discus question

[astroboy]

Hello,

 

I believe a few people in WAMAS keep discus...

 

I have a 90 gallon heavily planted tank, lots of light and CO2, mostly Amazon swords. A few small corys, three medium sized angles, four pearl gouramis. Temp is 82, pH is around 7, TDS about 125. I do a 90% water change once a month, use RO/DI with a supplement the name of which I forget now so that it's not pure RO/DI. Everyone plays well together, everything is doing great except some of the discus. 

 

I got six 2.5 inch discus about four months ago and for three months things were great. At that time two discus occupied the front of the tank and the other four stayed back in the plants. I never saw any fighting but I guess somehow the pecking order was established. A couple weeks ago one discus died, and a few days ago another one died. Both emaciated. The remaining two are looking rather dark and thin so I moved them to QT tank today and am dosing them with sulfa and furan. 

 

Since the two dominant discus look absolutely healthy I'm guessing that it's not water quality or environment per se that is affecting the others. I've read that for a 90 gallon you want at least eight discus so that the pecking order isn't so rigid. 

 

Any thoughts? As with a lot of aquarium stuff, I've read a lot of conflicting opinions online....

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[RW09903]

Hi Mark,

Your discus feces white? Usually when they are thin and dark, its caused by a parasite which lives in their digestive track. Look up hexamita, which is what I suspected based on your discription.

[astroboy]

I've thought about hexamita..... However, none of the dead fish or the thin ones showed any signs of 'holes', they just looked starved. I didn't see any feces at all, I expect because they hadn't been eating for some time before I realized there was something wrong. They were pretty well hidden in the weeds..... 

 

Do you know how to get metronidazole? Seems like you need a prescription from a vet. I used to live in Bowie and needed an antibiotic for an elegance coral and the vets, or at least their receptionists, treated me like I was a lunatic. Apparently none of them had reef tanks, otherwise they'd have known dropping a few bills on fish or coral medication is (hopefully) money well spent. 

[RW09903]

https://www.amazon.com/SEACHEM-LABORATORIES-INC-METROPLEX-GRAM/dp/B007R5M89C

 

Sold under a different name now.

[astroboy]

https://www.amazon.com/SEACHEM-LABORATORIES-INC-METROPLEX-GRAM/dp/B007R5M89C

 

Sold under a different name now.

 

Thanks very much, I appreciate the info!!! FWIW, the two discus I moved to the QT with the meds have much better color, although I'm not sure if they're eating yet. Hopefully things will turn out well.