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August 28th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Discus help
I have 4 discus at home, 1 about 6 inches, 2 about 3 inches, and one about 1.5-2 inches. Anyway, I noticed a couple days ago that one of the 3 inch discus stopped using its right pectoral fin. It will use it once in awhile but for the most part it keeps pressed against its side. Then yesterday its tail collaspsed and is now stiff. That discus is now just floating around at the side of the tank. Every time I try to feed the other fish I make sure this sick/injured one eats but doesn't go for any food I give it. Does anyone know what is wrong with it? All the other fish in the tank are doing fine. I've gone from changing the water from 2-3 times a week (at about 30-40% at a time) to daily (at about 40%) as a precaution.
46 gallon tank
Aquaclear 70 gal filter
Hydor 50 gal filter ammonia 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 5 pH 7.5
Temp 84.5
Those are my levels and have been pretty constant since I've got the tank back in April. I'm not sure what to do about this one discus, can anyone help? I'll try and get a picture of it when I get home from work today and post it.  | 
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August 28th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Well, I couldn't get a picture of the discus when I came home from work because it already died by the time I got back... I still don't know what happened. I checked the levels again, same readings, but I'll do some water changes just to play it safe for the other fish in the tank for now. I couldn't find anything helpful online and I've been searching for the past 2 days reading anything and everything... Anybody have any ideas?
Last edited by PhishPhood; August 28th, 2008 at 09:00 PM.
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August 29th, 2008
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| | Fish Mentor
| Have you noticed any white poo? | |
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August 29th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| Welcome to Fishlore. I'm sorry you lost your fish.
Slug's a much better discus-specific person than I am, but I can give some generic help, at least.
Your water quality looks excellent. I don't know about pH and temp requirements of discus, but I'm going to guess that, because you are doing an excellent job in other areas of tank maintenance, that they are at least acceptable, if not perfect, for discus.
This means that we can more or less rule out ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate poisoning (which would be unlikely as the other fish aren't showing symptoms, anyway).
It's possible that the fish suffered some sort of internal injury or affliction. It's technically possible for fish to have strokes and the like, and the symptoms you've suggested almost seem to be this kind of issue (extremities are paralyzed first, then the heart eventually shuts down).
Still, it's a good idea to try to rule out things like parasites (thus Slug's question about white poo), to help protect the other fish. | |
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September 5th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Yeah... I didn't see any white poo... I have no idea what was wrong. Maybe he just injured himself somehow? | |
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September 5th, 2008
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| | Moderator
| If his death was just an oddity in the tank, it could be a head injury, a stroke, some sort of genetic issue (MS could produce similar results. Not sure if fish have an equivalent, but it's possible), etc...
Still, keep an eye on things to make sure the others are doing okay. | |
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September 6th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Discus Help
Hi I am new to this forum but have been keeping and breeding Discus for many years and if I may suggest keeping your fish at a slightly higher temperature 86 87 they do better at this temp. I think you may have experienced a culminarus bacteria which some times comes from our drinking water, I used to alter my ph to 6.5 or 6.0 to counter these types of bacterial issues but be very carefull not to do it all at once I would introduce the lower ph when I did a water change. hope that helps v | |
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October 12th, 2008
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| | Fish Lore Newbie
| Quote:
Originally Posted by PhishPhood  I have 4 discus at home, 1 about 6 inches, 2 about 3 inches, and one about 1.5-2 inches. Anyway, I noticed a couple days ago that one of the 3 inch discus stopped using its right pectoral fin. It will use it once in awhile but for the most part it keeps pressed against its side. Then yesterday its tail collaspsed and is now stiff. That discus is now just floating around at the side of the tank. Every time I try to feed the other fish I make sure this sick/injured one eats but doesn't go for any food I give it. Does anyone know what is wrong with it? All the other fish in the tank are doing fine. I've gone from changing the water from 2-3 times a week (at about 30-40% at a time) to daily (at about 40%) as a precaution.
46 gallon tank
Aquaclear 70 gal filter
Hydor 50 gal filter
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
PH 7.5
Temp 84.5
Those are my levels and have been pretty constant since I've got the tank back in April. I'm not sure what to do about this one discus, can anyone help? I'll try and get a picture of it when I get home from work today and post it. | Maybe your discus was infected white worm. | |
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