Guys..... my fav diskee just died.... and it hurts real bad!!! two of my diskees are infected with the same kind of disease... I think its HLLE... .... Are there any sugestions there on how to treat it while the *%+*% wound is still small??? By the way, am gonna use my digicam the nextime I post pictures here. Guys thank you so much for the support, Please help not loose one of em' again....

Regards.
Lexy

[sammigold]

Lexy, there is a sticky in the illness med section that talks about treatment for HITH and HLLE have a look at that hopefully it will help...

Here is the link : http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2475

Sorry about your loss! I really feel for you. Good luck with your others...

[Merrilyn]

So sorry you lost your favourite discus Lexy. Everything I'm reading on the net and everything I find in my fish diseases books points to fish TB, particularly at the rate the disease is progressing.

There are some suggestions about dosing the tank with a strong antibiotic, but most seem to think that an affected fish will die, and the only hope you have of preventing the disease going through your entire tank is to isolate immediately any affected fish.

If I were you, I think I'd be heading off to my vet to have skin scrapings done on a recently affected fish, and have the scrapings examined under a microscope to try to determine the cause.

As I said before, please be very careful when handling affected fish. Make sure you have no cuts or scratches on your hands (if so, wear rubber golves) and be sure to scrub your hands with soap and water after doing anything to the tank.

All nets and equipment used on the hospital tank should be soaked in chlorine bleach before re use.

Wish I had better news for you, but I do think this is pretty serious and needs the advice of a medically trained vet to sort it out.