Sick Discus

[hd1234]

I have a 46 gallon tank with 4 discus. 48 hours ago, they began to look ill.
The Blue Diamond had little holes in his face and small white patches (almost like burn marks) along his lateral line. The skin turned dark and eyes became cloudy and had clamped fins. His tails and fins also showed signs of rotting.
The silverado discus appeared healthy but had white stringy feces. His color was normal.
The larger turquoise was slightly dark in color but was otherwise healthy and had a good appetite.
The smaller turquoise had really bad cottony slime all over his lateral line and had erratic behavior.
Yesterday, we placed them in a quarantine tank and treated with API-brand Anti-fungal and Anti-Parasitic Medication and increased the temperature of the tank to 90 degrees. This morning, the Blue Diamond and Silverado were dead. They larger turquoise is still alive but looks dreadful. The eyes are very cloudy, color has become dark and barely swimming. The smaller turquoise still has slime patch along the lateral line but is improved and not showing any erratic behavior.
pH has been 6.5, ammonia 0, nitrite has been fluctuating between 0 and 5ppm, nitrate is around 40ppm, temperature 90 in the quarantine tank. Normal tank around 83 degrees

Any suggestions on what went wrong and what to do with the two turquoise discus?

[Cliff]

I don't know much about discus, but from what I read about them they are more sensative to water conditions than most fish

For most fish, your water paramaters are not that good. As you have nitrite, I would guess either your tank is not cycled or you have had a mini spike caused buy a change made to the set-up. Also, you have really high nitrates for any type of fish which starts to become toxic to most fish at 40 ppm

I would suggest daily 50% water changes to help reduce the nitrite and nitrates.

[Sandz]

In one of the recent TFH's Jack Watley cured some symptoms that seem relative to yours by lowering PH over the course of 24hrs to below 5 in a QT tank... might try that...

[fishguy66]

I have a 46 gallon tank with 4 discus. 48 hours ago, they began to look ill.
The Blue Diamond had little holes in his face and small white patches (almost like burn marks) along his lateral line. The skin turned dark and eyes became cloudy and had clamped fins. His tails and fins also showed signs of rotting.
The silverado discus appeared healthy but had white stringy feces. His color was normal.
The larger turquoise was slightly dark in color but was otherwise healthy and had a good appetite.
The smaller turquoise had really bad cottony slime all over his lateral line and had erratic behavior.
Yesterday, we placed them in a quarantine tank and treated with API-brand Anti-fungal and Anti-Parasitic Medication and increased the temperature of the tank to 90 degrees. This morning, the Blue Diamond and Silverado were dead. They larger turquoise is still alive but looks dreadful. The eyes are very cloudy, color has become dark and barely swimming. The smaller turquoise still has slime patch along the lateral line but is improved and not showing any erratic behavior.
pH has been 6.5, ammonia 0, nitrite has been fluctuating between 0 and 5ppm, nitrate is around 40ppm, temperature 90 in the quarantine tank. Normal tank around 83 degrees

Any suggestions on what went wrong and what to do with the two turquoise discus?

1) Tank's too small for 4 discus. As w/ any cichlid that has the potential to grow quite large, get the biggest tank you can possibly afford. If I were you, I would start over & get @ least 125 gl tank, if possible. 4 discus in a tank that size (46) is asking for trouble.

2) As stated previously, discus are extremely sensitive to any dissolved solids in the water. If you have any nitrite @ all, you do not have a complete cycle. As you didn't state what type of filtration you have on the tank, go out & buy some sort of biological filtration(ex a wet/dry filter, bio-wheel) & start your cycle all over again. Did you do a "old-fashioned" cycle( w/ fish) or a fishless cycle?

3) You have to be careful w/ any & all medications, as a great deal of them are quite harsh & can be more harmful than helpful(in my opinion). Disease is usually an indicator of poor water quality, as poor water quality stresses fish, & when they are stessed, they get sick. The best thing you can do for a sick fish is change the water(partials), and for discus, you can NEVER change the water often enough. As far as those 2 turquoise, it doesn't sound good. Just try doing daily partials & see what happens.

4) As you didn't provide a whole lot of background, it appears to me that you just kinda jumped into discus w/out a whole lot of info provided to you about this species. They are defintely NOT a beginner fish, as they are not forgiving of mistakes made by inexperienced aquarists. Who sold you all those expensive fish & were did you get your info on the upkeep they require?:22:

[ozone]

You need to get some metro and treat with that!!

[Aeonflame]

Ozone, this is an old thread