chrisa Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 advice needed, discus looked fine yesterday perhaps a little shy hung out at the back, no sore eye though, this afternoon noticed it can't swim properly and has swollen cloudy eye. 2 weeks ago I took carbon out of canister filter and treated tank with melifix for finrot, cleared up very quickly, however I didn't put the carbon back in. Should I do this? Did it cause it? if not what can I treat it with? Should I do a water change? I last did one Monday, it really does look to be on it last fins as it lying on it side. Help!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 I would do a waterchange straight away. What other fish is in with it? You can put it in a hospital tank if you got one and treat it with Furan2. What temp do you keep your discus in? ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisa Posted October 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 Hi, Have them at 27 - 28 degrees have guppies, neons, bristle nose, sterbai catfish and a couple of platies. Its lying completely on its side now. Would it be past curing? Can I treat the whole tank with furan 2 or would it diffenately need to go on it own, where do i get furan 2? I have a small baby guppy tank I could put it in. The baby are probably big enough to survive in the big. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 You can get it from fish shop. Better to treat it in a tank of it's own to save on med cost. Smaller tank = less med = less $$. Depend how far gone the fish is. How big is it. How many discus do you have. Not advisable to keep 1 discus. They do better in group of 6 or more. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 how often are you doing waterchanges? and what size is the tank and what filtration do you have. The finrot and popeye both sound like a secondary bacterial infection possibly due to poor water quality? Taking out the carbon won't have caused the problem, carbon is used to absorb organics in the water, if you do decide to treat your whole tank (which like discus guru i wouldn't recommend, remove hte discus to a hospital tank) then you will need to keep the carbon out as otherwise the medication will be absorbed by it. Discus lie flat when stressed, so the fact that its lying flat doesn't mean that its past curing. good luck, try the furan-2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisa Posted October 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 Unfortunately the discus died. I can't believe how quick it went down hill, it was still eating last night. I do a water change once a week about 20 to 30% and syphon what gravel i can get to. I run a Fluvel 204 on a 90 litre tank. I had 2 discus in the Tank and am putting in a bigger 200 litre tank next weekend and was going to put more discus in from then if I could find some. I was thinking about 5 in total, but of course will wait until the tank is cycled properly. I have fliter wool and noodles in the filter and the tank has been set up 3 - 4 months without any problems until the fin rot I have also lost 2 neons which lost colour and died all since I put the melifix in for the fin rot which by the way, it was the discus that died that had it (the finrot appeared to clear up though). Perhaps I'm feeding too much. I will watch that. Will carbon help clear bacteria in the water? I have given a water change tonight and tested ph but will get a full water test tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BK Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 You need to be doing water changes of at least 50% and even better if they were bigger. 5 Discus in 200 ltr would be the top, at that level I would say that 50% water change is a minimum weekly. If you want to have a look at what I do u can visit next weekend. PM me if your keen. Sounds like he was attacked by bacteria due to waste build up and the bacteria bloom on the back of this. Happens to us all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 Happens to us all. Doesn't happen to me - but I keep to my maintenance schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BK Posted October 25, 2007 Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 "Doesn't happen to me". At one time or another we all lose fish and learn from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted October 26, 2007 Report Share Posted October 26, 2007 "Doesn't happen to me". At one time or another we all lose fish and learn from it. Totally agree! doesn't matter how careful or how much wc you do. When it happen , it's usually very fast. Could be the water from wc that trigger it off. Happens to me too and I do at least 50% waterchange daily some times 100% and sometimes twice a day depending on feeding and stocking. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr pleco Posted October 26, 2007 Report Share Posted October 26, 2007 does no one find it weird that guppies and platys are in the same tank as this discus ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted October 26, 2007 Report Share Posted October 26, 2007 i have one lone male juvenile in the tank with my discus and they get on fine. I didn't actually intend to keep the guppy but when i bought my discus he accidentally got in the bag so he came along too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Discusguru Posted October 26, 2007 Report Share Posted October 26, 2007 does no one find it weird that guppies and platys are in the same tank as this discus ? some people like to try everything. Only fish I pit in discus show tank are cardinals , rummynose, corys, bristlenose, blue rams. ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisa Posted October 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2007 The guppies and platies are peaceful. Why should they not be in with Discus? They don't seem to bother the discus and aren't really fast like zebra danios. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr pleco Posted October 27, 2007 Report Share Posted October 27, 2007 its not their aggression nor their speed chrisa its the fact that guppies come from a very different body of water to that of discus and so the theory is that they can be hosts for bacteria etc that discus are not used to and there for have little immunity to most dedicated discus keepers do as discus guru and only keep fish from similiar water bodies both for the health of the discus and to make it as natural as possible you will find thou guppies arent aggressive they are very active round feeding where as discus can be slower and more graceful this may mean yr dscus are left out or just get the scraps but the main reason being that prevention of disease and infection also read up on ph and water parameters preferred by the different species although they will cope with each others parameters they do best in different spectrums but overall for any fish stable water conditions is the best whatever they may be Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisa Posted October 27, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2007 Thanks for that I was curious, I understand what you are saying about the feeding differences. Discus guru was correct in saying that it sounds like a bacteria build up as I had had problems with other fish as well just lately. I did a big water change and syphoned the stones the next morning and there was way to much build up in the stones for 3 - 4 days since I last did it. Conclusion is that I have been over feeding to make sure the discus got food as yes the Guppies were eating it very fast, so I was putting more in to make sure the Discus got some. The ground dwellers weren't cleaning up the rest as I thought. So I have learnt a lesson and will be learning from it. I will be looking at rehousing the guppies once I get the new tank up and running. This forum is really great, with lots of information from different people you can pick the information that suits your circumstances and get the answer from deductive reasoning. Fantastic It is a shame that we have to learn from trial and error, but the main point is making sure that we do learn the lesson the first time and not keep making the same mistakes over again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr pleco Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 yep this forum is great for ideas and information and although we sometimes agree to disagree you get alot of opinions of what works and what dosent but it does come down to experience and i for one have lost my fair share of lovely fish to gain that experience so its good to see youve got it in perspective,, sad to say it might not be yr last but at least your one step closer than before to perfection (which i might add im still striving for ) :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrienne Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 You get great help from this forum and plenty of ideas to work on - I've learnt heaps in the last year and have only lost 1 fish out of hundreds and hundreds in this time so I've certainly improved my fish keeping skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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