Bacterial Disease in Discus

[Mike]

I am not 100% sure yet but I think my discus are suffering from a bacterial infection. I noticed one of the eyes of my larger discus and is was a bit hazy blurry looking and now him and several others are showing signs of swelling. I have already lost one discus do to an unknown cause I am not certain about it. The discus did die one day after being delivered so I figured it may have been NTS (New Tank Syndrome) or stress just something that happens to all aquarists. Right now I am going to establish a hospital tank just in case I need to be ready. Any advice from anyone who knows a bit more than me on discus please post some ideas of what this might be and what I can do about it thanks.

Mike
Admin

[Mike]

Also last week When I purchased my 75 Gallon Tank it came with 3 Angels and a pleco one of them had a swollen body just like my discus do now, that angel died after two days of having him. 2 angels remain and show no sign of any sickness I do however have them mixed with German Blue Rams in a 29 Gallon planted tank now and another Ram was found dead last night so I am not sure what is going on I have never lost this many fish in this little of a time frame. My count before last week was 5 dead fish on my watch now its 9 so I'm a bit worried about whats going on in my tanks.

Mike
Admin

[Cichlidgirl]

My advice is get some blackwater extract from your lfs or order some from a discus supplier online. I kept my 6 discus in it and added more of my own tannins to the water and the fish were extremly healthy and very calm. It will tint (not cloud ) your water a tea color. I read several articles about how it aids in the health area by providing extracts of several plants that prevent some bacterial and fungal diseases and it softens water. I added that over the counter black water extract and added my own partly seasoned drift wood, (no fuzzy stuff) but turned my water brown with tannins. My discus were calm, healthy and not prone to disease or stress. It helped the stress levels i think by providing a darker more natural environment when the tank lights were on. I had brown and blue discus and both looked good in the tinted water, especially the brown ones, they really popped and got wonderful color in the tannin tinted water and the blue still looked good. After you finish boiling it get a nice flat rock (like slate or other similar) and if your handy, drill two holes in it and you can take fishing line and tie your wood to the rock and make it heavy enough to sink, and then either cover the rock with sand or leave it as is if you have rocks in the decor. I have a professional piece of driftwood "art" in my tank and they drilled holes in the bottom of the rock (slate) and fastened the driftwood to it with screws. Nice and clean look, i cover it with sand .That way you would be able to make interesting shapes by turning the peices at weird angles etc..

[Mike]

I use Kent Blackwater essentials , Ketapang Vital which is suppose to pump up Color and vitality beyond blackwater, I also use Amazon Rain, and I use Tetra Blackwater extract with Nitraban, I also use seachem discus buffer to control the ph levels. The tank is loaded with plants mainly amazon river plants like swords and a few java fern, some hornwort, a few red scarlets, and two tiger lotus Lillis. I also have 4 nice chunks of driftwood in with them but it will not sink and white fuzzy algae is starting to form on it. I am not sure if that is suppose to happen but I am sure it is suppose to sink when completely bogged with water mine still floats after weeks.

Heres an update on the topic:
I did a 30% water change put off feeding them one time out of three and seven of them seem to be great and healthy but one remains by its self and has his/her rear fins clapped together but still eats off and on. All in all I think they will be fine as long as I keep my eye on them.

Mike
Admin

[Cichlidgirl]

Glad to hear your fish are getting better. Your driftwood is getting white fuzzy on it cause it was not seasoned properly. If you leave it in there it will cloud the water, spread onto everything and get nasty. All you need to do is take the wood and drop it into a pot of lightly boiling water for several hours , i cant remember how many hours i boiled mine, i want to say something like 4-6 hours of boiling, tannins will leachout, and it will kill what ever it is that is making the white (i believe it is a fungus,99 percent sure fungus.) I never had it contaminate fish or make them ill but it is super gross in the tank and even though it will eventiually clear itself up all on its own i cant imagine it is good for the cycle or fish, it will make your water super milky where you cant see farther than 1/2 inch into the tank. Just boil it. When your done boiling it you can take a rock and tie the driftwood to the rock with fishingline and bury it in the sand. Or even better if your handy you can drill some holes in your slate and take some screws (non rusting kind) and fix your driftwood pieces in interesting angles and groupings, i have a piece like that and it is my favorite, it looks so cool, curving pieces that look like parts of a buried tree sticking up out of sand. Almost like "art"

[Mike]

Thanks for the advice Cichlidgirl .

I lost another discus over night, I believe and hope this will be the last discus to die. I had noticed these discus when I recieved them that they had their fins tucked together and where showing signs of being ill. I tried my very best to save the two discus by treating them and giving them all the care I could but the first one died three days later and after three weeks the last one up and died. Some good news though my Angels and Rams are thriving together well and healthy . Thanks for reading!

Mike
Admin

[Cichlidgirl]

Sorry to hear about your discus. Do you have any available locally where you can see them and select the healthiest fish out of a group? I ordered some from a breeder in a magazine years ago and was lucky , they were healthy and exactly what i had ordered, but my brown discus from the local lfs were just as pretty and i could view them first , make sure all was good with them before i bought them. That is why i wont order expensive "designer"fronts now, i like to see the fish in person before paying for them.

[wolfcichlid]

Oh man, so sorry to hear about your two dead discus that must have hurt $$$ hope they didn't cost you too much. From my experience discus are better bought from a local breeder. I cannot imagine discus doing well in shipments I have collected these fish many times in the wild during my younger days when it was a bit safer to move about in the Amazon Rainforest and we lost many of these wonderful discus because of shipping methods I guess distance would also be another key factor.
Anyways I hope you are enjoying the others that are still alive.
Hope to see some pictures of them soon.

Wolf

[Mike]

Thanks Wolf,
I have everything under control now no more dead cichlids or discus seems every time I get a new fish in the beginning it is always ruff but, once the fish are settled in my spoiling them usually fixes everything.

I did however have one in shock for about 2-3 months but he is slowly starting to snap out of it, he swims now and is a bit more active and another good sign is he is eating again. The only bad sign still there now is his tail fin is clamped up a bit still and is very skinny although in the past week I noticed he is coloring up a bit more and also is growing a tad in size. Not as big as his brothers or sisters yet but on his way there. I will get some pictures up soon. The little guy won COM for February 08 I think thats what helped him snap out of his state of shock .

Mike