Need help identifying Discus spot

[Jarbool]

I have a 75 gallon tank with mature discus. There is some cherry shrimp and about 20 green neon tetra also in tank. I noticed the other day a pimple looking spot right along the gill opening of one of my discus. been keeping an eye on it for a few days nothing has spread and no other fish seem to have anything similar. Fish behaves normally and eats and poops fine. I feed them discus pellets from the place i got them because they are the same kind he used. I also give frozen blood worms and brine shrimp every other day which they seem to like way more.

I change 10 gallons of water every second day so it totals to about 45 percent water weekly. Top fin dechlorinator is used before adding tap water and i let it sit for about 20 mins (At same temp as fish tank) before adding it. Aquarium salt is added when i do water cahnges but i use a little bit less than the recommendation. Filter is a cannister filter Eheim classic 600 .

Ammonia and nitrites are 0 nitrate is about 20 tank has live plants so one of my fertilizers add nitrates. Tank has been running for about a year and had fish in it while cycled for about 9 months.

I have looked up white spots on discus and from what I can find is the bump is either a pimple which is nothing to really worry about or it is ich in which case that would be very bad. I have Nox Ich ( https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0002DHYSG/?tag= ) on hand but have not used any since i dont want to disrupt the tank or stress fish out prematurely as this stuff seems pretty potent.

Please help me identify what exactly this is and if i should be treating it with something other than nox ich.

 

[Colin_T]

It is not white spot (Ichthyophthirius).

It could be the start of hole in the head (head & lateral line) disease.

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You should not be adding salt to the tank on a regular basis.

A small water change every couple of days does not equate to a clean tank. You are better off doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate once or twice a week. The bigger water change will dilute nutrients and disease organisms much more effectively.

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.

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Ammonia and nitrites are 0 nitrate is about 20 tank has live plants so one of my fertilizers add nitrates. Tank has been running for about a year and had fish in it while cycled for about 9 months.

Did the tank actually take 9 months to cycle (develop the beneficial filter bacteria)?
Normally it takes less than 2 months.

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Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
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. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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

Monitor the fish and see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it gets worse, post more pictures.

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You can feed the fish frozen (but defrosted) food every day if you like. Give them dry food first and then offer some frozen or live food after they have eaten the dry food.

 

[Jarbool]

It is not white spot (Ichthyophthirius).

It could be the start of hole in the head (head & lateral line) disease.

------------------
You should not be adding salt to the tank on a regular basis.

A small water change every couple of days does not equate to a clean tank. You are better off doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate once or twice a week. The bigger water change will dilute nutrients and disease organisms much more effectively.

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.

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

Did the tank actually take 9 months to cycle (develop the beneficial filter bacteria)?
Normally it takes less than 2 months.

------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
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. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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

Monitor the fish and see how it goes over the next few weeks. If it gets worse, post more pictures.

------------------
You can feed the fish frozen (but defrosted) food every day if you like. Give them dry food first and then offer some frozen or live food after they have eaten the dry food.

I have done 75 percent water change and cleaned all sand in tank.
To clarify about timeline for cycling. The tank is just under a year old and the fish have been it the tank for 9 months so I had it cycling for 2 full months then planted some stuff and let the roots grow a month before adding fish. I cant find any airstones in my house right now so i added a small hang on back surface skimmer to increase surface area for better oxygen exchange.

Will update if anything changes, thanks for the tips though.

 

[Jarbool]

So i have been doing many water changes of about 50 percent probably every other day sometimes two days in a row for about a week. The initial pimple thing is gone but it looks like there is tiny versions of other white spots that look the same. on the blue one its slightly behind and above his eye. Also they are too hard to see on camera but there looks like some of them are turning into actual sores. but from pictures on google it looks very similar to this. https://images.app.goo.gl/x4b1ZJ8L1EG7tKRB7 if you look very close you can see that on the tip of his nose (or where a fish nose would be) above his mouth there is some sores. I live in Canada and we need a prescription for metronidazole so I am thinking I will call a vet tomorrow and see if I can get some of that.

 

[Colin_T]

Yes it looks like the start of hole in the head disease or head and lateral line disease (same thing).

Metronidazole is normally the medication of choice, however you can sometimes clear up minor infections with salt. I know I said not to use salt on a regular basis, but for treating fish you can add some.

You need to add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of tank water. Keep the salt in there for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks. If there's no improvement after a week of salt, then get metronidazole.

You should keep doing big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate while using the salt. When you add new water, add some salt to the new water before adding it to the tank so the salinity (salt level) in the aquarium remains stable.

 

[Jarbool]

Yes it looks like the start of hole in the head disease or head and lateral line disease (same thing).

Metronidazole is normally the medication of choice, however you can sometimes clear up minor infections with salt. I know I said not to use salt on a regular basis, but for treating fish you can add some.

You need to add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt for every 20 litres of tank water. Keep the salt in there for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks. If there's no improvement after a week of salt, then get metronidazole.

You should keep doing big daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate while using the salt. When you add new water, add some salt to the new water before adding it to the tank so the salinity (salt level) in the aquarium remains stable.

Did salt for a week and it didn't get any noticeably worse or better. Vet agreed that he thought metronidazole was a good idea but also said he wanted to test for tape worms but to me that seemed unnecessary. Am currently on day 3 of 5 for adding pills so hopefully the spots start to go away soon.

 

[Colin_T]

Tapeworm in fish is identified by the fish eating normally but doing stringy white poop. Roundworms have the same symptoms.

You can treat intestinal worms easily enough. Praziquantel for tapeworm or Levamisole for roundworm. If you can get Flubendazole, that is meant to treat both lots of worm.

If you want more info on treating worms in fish, check out section 3 on the following link.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

 

[Jarbool]

So my vet gave me Metronidazole and also told me he thinks the breeder i got the discus from is not good as many people have problems with them. Anyways water conditions are still the same but now one guy just got these white spots over top where the hole in the head looking spots used to be. Have removed him from tank and will quarantine him. I believe this time it definitely looks like ich, done a 75 percent water change in the tank and will do daily changes for next week. just posting in case there is reason to beleive it is not ich given the previous issues with the same fish. All other discus and tetra in the tank look fine.

 

[Colin_T]

It's not white spot.

It is hole in the head disease or head and lateral line disease (same thing). It's caused by hexamita and produces white bumps that open and look like small white worms coming out of the fish.

Just treat all the fish with Metronidazole.

If you have concerns about white spot, just have the temperature on 30C+ for 2 weeks and it will kill any white spot parasites that might be in the tank. But white spot appears as small white dots on the body and fins and causes fish to rub on objects. And white spot has to be introduced into the tank so if you haven't added anything new in the last 2 weeks, it is not white spot.