my son in law just came round and said how skinny one of my discus are. i had one recently which was skinny but had treated that with the dog worming tablets (half tablet dissolved and then flakes in there to suck up the liquid - the fish still died so i dont want this to happen again to this fish)

i need help before it dies - what can i do?

Depends how far gone it is

Once they get the razor thin forehead there is very little you can do

its body is really thin - looking at it side on you can see the outline of the guts and skull. it doesnt seem to be eating either. just put some food in the tank and it just sat at the back while the other fish gorged themselves

its body is really thin - looking at it side on you can see the outline of the guts and skull. it doesnt seem to be eating either. just put some food in the tank and it just sat at the back while the other fish gorged themselves

here are some pics of the fish in question (unfortunately they were taken with a low end camera)

Yikes.

Use prazi to deworm him and then increase the temp of the water to 30C.

Treatment usually takes a few weeks I think, but that fish can be saved.

thats what i said when i saw the fish - what is prazi in ? not drontal is it ?

Hi there I would dose with praziquantel to kill the worms. I think the hard part will be to get that discus to start eating again so it can recover once the parasites are gone, try bloodworms to see if you can get any sort of food into the discus while treating it.

Praziquantel medication is made for fish in a product called "ADDTAPE" under prescription from the vets, It is pure prazi.

Droncit for cats used to be available that also was pure prazi i think most vets now have Drontal.

DONT use Drontal it will most likely kill your discus its active ingredient is mostly Pyrantel Embonate which is not realy good for discus from what I have read.

If you cant get to the vet to get addtape there is some products you can also use which are easly available which could help. Levamisole sold as aviverm or potassium permanganate sometimes called Condy's crystals but be carefull with the PP if you have used formalin mixing the 2 together makes explosions!!! :happy1:

Hi there I would dose with praziquantel to kill the worms. I think the hard part will be to get that discus to start eating again so it can recover once the parasites are gone, try bloodworms to see if you can get any sort of food into the discus while treating it.

Praziquantel medication is made for fish in a product called "ADDTAPE" under prescription from the vets, It is pure prazi.

Droncit for cats used to be available that also was pure prazi i think most vets now have Drontal.

DONT use Drontal it will most likely kill your discus its active ingredient is mostly Pyrantel Embonate which is not realy good for discus from what I have read.

If you cant get to the vet to get addtape there is some products you can also use which are easly available which could help. Levamisole sold as aviverm or potassium permanganate sometimes called Condy's crystals but be carefull with the PP if you have used formalin mixing the 2 together makes explosions!!! :happy1:

Might help to use some metro as well as the prazi just in case..

Levamisole will treat different worms to prazi I would try prazi first if you can source some, and PP is more commonly used for external issues it wont really help with internal worms..

Don't have my experience with discus but I know the descent breeders I have talked to have said as flosty has that once the head gets all pinched in like that it will never really fully come back, you may be able to deworm it and get it eating so it lives though.

Metronidazole is one you need to see a vet for tho but is probly what you will need combined with the praziquantel. Metro for the hexamitas and prazi for the worms. Need perscription for both tho and not all vets will treat fish.

Potassium Permanganate (PP) is for external parasites, including gill flukes so your right that it wont do much for internal problems but if i was going to try save this fish i would treat external and internal problems.

Prazi can be brought over the counter as a wormer called droncit which is 50mg/tablet of prazi, metro is harder to get but can be done..

Personally I would go for the internal problems first - the fish isn't eating which will kill it and probably isn't due to anything external. PP is very hard on fish and the fish is already under enough stress without trying to treat everything at once especially when there is no other evidence of anything external, prazi will help with gill flukes too from memory.

Thank you for all your replies...am off to the vet right now (Sunday am) while he is open.