# Sick Discus



## Suzanne (Mar 11, 2006)

I have 12 cuties in my 110 planted - they were all quarantined prior to being put in the "big tank" - in the QT I treated them with Prazi Pro, Metro and Maroxy - now it's 2 months later and I have one with white poo and 2 that are a bit on the dark side - I put in 1 fl oz of liquid prazi pro - yesterday and will start to do 30% WC's tomorrow with the plan being to do another treatment of Prazi pro in a weeks time - if there's no improvement I'll do a metro treatment - I've chosen to treat the whole tank - may be more expensive in the short run but it just doesn't make sense to treat one or two
at a time in a QT tank - any advice help, suggestions are more than welcome -
at this point they seem to be acting quite normally


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

I cant give any advice... But i hope they do ok!


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## 66 north (Apr 10, 2006)

It sounds like hexamita which I had in one of my discus. I noticed the white stringy poo and isolated it in a 20 gallon, insulated the sides, and cranked the temperature to over 94F while treating with metro. I changed about 50% of the water every second day an added a small amount of bloodworms each day which it no longer ate. However, after about 2-3 weeks it started to eat again an when it had regained some strength I put it back with its discus friends. Since then it has grown considerably. My beefheart mixture has a lot of garlic in it now which I feel has helped keep it from returning.

If your fish are still eating it may be a lot easier than this as you might be able to medicate some of their food, which is supposedly much more effective. Oh yeah, for the metro treatment in water I doubled the dose, supposedly hex has developed a resistance to the recommended dosage. It's a gentle med so I wasn't concerned about overdosing.


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## ArcLyte (Mar 21, 2006)

med treatment already without a positive id on the culprit? Treating a 110g shotgun style is very expensive especially if you're going to be using different meds without a positive idea on what you are dealing with. IMO I would remove the afflicted discus into a qt tank first as there are some discus who are just more immuno-suppressed than their tankmates. There's no need to make a full tank treatment if its 1 or two that need it and the others being perfectly healthy. Usually when one of my discus are behaving strangely, a salt regime is the first treatment and it usually clears whatever it wasn't liking. If it still isn't responding positively to the salt then I wait for more symptoms to identify the actual bacterial/parasite. Also note that using prazi in your tank may spike the ammonia if you have snails in the tank since they are negatively affected by prazi. Good luck.


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## BarbNe (May 9, 2006)

Are they eating? Any facing the back of the tank? hiding in the corners?

Barb


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## Suzanne (Mar 11, 2006)

oops I didn't know prazi was bad for snails, I have some nerite snails in the tanks - 
I haven't noticed him/her facing the back of the tank but he/she is definitely in the corners quite a bit - 
(it's not your fish Barb - he's just fine) - I've got an empty 32 gallon but for one 2" fish I think I'll just buy a 10 gallon and do a metro treatment - does that make sense?


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## BarbNe (May 9, 2006)

Hi Suzanne, if he's not eating, I'd raise the temp to 92 and dose at 400mg/ 10 gals daily for 7 or 8 days.

If he is eating but has thread like poop, likely worms. Deworm with piperazine.

Barb


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## Suzanne (Mar 11, 2006)

what's piperazine? and where can I get it?

I just set up a 10 gallon hospital tank and will move him into
it tomorrow


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## 66 north (Apr 10, 2006)

Quite a few dog dewormers are piperazine, most pet stores will have it.


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## BarbNe (May 9, 2006)

Suzanne, is he eating? and what does his poop look like?

Barb


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## Suzanne (Mar 11, 2006)

I've got him in a 10 g hospital tank now - he's not eating - poop is white but
not stringy - just one long tube of white trailing him 

I've got the temp @ 92 and today is the second day of metro


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## Suzanne (Mar 11, 2006)

Thanks Barb - great advice as always - he's eating like a little discus should now - and poop is back to black!


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

Whew... That is great to hear!


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## BarbNe (May 9, 2006)

That's good to hear Suzanne, treat with the metro for at least 8 days, then keep him in the high temps for 3 or 4 before slowly lowering the temp.

Barb


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