Discus staring at corner or back of aquarium with face down

[Argentum]

Discus not eating slightly darken staring at corner or back of aquarium with face tilted down

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?

The fish is a female of a mated pair I bought two weeks ago which were sick and I bought them for a low price hoping to treat them and provide a better living conditions other than the 5 gallon tank they were abused in, after treating them.


2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

Discus not eating, slightly darken and staring at corner or back of aquarium with face tilted down. I saw her once rubbing her body in a swift movement against the filter tube. The male shows signs of scratched on his side although I never saw him scratching his body against anything (I observe them for long periods). I think he may scratch his body against the newly added drift wood.


3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

I treated the pair for 7 days with 500mg/10Gal metronidazole with 50%-70% WC daily before adding the med. After the treatment they restored their color and activity the male started eating but not the female.

After I finished the treatment I Vacuumed the gravel and did a 80% WC and added a piece of driftwood (sinking type, that was treated for 3 days with soaking in Hot water and a 4th day in cold). Then after a day the female showed the symptoms explained above, although the male is now eating and recovered.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.

33 Gal Tall tank shared with a 1’ angel 2 plecos and 3 guppies(for producing live fry food)

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).

Daily 33% WC treated tap water

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
2 Months had Parrot cichlids it has small dark gravel its 80 cm deep

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

I don’t age the water, no pH swing

8. Parameters and water source;
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp __82F___

- ph __6___

- ammonia reading __NA__

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading __10-15__

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water __100%__

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.

Dark colored sinking driftwood.

10. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

This picture is after day 6 in treating with Metronidazole they were still not eating. In day 7 I placed the drift wood and removed the black vase. After 1 day the male started eating and the female turned as explained above. I will post a pic for her soon in the next post.

[Argentum]

I want to add that It has been 3 days since I finished treatment with Metro and added the Driftwood.
What I am thinking right now is the following Add salt to the aquarium between 0.01 to 0.2 % salt as recommended by the salt article here at simply discus.

And in case its ich I can combine that with temperature swing technique (raise 90F for 24 H then lower to 70F for 48 H and repeat 3 times).

As two least intrusive treatments. As I don't want to go through a medication treatment again unless necessary.

I need advice from someone more experienced, because if this is caused from a bacterial infection increasing the temp will make it worse. and I will have to treat it with Terramycine as I read that identical symptoms were treated with it.

[trungnguyen]

What temp. did you set while treating with Metro? Metro only works well with the temp. from 90 to 92 in 7 days, and make sure you do two doses per day if 1 dose for 12 hours, or 3 doses per day if 1 dose for 8 hours...Plus, discus cannot go through so many treatments at the same time...especially new discus...

[Argentum]

What temp. did you set while treating with Metro? Metro only works well with the temp. from 90 to 92 in 7 days, and make sure you do two doses per day if 1 dose for 12 hours, or 3 doses per day if 1 dose for 8 hours...Plus, discus cannot go through so many treatments at the same time...especially new discus...

Temp was set to 90F, I only gave them one 500mg/10gal dose per day. do you think I should continue the treatment?

The salt/temp method should not possess any stress on the fish IMO, as the salt itself is beneficial, an the temperatures are changed gradually over a long period and are within the range they can handle

here is a link of the topic I posted that time:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com/showth...t-eating-day-4!!

[Chicago Discus]

Hello and welcome to Simply Discus,
Ok lets start from the beginning you got them from someone who kept them in a five gallon tank? Thats weird all by itself.

If you want to do the discus right heres what I would do,
re-home the 1’ angel 2 plecos and 3 guppies take all the driftwood, gravel and any other ornaments you have in the tank out. clean the inner walls and floor of the tank. Im not sure what filter you have running in the tank but clean that as well. make sure you have an air-stone in the tank for extra oxygen. get a 55 gallon plastic brute container and start aging your water with an air-stone and a heater for a temperature match. Age the water for 24 hours and start doing large water changes once per day minimum 75%. No medication or salt at this time you first need to get the water right.
Looks to me to be a bacterial infection and after you you perform the tasks above I will recommend a treatment but the treatment won't work unless you get the water right. good luck .....Josie

[Argentum]

Hello and welcome to Simply Discus,
Ok lets start from the beginning you got them from someone who kept them in a five gallon tank? Thats weird all by itself.

If you want to do the discus right heres what I would do,
re-home the 1’ angel 2 plecos and 3 guppies take all the driftwood, gravel and any other ornaments you have in the tank out. clean the inner walls and floor of the tank. Im not sure what filter you have running in the tank but clean that as well. make sure you have an air-stone in the tank for extra oxygen. get a 55 gallon plastic brute container and start aging your water with an air-stone and a heater for a temperature match. Age the water for 24 hours and start doing large water changes once per day minimum 75%. No medication or salt at this time you first need to get the water right.
Looks to me to be a bacterial infection and after you you perform the tasks above I will recommend a treatment but the treatment won't work unless you get the water right. good luck .....Josie

Thank you josie for the time you took to help. I use two hang on filters. Now when you say clean you mean just water or should I disinfect them with PP. Wich will restart my cycle as you know. I will start working on it until I get further advise.

and yes they were abused. I live in saudi arabia atm many stores are not proffesional. The one I got it from dosent deal in discus I think he boughg it from a customer who wanted to let go of his fish

thanx

[PP_GBR]

Continue to treat the fish with metro for at least 10 -12 treatment total. Add some salt to the tank if you'd like, 1 TBSP per 10 gal. Hikari Metro + contains salt, so don't worry about it. Once you finish metro treatment, give them 1 week for recovery. During this recovery period, just do 50% daily water change and observe the fish closely. If symptoms persist, then you need to step up your action.

Hold off on PP for now.

[Chicago Discus]

Thank you josie for the time you took to help. I use two hang on filters. Now when you say clean you mean just water or should I disinfect them with PP. Wich will restart my cycle as you know. I will start working on it until I get further advise.

and yes they were abused. I live in saudi arabia atm many stores are not proffesional. The one I got it from dosent deal in discus I think he boughg it from a customer who wanted to let go of his fish

thanx

No don't use PP just clean fresh water and I disagree with salt man clean the water first and observe them Metro is not needed at this point and don't use any salt at this time....Josie

[Argentum]

Hello and welcome to Simply Discus,

re-home the 1’ angel 2 plecos and 3 guppies take all the driftwood, gravel and any other ornaments you have in the tank out. clean the inner walls and floor of the tank. Im not sure what filter you have running in the tank but clean that as well. make sure you have an air-stone in the tank for extra oxygen. get a 55 gallon plastic brute container and start aging your water with an air-stone and a heater for a temperature match. Age the water for 24 hours and start doing large water changes once per day minimum 75%. No medication or salt at this time you first need to get the water right.
Looks to me to be a bacterial infection and after you you perform the tasks above I will recommend a treatment but the treatment won't work unless you get the water right. good luck .....Josie

Hello,

Thanks! I did a MAJOR clean up, I removed everything, washed the inside of the glass with very hot water and disinfected with PP, I did the same for all parts of the two hang on filters EXCEPT the sponge, carbon and bio media (I am keeping those in a bucket with treated water for now). I filled the aquarium with water aerated and re-installed the cleaned filters WITHOUT the sponge, carbon and bio media. I re acclimated the discus and the angel I removed everyone else but i cant keep my angel with Blood parrots!

The fish seem happier already with the new setup



Why i didn't clean the sponge and biomedia is obviously because I don't want to lose my cycled bacteria, and in the same time I am worried if it is a bacterial infection to re insert them while they are full of it. So I choose to keep them on stand by for the moment.

What is your opinion should I rinse the media with treated water and return it or what?

[100fuegos]

Ditch the carbon, you do not want carbon in filter . Your BB will die in the bucket, lightly clean the sponges and any other media in clean treated water and return everything to your filters asap. Replace carbon with some more bio media.

[Argentum]

Ditch the carbon, you do not want carbon in filter . Your BB will die in the bucket, lightly clean the sponges and any other media in clean treated water and return everything to your filters asap. Replace carbon with some more bio media.

I already rinsed the media and returned it to the filter, but why I will not need Activated carbon?

Its a very good adsorbent, it will remove any heavy metal contamination and other contaminants, Its a thin layer anyway not taking a large space.

[100fuegos]

Not needed nor recommended inside canister ir hob, very usefull to prefilter you wc water.

Enviado desde mi Ascend G510 mediante Tapatalk

[Chicago Discus]

Everything sounds good I think cleaning the tank with PP was a bit overkill but no harm done. I would keep up the daily water changes and observe at this point. As far as carbon goes i found that its a valuable tool in a discus tank but after two or three weeks it looses its usefulness and must be changed.....josie

[judijetson]

If you don't mind me asking, what size is your tank? In the picture it appears to only be about a foot long and wide...

Sent from my Galaxy S3

[Argentum]

If you don't mind me asking, what size is your tank? In the picture it appears to only be about a foot long and wide...

Sent from my Galaxy S3

Its 40cm x 40cm x 90cm holds 30G +