# Sick Discus



## fishy7 (Apr 26, 2012)

A few weeks ago a friend gave me four discus which I added to a planted tank with neon tetras and balloon belly red eye tetras. Two of the discus (blue diamonds) have paired and laid eggs twice on my filter stem. One of them has been darker than the other the whole time, although the stress lines seem to have gone away. I have a third snow white discus who seems to be doing well. These three fish are all eating, the main issue is the fourth which is now a significantly smaller snakeskin. It swims freely through the tank and seems to have no interest in food, it simply swims past everything. I've noticed white string like feces so I treated with Prazi Pro, with today being the third day. The snakeskin discus looks a bit thinner and is darker than usual. The water temp is 84 and Ammonia is 0, Nitrates are 10ppm, Nitrites are 0. Is there anything I can do to encourage eating? :fish:


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

What is your pH and hardness? Discus are intolerant of hard alkaline water.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

If you have any extra tanks, separate the sick one, immediately. Start adding some salt to water changes and keep up the prazi pro. I mix it with bloodworms and garlic guard. Bump the temperature up to 88 and keep us updated on what happens.

If you don't have any extra tanks, still bump up the temperature, still add salt, and just treat the entire tank basically. It won't hurt any of them.

Congrats on the eggs by the way. If you want them to hatch, they need to lay and fertilize them in soft water. Again, would recommend a separate tank.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Fishpunk said:


> What is your pH and hardness? Discus are intolerant of hard alkaline water.


That's not necessarily true. For discus to breed properly, yes the water does need to be soft so the eggs can be fertilized. But actually, discus fry and older discus need that harder water to grow properly. The minerals in the water help them in their bone structure and so forth. 

It won't hurt to always keep them in soft water but it can be risky because of the pH being able to change more quickly because of the lack of a buffer.


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

I've never kept discus because I have liquid rock coming out of the tap. I keep appropriate fish for my water because I don't want to mess with RO. Did not know that about adults. Regardless, anytime I mention soft water, buffering is implied.


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## fishy7 (Apr 26, 2012)

The water here is fairly hard at 150ppm for GH and the pH is at 7.8. I'm going to try and make a hospital tank today since it still hasn't improved in my main tank.

Edit: Unfortunately I won't be able to set up a spare tank right now as I can't find any extra equipment. Will it be safe for everything in the tank to raise the temp to 88?


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Those parameters should be ok. Just take the advice I gave you and you should see improvement.


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## fishy7 (Apr 26, 2012)

The color has improved and the fish seems a bit more aggressive than usual, but is still not eating. Tomorrow I plan on doing a water change. Hopefully this all works out!


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Do like a 25% water change every day


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## fishy7 (Apr 26, 2012)

Im not sure if its the Prazipro or not but there seems to be these white flat string like things attached to the bottom of my tank on the glass near the gravel. It looks almost like algae and they just scrub off. When I added the prazipro the tank turned milky white for a second and filled with strands, it almost looks like that. Also my tank exploded with this greyish white algae all on my driftwood and in my Anubis roots. Its sort of like a clumped up ball of dust and vacuums right out. Not sure if this post is in the right place or if I should start a new thread...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Do you have a really good magnifier? One of my fish had a tape worm once and you could see the "feces" was segmented and moving. It rolled into a little ball. The difference between dying hair algae, live fungus, and worms should be visible if you have good enough eyesight. Thinking about ordering a "discovery scope" so I can see my daphnia, etc.


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

I'm thinking it might be discus slime??? Other than that, I really don't know


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## fishy7 (Apr 26, 2012)

Today I fed them some live brine shrimp I picked up at a LFS and the one that hasn't been eating went on a rampage through the tank eating them! Now hopefully this won't be the only thing it'll eat...


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

That's awesome! Try mixing in other foods with the brine shrimp and maybe they'll take the others too. Nicely done.


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