jolliolli

that shrimp tank he has is gorgeous

tank does get a bit of direct sun during the day although the temperature does seem to stay around the 27 degree mark. I would have tought if toxins were to be an issue that it would of affected all of the discus in the tank? I'm hoping to reduce stress in the tank by rehousing the golden and honey gourami this week. Todays the third day of a combined furan and metro treatment and they do appear to be doing better. The finrot on the melon seems to have stopped, ever since i bought him he's had a smal hole in his ventral fin which looks to be healing over since he's been in isolation, still having trouble getting him to eat but he must be eating something as i saw him passing faeces today. The turq also seems better, and seems to be spitting his food less. Fingers crossed

one other suggestion someone emailed me with was the dreaded discus plague. Symptoms include darkening, onset of finrot and shedding skin. Has anyone here dealt with discus plague? i don't even know if its confirmed in nz. I should mention the blue turq and red melon are both on furan-2 at the mo, and the blue turq has at least shown improvement in behaviour/colour even though the wound is no better

yes i thought so too, water is 27.5 degrees, ph around 6.8, nitrite, ammonia - 0, nitrate was 10ppm yesterday before water change. Currenlty have him on a course of furan and am sourcing some metro which i've read can be used together. The information i;ve read seems to indicate it could be either parasitic or bacterial and the spitting food seems to be an indication of parasites. House is only 8 years old so plastic pipes i think. Other 3 discus in the tank are all still fine i am watching them intently! will keep everyone updated as hopefully this info might be of use to someone with a similar problem in the future

well both discus are back in separate quarantine tanks until i can sort the problem. The red melon i bought around 6 weeks ago has suddenly had his fins start to rot. 2 days ago fins were absolutely healthy, yesterday fins looked a little ragged on the edges, came home tonight and fins were so ragged the rays of the fins were sticking out. Im really surprised at how quickly his fins degraded. i also tested my water quality and nitrates were only 10ppm so water quality seems to be all fine (ammonia, nitrite - 0). I performed a 50% water change anyway. Once in quarantine i had a close look at the blue discus wound again and its not healing in fact it seems to have almost worn through to the other side. Also strange was that his faeces was a yellow colour which i haven't seen before. I've taken some updated pics below. Also the blue ram that i had with lumps on her head died today. BTW the white slimey stuff on the fins and small white particules on the blue discus is the octozin med in the tank yellow poo red melon

I think filtration should be ok its a 300L tank its running an Aqua One CF1200 (1200lph) external filter and also a Juwel Internal filter (1000l/ph). All food in the tank seems to be eaten almost before it hits the bottom. He looks interested in food but seems as though he finds it difficult to eat it, almost coughs it out. The other discus that i bought is a full grown adult about 12cm or more, im now really starting to wonder about it being something else like hex. I posted about the discus with the wound on simplydiscus.com and someone msged me to say that his discus also had a similar sore on their discus. Initially he thought it was a heater burn but it was bleeding and erupted in to a sore. He noticed my post as the sore was very similar and also the fish developed signs of finrot, unfortunately it died within a matter of hours. He thinks his fish has hex, it keeps tilting its head up etc. I'm going to transfer him back to quarantine again tonight once i get home and perform another water change on the main tank. I would feel better if i could get some metro and eliminate the risk of it being hex. I also had my female blue ram develop tumour like lumps on her head, i wonder if this is related, from the pics i';ve seen of hex the advanced cases seems to develop lumps? Do fish with hex last a long time or do the symptoms and death occur quickly?

hmm i put him in back in the main tank last night to see how he'd go, he has been shy and hiding, although sometimes instigates fights with the other large male in the tank. im also having problems with one of the discus i bought around 6 weeks ago, and i'm wondering if the problems i've had with my current discus are related to him. Although the wound on the current discus appears to be healing it seems to be taking a lot longer than i would of thought, also in the last few days he seems to have developed a tendency to spit his colorbits whereas previously he used to just gulp them down. The reason i think something may be related to the discus i bought recently is that ever since i bought him he has shown little interest in food, he will eat bloodworms but thats it and he also chews and spits his food, he seems to have developed finrot and i suspect this is due to a lack of nutrition through not eating and also due to some sickness. He also has a tendency to just lie on his side occasionally.. I wondered if the spitting food could be a symptom of hex? When he eats it tends to be bloodworms so its hard to tell if his faeces are whitish due ot the bloodworms or due to hex. I had previously treated the tank with Octozin which on the bottle is claimed to treat hole in the head but i have since read that hole in the head and hexamita may be different things. I have him in quarantine at the mo to see how he goes. Any thoughts? Anyone had a discus with hex, what were the symptoms and where did you get metro from? i may be overreacting but id like to hear ppls thoughts.

furan-2 won't work for parasites its used to treat gram+ and gram- bacteria. As for treating parasites i don't think you'll find any shop that sells anti-parasite meds, seems to be a vet medicine now.

seems to have almost fully recovered, hes still in QT at the moment. He has all his colour back and his wound is healing nicely and no longer lies on his side. Still a touch of rattiness on his tail fin but he may end up going back in the main tank tonight

very nice

the plot thickens! i was looking in my tank tonight and i noticed that a small piece of driftwood had broken off leaving a sharp jagged spike where the discus like to swim past, i now think this is a likely cause for the injury near the base of his ventral fin. I will be filing it down. Hes looking much better tonigh, colour has come back, all the small white spots have disappeared and the wound is looking smaller and like it is healing. makes me happy :bounce:

yes i found i had a fin nipper! i caught my honey gourami taking a nibble of his tail fin the other day. I've caught it and restricted it to a breeding trap, i think i'll have to sell her as much as i like her, i can't keep fin nippers.

i haven't seen him rubbing or flicking on anything, everyone else in the tank including the 4 other discus have been great. I tend to feed tetra colourbits and usually bloodworms twice a week, shrimp pellets and algae tabs for the cories and BNs. No food gets left over tetrabits don't usually get a chance to hit the bottom they're usually gone by them. i do a water change every sunday around 30 - 40% however last week i had the flu so it was 1 1/2 week period of no water change. Nitrates were still only around 10ppm though

Update - quarantined him in a 40l tank last night and added the furan (thanks for the advice discusguru and dracoz). This morning i tentatively thought he seemed better, he has been upright whenever i have checked, and his slime coat appeared to have less white marks and his colour seemed to improve as well. He also seemed a little more active, swimming to the front of the tank when i check on him. He ate some food so fingers crossed the furan will sort him out. will keep you all posted

most likely proteins/fats from your fish food, you can try increasing your water movement my adjusting the outflow height on your filter and it may get rid of it

Ohh that sucks , he was beautful

when i was little around 8 years old i used to have around 20 pet eels that i handfed. My parents house has a creek and i would run down every saturday morning with my dog sausage and feed them, pick them up put them round my neck etc, funny how the fish bug got me even back then, i think i have a photo of me with them somwhere

well tonight after i came home i did another 30% water change on the main tank, his behaviour is the same still turning on his side, dark colour but is eating. I made a 30% water change tonight and while examining him i noticed the lump on his ventral side was possibly larger. When i got a torch out i could see that in fact it was red and raw and pieces of flesh were actually missing. Anyone have any ideas as to what would of caused this and how to treat. Would furan-2 still be the right course of action?

im thinking now its probably not white spot and what i'm seeing is patches of his slime coat coming off. Can anyone confirm if this is what it looks like when discus lose their slime coat? I did a water change day before yesterday and will do another tomorrow. There has been no change, still patchy, dark and tilting on his sides, if anyone has any thoughts please let me know.

very true, i think part of the problem is 'new tank syndrome', i was kindly given some snails on the weekend so i'm going to see how they help with the excess diatoms

really? i asked john how often they come in and he said fairly regularly so i thought i would pick one up later, i need to try and get on top of the diatom algae as well and i figure feeding the sun coral will only add to the nutrient excess at the moment

if it makes you feel better my pair were guarding the eggs so i left them with them, on the second or third day i arrived home to find the female had eaten them, so don't feel bad about removing them

Hi guys Just wondering if anyone can confirm if this is whitespot on one of my discus. Tank temp is currently 28 degrees i have just upped it. I have whitespot cure but as i am in the middle of using an anti-flagellate called octozin i have been reluctant to combine it as i'm unsure how the meds would react. Yesterday i noticed he was very dark in colour with a few white spots which i thought may of been abrasions from scrapping with the others, but today hes alot darker and a lot more white marks and his scales appear dull, hes also been periodically floating on his side. 4 other discus are all fine, and rest of the community fish are fine. Also in the first picture you can see a whitish lump at the base of his body. He is still eating. Can anyone offer any advice?

i lost my first set of eggs and my rams never spawned again and then eventually the male died (as seems to be the case with most blue rams lately).. you never know yours might but if i was to do it over i would try and salvage the eggs.

theres more?!