Mystery illness in the Aquarium

[mark4785]

There are no pet stores that sell live food near me though I have ordered some live brine shrimp online. It looks like the order will only arrive in January due to covid-related courier delays.

I offered some prawn pieces and the female didn't eat them though the others kept eating and then spitting the pieces out.

I have since put the female discus into a 20 litre 'hospital' tank. I'm slowly upping the temperature to 34 degrees C and I've added in some aquarium salt. She also now has a singular white spot on her which is the size of a grain of salt so it may just happen that Im treating ich appropriately too.

The other Discus in the main tank also has 2 salt-sized spots on him but he's eating well so I'm just going to watch the situation closely.

 

[mark4785]

Update: So luckily the live brineshrimp turned up quickly in the post. I placed them in the tank and she was chasing and eating them. She eat about 12. This occurred in the hospital tank where the temperature was 35 degrees C with 4 tablespoons of aquarium salt in 20 litres of water. Water was changed in its entirety everyday. The fish continued to expel dark poo (no white slimy poo) although because she had released white poo as an initial symptom I did dose the tank with metronidazole too.

Ive drip acclimatised the fish back into freshwater at 28.5 degrees C in the main tank. So far she is a dark colour and is always hiding away from the shoal. Im just going to keep feeding bloodworm and grab some more live brine shrimp and hope for the best.

 

[Colin_T]

Was the fish hiding when kept alone in the smaller tank?
If not, then she is being stressed out by something in the bigger tank. It could be another fish is picking on it, or something in that tank stresses it out.

Fish are like people and all animals, they have personal preferences and friends that they like to be around, and they have enemies or other inhabitants they don't like. If one of the bigger discus doesn't like the smaller one, it will bully and intimidate it until it dies. The only solution in that situation is to keep the two fish in different tanks where they can't see each other.

Monitor the fish for any signs of bullying. This can include a bigger fish hovering over or near the smaller one and just staring at it, or there might be physical attacks on the smaller fish. This can happen at any time day or night so you need to monitor them closely to see if one is picking on the other.

 

[mark4785]

Was the fish hiding when kept alone in the smaller tank?
If not, then she is being stressed out by something in the bigger tank. It could be another fish is picking on it, or something in that tank stresses it out.

Fish are like people and all animals, they have personal preferences and friends that they like to be around, and they have enemies or other inhabitants they don't like. If one of the bigger discus doesn't like the smaller one, it will bully and intimidate it until it dies. The only solution in that situation is to keep the two fish in different tanks where they can't see each other.

Monitor the fish for any signs of bullying. This can include a bigger fish hovering over or near the smaller one and just staring at it, or there might be physical attacks on the smaller fish. This can happen at any time day or night so you need to monitor them closely to see if one is picking on the other.

When the fish was in the smaller tank it both hid and didn’t hide behind things as the days went by.

Now its back in the main tank the male discus keeps shaking his head and staring at the breeding cones and will often push her towards the cones so I think this is mating behaviour rather than aggression. She is of course not reciprocating because she is sick.

The only aggressor is the Bolivian ram which pushes and nips but it doesn’t get in the way of the female discus at feeding time at all so there is no reason for her not to eat when she is at the surface waiting for food.

I managed to obtain some live brine shrimps as you recommended and she eat them while in the smaller tank but now she is in the main tank she will not eat them. I’ve managed to get her to eat BCUK Frozen Discus Food soaked in Seachem Garlic Guard though she will only eat small amounts at a time. This necessitates me offering this 2-3 times so she eats enough. She is passing dark faeces instead of white. I’m continuing with metronidazole treatment.

I hope I can get back to a point where the fish will eat its crisps and other granulated food like the rest and put some weight on as she does look more skeletal at the moment.