Sorry, but Desperate!!

Ok...LFS guy was supposed to come and help me put sick Discus in Hospital tank. He flaked once again. Husband is still out of town...can't catch the Discus{I'm disabled}
No other fish shows signs of stress...been changing water, testing and everything looks good. What should I do about the bacterial/fungus treatment? I know it is never good to treat entire tankbut I'm worried. Have Maroxl and Maracyn-Two.

Sorry for bugging...just like my fish more than juist about anything. Thank You very much for your help!
Mary

 

I wish I could help, but I fear that I would mess you up

somebody will post any minute now

good luck, I hope everything works out!

 

HI Mary,
Welcome to Fishlore

I'm sorry I can't help with the meds question, but I was just wondering how well you know the flakey LFS guy? With your husband out of town, this just kinda concerns me.

I don't mean to offend.

Is there a trusted friend or neighbor you could ask for help?

Best of luck to you and your tank.

 

No offense taken Lucy. I guess I'm gun shy. I read that using a net would/could harm the gills. Our tank is large...plants and rock areas to hide. Here's the crazy thing...lil eddie and mate are spawning.

 

What's the status of him now? Rid-Fungus would be something safe to treat the whole tank with for fungus.

 

He's not doing well. Most of the other fish are getting sick now. I know I'm duplicating threads, but I'm so scared I will lose.

 

As I recall your discus had a RED spot on his fin and it sprouted white fluff.

At the time I suggested you get water tests and post results.

Also you needed to isolate that fish to treat it with maracyn-two and a fungus medication.

The reason to isolate the fish is because the red is PROBABLY a bacterial infection. Fungus will attack a fish that is already stressed by another infection.

All the fish in the tank are vulnerable to the bacteria that are multiplying in the discus.

The only environment those fish have to live in is the one you provide for them. If the water is pristine, they are much less likely to get sick. WHAT are the test readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.?

No one here can do more that feel your frustration over the situation, and give suggestions. If I was in your situation, I would be doing 50% water changes every day, vacuum the gravel, and get the discus in a quarantine tank and medicate it. Then medicate the entire tank with Melafix to help the other fish withstand and get healthy again....

 

Ok..water test are H-6.6, Nitrite-.25, Nitrate-5 and AMMONIA-1.0

Remember, I tried to catch the Discus{I'm disabled, husband out of town}and couldn/t. LFS guy was supposed to help...He flaked out. All the fish are getting sick. Used rid-fungus for three days...no luck{put in tank}
I now have Maroxy and Maracyn-two

 

OH PS Sustina...I did 50% water changes daily until I started to treat.

 

Hello
It looks like for some reason your tank is going through a minI cycle. Best thing to do is get someone to change out that water for you. Your Discus fish are very sensitive to this kind of water condition. It also sounds like all your fish are being affected by the high NitrIte and high Ammonia levels your tank is showing at this time.
Finding someone to change out that water for you, taking out about 25 % water daily til the readings come down sounds like the best course of treatment at this time. If you don't get any one to do a water change for you at this point your fish are going to continue to be sick.
Also, treat the new water with a water conditioner such as Prime it will help lock up the toxins asap til you can get a water change done.

 

Thank You Capekate! I have someone arriving this afternoon. After doing the water changes daily to get the numbers down, do I then treat the tank?

 

The results of your tests tell a lot. Your tank is either NOT cycled, or it is in the middle of a minI cycle. ANY ammonia or nitrite over 0 is very BAD for your fish. Both of these chemicals are extremely toxic to fish. Ammonia at 1 can kill fish. \

This is why in my first posts to you I asked these questions about what the test results were.

Now we know what is stressing your fish, and the only thing to do is try to protect them, until the bacteria that accomplish the nitrogen cycle get built up.

Prime is a product that will help protect your fish. It can detoxify the ammonia and nitrite, but can only "HELP" it will not replace the required 50% water changes. You need to continue those changes, do a change, then treat the tank with prime.

Like I said before the cost of medicating the whole tank can be huge. Medication in your big tank can also kill the good bacteria that are needed in the nitrogen cycle. I believe I also told you this, it is another reason not to medicate the entire tank. We always hope people will separate the sick fish to administer medications, because it will save tons of work.

You will have to test your tank every day. Change water every day until your ammonia and nitrite return to 0 (before the water change). Your nitrate in a tank with discus SHOULD be between 5-10....if it is as high as 10, you need to do water changes to bring it back down. A completely cycled tank will have 0 ammonia and nitrite and 5+nitrate.

 

As I recall your discus had a RED spot on his fin and it sprouted white fluff.

At the time I suggested you get water tests and post results.

Also you needed to isolate that fish to treat it with maracyn-two and a fungus medication.

The reason to isolate the fish is because the red is PROBABLY a bacterial infection. Fungus will attack a fish that is already stressed by another infection.

All the fish in the tank are vulnerable to the bacteria that are multiplying in the discus.

The only environment those fish have to live in is the one you provide for them. If the water is pristine, they are much less likely to get sick. WHAT are the test readings for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate.?

No one here can do more that feel your frustration over the situation, and give suggestions. If I was in your situation, I would be doing 50% water changes every day, vacuum the gravel, and get the discus in a quarantine tank and medicate it. Then medicate the entire tank with Melafix to help the other fish withstand and get healthy again....

I followed all suggestions except catching the Discus..The reason I keep asking what to do, is because I don't want to lose any fish. When you can't catch a fish, what do you do?
All the numbers were ok...everything shot up today. I'm learning more each day{husbands tank}and I thank all of you for trying to help.
Do you still vacuum gravel when it's a planted tank? I'm beginning to feel that the LFS guy that was helping w/tank really gave us bum advice. Told him we should be vacuuming the gravel and everyone of them said NO...not if it's planted.

Susitna,you rock. This forum was the only thing that has helped. I can assure everyone here, I'm going to take a more active role in taking care of the tank. Husband was gone for a week.

 

Susitna Please know I wasn't "shouting" in my post. I want to make sure you saw what I put in bold. I purchased the API kit...have been testing every day. Last big water change was Sat am. That's why I've been obsessing...

Had AMQUEL on hand and put it in every water change. Now I have PRIME...Should/can I use this when water change today?

 

I'd be using Prime, definitely. Amquel+ is good, but doesn't do all that Prime will.

 

Susitna Please know I wasn't "shouting" in my post. I want to make sure you saw what I put in bold. I purchased the API kit...have been testing every day. Last big water change was Sat am. That's why I've been obsessing...

Had AMQUEL on hand and put it in every water change. Now I have PRIME...Should/can I use this when water change today?

I think you need a hug......I also didn't mean to come across less than sympathetic. It sounds like you have your hands full. This morning I was just trying to get off a post or two before driving a 160 mile round trip to town.....I feel bad because after my last post I had to run, and never did find out if you were able to work this out.

Really as I said we can give suggestions, and after that just have to sit back and lend a shoulder to lean on.

So we all end up having ups and downs in our tanks. I am only able to run our generator during the day lately due to diesel at 3.96/gallon....it was off all night....no filtration or heat in my tanks. That is what I've been doing for the past two weeks, no problem. Today however I fed right before we left, turning off the generator again since we wouldn't be home....
That meant in the past 24 hours the generator has only run about 3 hours....well when we got home one of my 55 gallon tanks was cloudy. The first thing I did was to quick do tests, sure enough ammonia and nitrite were both up to .25! First time this had happened in 3 years.....I did a 50% water change, and put in some Prime.

The only reason I tell you all this, is that after awhile, you instinctually know if something is out of the norm, and just what to start looking for, and what to do about it. It is a learning curve, we all go through. So all we try to do here is to answer questions and point out things we see that others might not see, or be doing. Really hope this all works out for you.

April

 

sorry, I posted on your other thread, but I see you're getting all kinds of help over here! good luck, hope things are getting better!