Discus help

[NatCardiff88]

Hi guys sorry I’m back. I removed my grid from the tank into my quarantine tank they weren’t happy and it was too small so I returned them to the shop. My discus appeared to be coming around but past few days he’s hiding away from others. Has white stringy poop. Spoke to my aquarium shop they said not to isolate him just treat whole tank. I’ve started a hex treatment but he’s looking worse daily do you have any suggestions?
No3 -20
N02-0
PH 7.5
Kh 40
Gh-180

He looks dreadful tempted to do 50% water change but I’m on 3rd day of treatment he looks so bad I just don’t know what to do to help him. He was eating until today also so wondering if treatment may be making him worse

 

[NatCardiff88]

@Colin_T

 

[NatCardiff88]

Liquid GH testers read a lot higher than 180 ppm. A lot come paired with KH testers, API make one for example.

However you can find your hardness on Dwr Cymru's website. I used to live in Cardiff many years ago, so I went to the website and entered the postcode for that address to see what I could find.
Load this page

Check your water quality | Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Supplying high quality drinking water at all times is a priority for us. We know that many business customers use the water they receive from us to produce their products.

business.dwrcymru.com

Enter your postcode in the box. That should give a map of South Wales with a menu bar across the top. Click on the arrow next to "water quality" and in the drop down box, click on "for more information about water hardness click here". That opens a pdf with a lot of boxes. Look for two boxes - Hardness (German) near the bottom right and alkalinity in the top middle. Hardness German is your GH in the dH unit of measurement and alkalinity is what water companies call KH. Make a note of those two numbers. GH as dH can be converted to ppm using the forum calculator

Calculator

 

[NatCardiff88]

It does say my water is slightly hard in my area I might look into a liquid testing kit. My local aquarium shop (same area) did say they think the water in the area is fine but it is something I will look into thanks

 

[Colin_T]

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
Sick discus like it warm 30-32C.
Temperature has nothing to do with Hexamita. Hexamita is caused by dirty tanks and bad food. Discus need lots of plant matter in their diet and if they are fed a meat only diet they regularly get intestinal problems. Fish kept in dirty tanks will also have more health issues.

----------------------

Did you do a big water change, gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter before starting treatment?
If not, then that would be the start. Do the following.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Make sure you remove carbon from the filter so it doesn't remove the medication.

----------------------

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" on the right of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Calculator

 

[NatCardiff88]

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
Sick discus like it warm 30-32C.
Temperature has nothing to do with Hexamita. Hexamita is caused by dirty tanks and bad food. Discus need lots of plant matter in their diet and if they are fed a meat only diet they regularly get intestinal problems. Fish kept in dirty tanks will also have more health issues.

----------------------

Did you do a big water change, gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter before starting treatment?
If not, then that would be the start. Do the following.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Make sure you remove carbon from the filter so it doesn't remove the medication.

----------------------

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" on the right of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

https://www.fishforums.net/aquarium-calculator.htm[/U.

Hi colin Thanks for your reply...have Epsom salts in house also. Thanks 🙏🏻

 

[NatCardiff88]

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
Sick discus like it warm 30-32C.
Temperature has nothing to do with Hexamita. Hexamita is caused by dirty tanks and bad food. Discus need lots of plant matter in their diet and if they are fed a meat only diet they regularly get intestinal problems. Fish kept in dirty tanks will also have more health issues.

----------------------

Did you do a big water change, gravel clean the substrate and clean the filter before starting treatment?
If not, then that would be the start. Do the following.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75-90% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water change and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Make sure you remove carbon from the filter so it doesn't remove the medication.

----------------------

To work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.

When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove these before measuring the height of the water level so you get a more accurate water volume.

You can use a permanent marker to draw a line on the tank at the water level and put down how many litres are in the tank at that level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" on the right of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Calculator

I can do a big water change I was debating cleaning my fluval- last cleaned 2weeks ago internal filter was cleaned Friday when I did water change. Is 75% water change too stressful for fish? Do you think they will be okay? I happy to stop treating and do water change. He was eating until today but he’s going towards food but not eating it.

 

[Essjay]

Re the hardness - your water company gives your hardness as 6.23 dH and 111 ppm. That's lower than the test strips show. But they give your KH as 85, which is higher than your test strips.
To be honest, I'd go with the water company since they use expensive equipment to test water rather than strips.

 

[MaloK]

75% and more per week is the kind of water schedule you should maintain. How is your nitrite readings ATM ?

I 'm not sure if it's been mentioned before... But... Keep in mind that this tank is extremely overstocked by any standards...

Filtration setup is unknown. But even with pristine water conditions...

I would expect at least half these fishes dying just from just attempting to survive in this... Let alone intestinal worms...

Honestly I hate to be rude... But there's no other words that comes to my mind.

"Cut throat tank."

It's not going to be be long before the next Discus gets "inline"...

When under pressure Ciclids becomes completely psychotic and believe me that it is women and children lasts.

Your Setup is beautiful but you are hosting too much "very intolerant fish... If bothered too much..." in close quarters.

 

[NatCardiff88]

75% and more per week is the kind of water schedule you should maintain. How is your nitrite readings ATM ?

I 'm not sure if it's been mentioned before... But... Keep in mind that this tank is extremely overstocked by any standards...

Filtration setup is unknown. But even with pristine water conditions...

I would expect at least half these fishes dying just from just attempting to survive in this... Let alone intestinal worms...

Honestly I hate to be rude... But there's no other words that comes to my mind.

"Cut throat tank."

It's not going to be be long before the next Discus gets "inline"...

When under pressure Ciclids becomes completely psychotic and believe me that it is women and children lasts.

Your Setup is beautiful but you are hosting too much "very intolerant fish... If bothered too much..." in close quarters.

Hi there @MaloK

Thanks for your message are you suggesting my tank has too many fish in there? My tank in 240litres my fish seem happy and my local aquarium store are selling me fish and have not stated otherwise.

75% water charges I’m fine to do but not in one as I thought anything 50% and above would cause far too much stress to my fish. My geo’s are now back in store no longer in tank.

My nitrate is 20% which I know zero is ideal but the amount of fish, frozen food/protein and flourish I can’t get it to zero.

I have a fluval 307 as well as internal filtration. Check water levels regularly.

I am new to this well roughly a year in I don’t consider myself well knowledgeable far from expert hence the reason I’m on here for advice

 

[Colin_T]

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
What is the ammonia (NH3/ NH4) level?

A 75% water change is fine as long as the new water is a similar temperature and water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) to the tank water, and free of chlorine/ chloramine.

20ppm of nitrate is fine and not causing this.

Epsom Salts won't help with this.

 

[Essjay]

Keep in mind that this tank is extremely overstocked by any standards...

my local aquarium store are selling me fish and have not stated otherwise.

One important lesson we all have to learn in fishkeeping - never ever believe what a store worker says. So many of them haven't a clue and will say anything to get a sale.

 

[MaloK]

are you suggesting my tank has too many fish in there? My tank in 240litres my fish seem happy and my local aquarium store are selling me fish and have not stated otherwise.

More of an affirmation than a suggestion... I think you are more than 200% stoked at the moment. I know experienced Aquarist that where maintaining overcrowded Ciclids tanks and they where always moving fish and decor around to prevent any sort of pecking order to establish... And when you start to have to manually intervene to stop fighting's. You can be sure that the level of stress is pretty high all the time. The Large water changes are there to prevent accumulation of pheromones in the water.

75% water charges I’m fine to do but not in one as I thought anything 50% and above would cause far too much stress to my fish.

You can do 2x50% with no problems, for the same results over a week.

My nitrate is 20% which I know zero is ideal but the amount of fish, frozen food/protein and flourish I can’t get it to zero.

Thats is Ok, But... I was asking about Nitrite. that could be a supplemental stressing factor for a sick fish.

I have a fluval 307 as well as internal filtration. Check water levels regularly.

That's perfect.

I am new to this well roughly a year in I don’t consider myself well knowledgeable far from expert hence the reason I’m on here for advice

Don't worry you are in good hands... If I don't know the answer, I'm pretty good at making stuff up !

Since you have been a "little" misguided from the start, you have some work on the plank.

Once the internal parasitic problem fixed...

The first step would be to asses your water hardness and choose your required course of action to be able to provide water within the parameters of your chosen specie(s). or choose specie(s) that are good with these. This is often overlooked by beginners, but is a major factor in long term fish health.

Second research the kind of environment the chosen fishes live in and try to emulate it as much as possible. Verify their compatibility and space requirements. Limit the number of fish and species to fit your environment.

Don't take anything as granted without your, "Personal Approbation Seal", based on the result of "your own" research.

 

[Fishfunn]

My nitrate is 20% which I know zero is ideal but the amount of fish, frozen food/protein and flourish I can’t get it to zero.

I have a fluval 307 as well as internal filtration. Check water levels regularly.

I recently upgraded my Fluval 305 and 407 canister filters to Biohome Ultimate Bio-Media to eliminate the NO3. Apparently, the ceramic rings are not porous enough to do the job.

Check this video out:

 

[NatCardiff88]

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
What is the ammonia (NH3/ NH4) level?

A 75% water change is fine as long as the new water is a similar temperature and water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) to the tank water, and free of chlorine/ chloramine.

20ppm of nitrate is fine and not causing this.

Epsom Salts won't help with this.

Hi Colin

Please excuse late reply I had manic day yesterday I did a water change but 50%. My levels are now - temperature 30degrees

What medication are you using?
Is the fish still eating?
Is it still doing stringy white poop?

What is the water temperature?
What is the ammonia (NH3/ NH4) level?

A 75% water change is fine as long as the new water is a similar temperature and water chemistry (pH, GH, KH) to the tank water, and free of chlorine/ chloramine.

20ppm of nitrate is fine and not causing this.

Epsom Salts won't help with this.

Hi Colin

Apologies for late reply I was manic yesterday I do a 50% water change.

I am surprised at my levels just as I used ph regulator.

Temperature 30 degress
No2 I’m saying roughly 20
N03
PH 7.5 - confused by this maybe flourish or something taken it up?
Kh 40 GH 180

Ammonia- as pictured attached

My discus initially seemed happy after water change but he’s hiding acting very nervous even of me and is still not eating