torren

hello my discus are all tank breed i have 200litre tank, 5ft long, i keep them in 75% RO water and 25 tap normally age it a day or two before adding, PH6.5-8 temp 27.8-29.1c , do 20% change every 5 days. and i add sera morena to the water changes,

my question is this every now and again my discus will stop using one side of the gills then next day their go bk to using both why is this? is this an illness or poor water?

ATKINSON

Sorry I cant help. Hopefully Matt aka Slug will see this soon as he is a discus expert!!

fish_newbie

Hi. It could be signs of gill flukes. By "all tank breed" do you mean you bred them? And what do you mean by pH 6.5-8 ? Is the pH constantly changing in that range?

torren

my tester kit only measures in 0.5 so all i know is it is either 6.5 or bewteen 6.5-7. when i say tank breed it mean just what i have said they have been breed in a tank their not wild nor the parents

fish_newbie

Oh i see. It could be gill fluke but I'm not sure, I've only read about it and never have it, yet. You may want to wait for Matt, he is truly and expert in the discus hobby.

Slug

Thanks guys, not an expert though just an enthusiast! Luckily i've never had to deal with much disease in my tanks so i'm not as experienced when it comes to that. But to me it kinda sounds like gill flukes. But it could be as simple as not enough oxygen in the water.

Are the fish rubbing against anything mainly the gill area? Is the tank planted or is it a bare bottom? Is the fish struggling to breathe at any time? Are they still eating and acting normal? Most discus seem to carry at least some flukes, they are very common but they don't always bother the fish to this point.

Flukes generally are seen with poor water quality or weak/sickening fish. If my calculations are correct the tank is about 50-55gal right? With 8 discus in there i would be doing water changes more then 20% every 5 days. This could be the stem of your problems.

My suggestion is, assuming the fish are still eating and acting normal, to step up water changes first and see how they do with the increase. Since it could still just be a lack of oxygen. If that doesn't work i'd start doing a salt bath routine. I might also look into getting some prazipro, but be careful with dosing meds. I've never been a big fan of pouring chemicals into the tank, you have to be really careful doing so.

ifixoldhouses

Discus need 10 gallons each, so 8 would be a lil overstocked, and I'd do 50% at least every other day as well.

torren

i got plants yes, ive turn the air pump on and most have gone bk to norm. was told when i brought these from breeder they have been treat for flukes already. ill try changing the water ever 4 days and leaving air pump on, i have 2x exernal filter a tetratec 1200 and eheim ecco , really i only need to use one of them but im using them both for water qua is this right?

fish_newbie

Filters and discus doesn't really go together very well. Discus need recent water change no matter how many or how good your filters are. Sure that as long as there are reasonable water changes they will live, but if you really want them to get to their true potential (full size, full colors) that is when the extra work need to go in.
As Slug said, bad water can weaken your fish, easy for diseases to attack. Normally the diseases that discus has can be cure with better water quality. People change 100% water every day when their fish is sick, and continue that 100%/day for one or two weeks after their discus recovered. Since you have plant, which also mean u must have a substrate, 4 days per water change is too less especially when you have as much as 8 discus.
May I ask what is the % of water that you replace per WC?

Neji

You turn on an air pump in your planted tank? if the plants are live, then that is really bad, especially with live fishes in the tank. That was how I lost a lot of my fishes when I first started raising fishes when I was living in a different country :S Plants usually produce their own oxygen for the tank, and the filters may produce a little bit of bubbles, but they help keep the tank water clear. Are your fishes okay though?

Neji

Filters and discus don't go well with each other? I hear that too much water changes can stress out the fishes. I know Discus fishes are very delicate.. probably more delicate than the Angelfishes, but they don't need to do 100% water changes all the time. A good 25-50% of water change is already good enough :S a 100% water change would be WAY too much. You are taking out ALL of the old cycled water out and putting in new one.

Slug

100% is not to much. The cycle depends on bacteria in the tank, the bacteria live on everything. Filters, tank walls, sponge filters, anything in the tank. Its not going to totally erase your cycle. I've done many 100% water changes with my discus no problems.

The more water changes and feedings you do with discus the better. Filters really don't matter. All i use are sponge filters in my tanks.

fish_newbie

Yes but with 100% water change a day it put cycles/pH/kH out of the way. If you do 100% water change, pH will always be the pH of your tap water and cycles wouldn't be a big matter as there are almost no wastes to break down in the tank. Yes discus are sensitive fish, to fix the problem, you change water throughout the day, not in one go, eg 35%morning, 35%afternoon, 35% night. With this kind of schedule you would not have any wastes in the tank, given its bare bottom.
I do 35% waterchange with vaccumm every second day, the only reason that I'm not doing 100%/day is that we're having a drought so water usage is very limited. I feed them 8 times a day, once every 2 hours.

here is my tank: I've got a Vid TOO !!!!

Neji

Oh wow! That is a lot of feeding you do! I am not home long enough so I can't feed them everyday. I'm always busy working out in the fields, and with a bunch of people in the Amazon river. I am a college student learning on the eco systems and so on

torren

ive start changing 20% every 3 days now since i havedone that one of my discus bloat gut has gone and it was the size of small marble and i have spend about £30-40 on treatment and took 8month, but within 2week of changing my water more and feeding the lump (pet shop told me it was cancer) has more or less gone now so thank guys u save me going to the vets also my fish have grown alot to in the 2 weeks ive up it.

some1 sed to add the discus with gill probs in salt bath, is this normal salt or epsom salt? and how many grams of salt to litres of water?

torren

Plant may produce oxygen and and take in carbon dixoide in the day but in the night they produce Co2 and take in oxygen while would then kill my fish that is why i have an air pump, u can never have to much oxygen FPK even have said that in one of their mags