Discus parasites

[Casey1234]

Hi everyone, was just wondering if anyone could help me with a battling issue I’ve had with my discus that has been ongoing from the day I purchased them. Two of my discus have severely had symptoms of this parasite (I think) unfortunately the smallest one passed away a few weeks ago, but the other one still has it and he is starting to look as bad as the one that passed away, one of my other medium sized discus also has it but is no where near as bad as the other one. I bought all the discus from the same place, at the same time, they are all the same age, the healthy one’s are Nearly 4 times as big as the discus with the parasite, in the picture above! It is eating fine, but loosing a lot of weight, hardly any colour, it is very pale, the ill discus is getting a pin head, it did have fin rot but this has been treated(not sure if it’s related to this issue) it’s starting to get on my nerves now as I’ve spent a lot of money, it’s a fighting battle that I’m loosing. I used to have a ph monitor but it broke, I am using the ph strips to read the ph, this is 6.8, my nitrites and nitrates are fine according to the strip test, the gh is fine according to test, and apparently my kh is high according to the strip test and gh/kh liquid test is also also saying the same. And also Ammonia is fine according to the test as well. I do water changes either everyday or every other day(25% WC, it’s a 300litre tank btw) medications that I have used are:
-discus wormer pre mix
-esha hexameter
-copper (low and high dose)
Due to me living in the uk I can’t get the main active ingredients like metro and Prazi pro and general cure and all the other medicines that I have been told to you’s on the web.
At the moment I have started anti crustacean parasite by interpet and I have just made up some med food which had quarter teaspoon epsom salt, with 2 crushed gloves of garlic mixed in the the food and also a dash of flubendazole, the food that I have mixed it with is new life spectrum discus formula. I was feeding them beef heart that I bought but I’m not sure if it has blood worms in it as I don’t have the original packet anymore. I’ve stopped feeding them as I have read that blood worms can cause parasite’s apparently. I hope some friendly hobbyists will be able to help me out because I don’t want this to stop me from carrying on my hobby.

 

[Colin_T]

Can we get a picture of the entire tank and a video of the fish interacting before feeding and while feeding?

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Don't feed fish with mammal or bird meats because they can't digest them well. Use marine based meats like prawn, fish, squid and mussel meat.

Some brands of frozen Bloodworm are fine and safe to use, other brands have been linked to internal problems in fish. There are other types of frozen foods including brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp, and marine mix (prawn, fish and squid mixed up together).

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Besides being skinny your small discus look healthy and I would say the problem is not parasites or diseases, but stress from being bullied. A video of the fish interacting under normal conditions and during feeding will provide more insight into this.

The tank is also bare, nothing on the bottom and it does not appear to have any plants or driftwood in. This will stress the fish too. And there does not appear to be any dither fishes in the tank and that means any aggression from the dominant fish will go straight onto the smaller fish.

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Where is the tank located?
If the tank is in a quiet room where nobody goes except when you feed them, the fish will be nervous and panic a lot when you do go near them. This can lead to more stress and aggression in the tank.

A lot of people recommend keeping discus like this but it is not good for them. The best place for any fish tank is in the lounge room or somewhere a lot of people move around. Then the fish get use to people and tame down, and there is less stress in the tank because of that.

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You are better off doing a bigger water change once or twice a week instead of a small water change each day.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

 

[Casey1234]

Can we get a picture of the entire tank and a video of the fish interacting before feeding and while feeding?

---------------
Don't feed fish with mammal or bird meats because they can't digest them well. Use marine based meats like prawn, fish, squid and mussel meat.

Some brands of frozen Bloodworm are fine and safe to use, other brands have been linked to internal problems in fish. There are other types of frozen foods including brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp, and marine mix (prawn, fish and squid mixed up together).

--------------
Besides being skinny your small discus look healthy and I would say the problem is not parasites or diseases, but stress from being bullied. A video of the fish interacting under normal conditions and during feeding will provide more insight into this.

The tank is also bare, nothing on the bottom and it does not appear to have any plants or driftwood in. This will stress the fish too. And there does not appear to be any dither fishes in the tank and that means any aggression from the dominant fish will go straight onto the smaller fish.

--------------
Where is the tank located?
If the tank is in a quiet room where nobody goes except when you feed them, the fish will be nervous and panic a lot when you do go near them. This can lead to more stress and aggression in the tank.

A lot of people recommend keeping discus like this but it is not good for them. The best place for any fish tank is in the lounge room or somewhere a lot of people move around. Then the fish get use to people and tame down, and there is less stress in the tank because of that.

--------------
You are better off doing a bigger water change once or twice a week instead of a small water change each day.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

ive just fed them already but I’ll send you video of them eating in the morning and I’m only limited to a bin bucket or water a day as I have a RO system and only one container,my ratio is 20% tap and 80%RO and are you sure it’s not a parasite because he’s starting not to interact and swim by his self and he is losing a lot of weight

 

[Casey1234]

Can we get a picture of the entire tank and a video of the fish interacting before feeding and while feeding?

---------------
Don't feed fish with mammal or bird meats because they can't digest them well. Use marine based meats like prawn, fish, squid and mussel meat.

Some brands of frozen Bloodworm are fine and safe to use, other brands have been linked to internal problems in fish. There are other types of frozen foods including brineshrimp, daphnia, mysis shrimp, and marine mix (prawn, fish and squid mixed up together).

--------------
Besides being skinny your small discus look healthy and I would say the problem is not parasites or diseases, but stress from being bullied. A video of the fish interacting under normal conditions and during feeding will provide more insight into this.

The tank is also bare, nothing on the bottom and it does not appear to have any plants or driftwood in. This will stress the fish too. And there does not appear to be any dither fishes in the tank and that means any aggression from the dominant fish will go straight onto the smaller fish.

--------------
Where is the tank located?
If the tank is in a quiet room where nobody goes except when you feed them, the fish will be nervous and panic a lot when you do go near them. This can lead to more stress and aggression in the tank.

A lot of people recommend keeping discus like this but it is not good for them. The best place for any fish tank is in the lounge room or somewhere a lot of people move around. Then the fish get use to people and tame down, and there is less stress in the tank because of that.

--------------
You are better off doing a bigger water change once or twice a week instead of a small water change each day.

You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.

Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.

If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.

Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.

ive just fed them already but I’ll send you video of them eating in the morning and I’m only limited to a bin bucket or water a day as I have a RO system and only one container,my ratio is 20% tap and 80%RO and are you sure it’s not a parasite because he’s starting not to interact and swim by his self and he is losing a lot of weight

 

[Colin_T]

If the little discus is being bullied, they lose weight and stress out. Quite often they give up and stop eating and die.

It happens all the time when people buy a group of discus and lose all the small ones, one fish at a time, and end up with a big pair. Discus are cichlids and have the same territorial issues as other cichlids. You get a dominant pair that takes over the tank and bullies all the other fish. The smaller fish simply waste away and die off one by one.

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You have dewormed the fish and Praziquantel also treats gill flukes. If the fish is doing normal looking poop (not white and stringy), then its digestive tract is fine. If the fish is doing stringy white poop then it has an intestinal problem.

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Looking at the picture of your tank, I can just about guarantee it is stress related. You need to add plants and driftwood and a thin layer of sand or gravel on the bottom. Some dither fishes would also help.

 

[Casey1234]

What Would you advise me to do to stop this and I wish I had a big enough container do one large water change but unfortunately I don’t

 

[Barry Tetra]

What Would you advise me to do to stop this and I wish I had a big enough container do one large water change but unfortunately I don’t

You need quarantine tank, move him or her to the tank with the same water temp as a main tank.

 

[Casey1234]

I’ve got a 75ltr tank with smaller discus I could put him in with them or would the same situation start where they would be getting bullied

 

[Colin_T]

You have the same problem in your other discus tank. There is one big healthy fish and the others are losing weight and looking skinny around the head.

The best way to fix this is to add a heap of plants, driftwood and dither fish. It's probably a good idea to move the smaller weaker fish into another tank so it can recover, assuming it isn't too late.

 

[Casey1234]

Thankyou for all the info I really appreciate it! Would I be able to section a quarter of the 300litre tank with a plastic mesh wall to put the biggest of the blue discus in there so I could put all the week ones in the 75 or would there be problems in the 300litre with them still being able to see each other with plastic mesh

 

[Colin_T]

Partitioning off a section of the tank won't help. The fish see each other and sense each other. It's a bit like a bully standing outside your house, even if he can't get into your house, you know he's there waiting for you. You need to remove the smallest fish and put them in their own tank.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I suggest adding some sort of a substrate in the 75L tank. (QT)

And I also agree with post #11.