Discus Infections

@Colin_T
There’s something inside the well......and it’s a cat corpse
(might be dead for about 3 weeks)

Yes...the shower and the water I drank is also a UV filtered well water, until I noticed the smell
That’s mean I already used it for about 3 weeks now.

I also have to do a water changes in the discus tank, can I use rainwater instead?

Barry Tetra said:

@Colin_T
There’s something inside the well......and it’s a cat corpse
(might be dead for about 3 weeks)

Yes...the shower and the water I drank is also a UV filtered well water, until I noticed the smell
That’s mean I already used it for about 3 weeks now.

I also have to do a water changes in the discus tank, can I use rainwater instead?

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Can you guys help me while Colin is not online?
I need help with filtering rainwater during this time.
@Fishmanic @Naterjm

Rainwater is fine for discus as long as it's free of chemicals. You can run it through a carbon filter if you are concerned but it should be fine. Just test the rain water for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If the pH is 7.0 and there's no ammonia or anything else, use it.

Colin_T said:

Rainwater is fine for discus as long as it's free of chemicals. You can run it through a carbon filter if you are concerned but it should be fine. Just test the rain water for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. If the pH is 7.0 and there's no ammonia or anything else, use it.

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How safe are well water exactly?
I still feel disgusted in water as we use it in the shower and drink
(Already filtered with UV tho)
Well are really common in Thailand as it’s not expensive as tab water

Well water can be clean or contaminated. It's always a good idea to get well water tested for anything and everything before using it. If the water is free of chemicals and contaminants, then it's fine to use. But if it has a dead animal or chemicals/ heavy metals, you don't want to use it.

Colin_T said:

Well water can be clean or contaminated. It's always a good idea to get well water tested for anything and everything before using it. If the water is free of chemicals and contaminants, then it's fine to use. But if it has a dead animal or chemicals/ heavy metals, you don't want to use it.

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When I tested the well water the parameter is 0,0,0
How is that possible with cat corpse inside the well?

no idea, theoretically the rotting cat should create huge amounts of ammonia and make the water smell bad.

Blue discus is getting better and eating!
I figured out that it is the blackwater pH that’s stressed him.

Thank you Colin and Iti whetu for your informative post, appreciated!

What was the pH of the black water?
Discus come from the Amazon River where the pH is pretty acidic (below 7.0).

What else did you do to/ for the discus?
Use different water?
Move it to a different tank?

It could have bene the dead cat in the well water.

Colin_T said:

What else did you do to/ for the discus?

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Remove dead leaves and tannin from the water, pH was 5.5
60% Daily water changes
And add 10 table spoon of salt, 1400 ml of metronidazole.
(Got the dose from Manual of Fish health, great book!)


we already have cleaned the well yesterday and add more of Nitrifying bacteria.
can Aluminium sulfate from the well cause irritation to the fishes?


I still couldn’t get over the fact that there’s a cat corpse with worms in the well and I don’t know how long we were drinking it.
feel a little bit ill just to think about it

Your Discus was in very bad shape when it died.
It looked like it was sick for some time before it died.

I've seen in many fish stores where the Discus are skinny and dark in colour.
I suspect they have disease either internal worms/ parasites(if the fish is skinny) or gill flukes(if they are breathing fast).
I heard that the fish will also produce a lot of mucous in the gills if they are infected with gill flukes.
This make it hard for the medication to penetrate and reach the gills where the flukes are.

Formalin should be effective in right dosage but cannot be used for long.
But I prefer to use Wormer Plus which contains Flubendazole.
You have to use it for at least 1.5 month or longer to kill the flukes in eggs form that cannot be killed by Formalin or any medications.


More info on treating gill flukes which are very common among Discus.




My conclusions after keeping the fish myself and many hours of reading and gathering information from Discus websites, books and forums are:
1)Many Discus are infected with internal worms /parasites when they are in the fish stores due to their feeding with worms and beef hearts. Some are infected while in the fish farms.
2)Many Discus are infected with gill flukes while still in the fish farms. The fish won't show much symptoms during the first 2-3 weeks in your tank. Some only showed symptoms after 1-1.5mths when they are at critical stage with symptom of fast breathing.
Some Discus breeders even openly declared that they can't guarantee that their Discus are free from gill flukes.

By the way, just for precaution, is your well water clean?
Is there any contamination of bacteria and parasites?

Barry Tetra said:

we already have cleaned the well yesterday and add more of Nitrifying bacteria.
can Aluminium sulfate from the well cause irritation to the fishes?

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Yes aluminium sulfate can cause problems to fish

Barry Tetra said:

I still couldn’t get over the fact that there’s a cat corpse with worms in the well and I don’t know how long we were drinking it.
feel a little bit ill just to think about it

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LOL.

We had a beach house at Guilderton (120km north of Perth). It had a rainwater tank out the back and we used to drink from that. One day it smelt and tasted bad. It had a dead goanna (lizard) in it and it had been in the water for along time. It was pretty disgusting. Dad got the lizard out and drained the rainwater tank, then we hosed it out and filled it with tap water.

Colin, should I continue the Metronidazole and salt?

If you have started with Metronidazole, then continue for a full course of treatment (5-7 days). Then at least you know the fish are free of intestinal protozoan infections and tapeworm.

@Colin_T I’ve nocticed red under eyes on the both side of
Barry 2.0’s face, should I be worry?