I have a large adult discus, nearly two years old that has started headstanding when resting. i have managed to cancel out many of my theories and i now beleive he has a bacterial infection of the inner ear, effecting the pitching control.

all other behavior is normal, colour is normal and feeding is also very normal.

temperature is 29 degrees, ph 6.2 and zero annonia or nitrate present, water changes are 10% daily 50% weekly 200% quarterly. food is bloodworm, new spectrum discus bits and beefheart.

Through my research i have found that dropping and maintaining ph 5.5 will assist as this will stop the bacteria propogating within the infection, but i would like to combine this with an antibiotic treatment, which brings me here. can anyone tell me if they have treated their discus with antibiotics and advise me on which vet / pet shop i could source the antibiotic and correct advise on its use. My information is sourced from andrew soh on the simply discus forum, search headstanding andrew soh it will be top of the list.

thanks all, BArny

Does Andrew Soh suggest an appropriate antibiotic to use? It seems like you have an good theory but you really need to know what to use. There are different antibiotics for different bacterial infections, the easiest to get for fish is furan2 from the petshop but you might need to get something different from the vets if that doesn't work..

Furan 2 is a broad spectrum antibiotic and as such should be fine. (treats gram + and gram - bacteria [they are called that because of the way they stain])

Remember to complete the entire dose, and not stop when the symptoms stop.

thank you, i'll try the furan 2.