What's wrong with my Discus? HELP!?

Question

I ordered some discus (two mixed and one red snakeskin) at the beginning of January. They did really well until about two weeks ago. The smallest mixed discus stopped eating. He would swim up to the food like he wanted to eat it then would swim away. After about two weeks he died. The other mixed discus just stopped eating about two days ago and died last night. Now the last discus, the red snakeskin, has started hiding. Do you have any idea what could be wrong? There are no obvious signs of Ick or disease. Water tests are normal. We over quite a variety of foods from beef heart to blood worms to flake food, all of which they liked and eat until recently. Any information would be appreciated greatly!

Answer 1

Beside those possible disease laying in your tank. You might want to find your remaining Discus a mate or two to increase it chances of living longer.
Discus are fishes which thrive to living in groups. Do try to get Discus of the same size else the smaller one might be bully to dead.

Good Luck to you. Cheers.

Answer 2

Internal protizoan, either spironucleus or hexamita. These are common in discus & angels, I have a nice little word doc I did up years ago, and have posted on many forums, so I may as well post it here.

This is what I do for angels, you may want to look into the maximum temp your fish can handle. Metro was originally designed for humans, the closer you can get the tank to 98.6F the better.

Put the angel in a quar tank, I usually use a 10 gallon. Increase the temp over a day or so to 90-94F. Treat daily with 40 mg/gallon metronidazole, with 50% water changes daily. If the fish isn't eating, don't feed for the first 3 days. After 3 days, get some frozen brine shrimp. Take a portion about the size of a few match heads, and sprinkle on some metro. You have to eyeball this one, make the shrimp look kind of like a tiny powdered donut. Once it thaws, mix it in & feed. Sometimes they still don't eat for a few days, but once they start to mouth the food & spit it out, the meds seem to get in their system real good. Continue medicating the water & food for 7-10 days.

Metronidazole is sold as flagyl, het-a-mit, and a few other names I can't recall offhand, used to treat hexamita & hole in the head. They usually suggest 20mg/gallon, this often isn't enough. Metro deteriorates in 8 hours, so you could do twice daily water changes. I've done this on the weekends when I have time.

I've also added epsom salt while using metro, this helps with any constipation issues, cleans out the digestive tract. I start with 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water, increasing by 1 teaspoon daily for 2 more days to bring it up to 3 teaspoons per 10 gallons. You will have to adjust how much you use when doing water changes. You may want to give this a try.

Answer 3

Your symptoms sound like constipation, but if the diet was well balanced and included plenty of plant material, that's not the cause. A slow wasting disease has all the hallmarks of an internal infection or possibly a viral infection. I would suggest you call the breeder you purchased them from and see if he/she has had any recent problems or has heard of a particular disease currently plaguing discus. Whith out further information that's about the best that can be done I'm afraid. Too many internal infections are impossible to tell apart and honestly usually too hard to treat to be able to save a fish once it's showing signs.

MM