Okay, i just noticed that my fish are acting strange and all staring in one corner. I have 12 fish in total, 2 Angel fish and 10 Discus. The angelfish seem to be fine but the discus are acting really weird. I also tested the water after i did a 50% water change as soon as i saw the fish going crazy, the pH is now 7-7.2(can't really tell which) and the ammonia is 0.5, the nitrate is at 0. I had the tank setup for about 8 months or more and they never acted like this. Before this happened, I changed 50% about every 2 weeks and then i add Stress Coat and Stress Zyme. When i was changing the water, i noticed one of my heaters broke and as i was attempting to take it out, half of it fell in the water (maybe this is wat caused this to happen?). I quickly picked it up and threw it away, but i made sure nothing was left from the glass breaking. I also added Epson Salt to the tank which i usually dont do but i heard from my uncle that it helps the fish. Now the fish look like they are all going to die(i hope not!!!) and one of my small blue diamond is on the gravel swimming on its side and its almost like if it has no power to swim. Also, i noticed while i did the water change the discus were spitting water? They had their mouths faced up and started to spit water. Please help!
Please HELP!!!
- Thread starter woahhPete
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mattrox
Aquarium Advice Addict
How long have they been acting wierd sounds like just now? Were they eating properly over the last few days?
Almost sounds like a gill or oxygen issue. Is there enough surface agitation?
What size is your tank?
Edit: could also be poisoning of some description.
Almost sounds like a gill or oxygen issue. Is there enough surface agitation?
What size is your tank?
Edit: could also be poisoning of some description.
Well i just saw them acting strange when i saw my blue diamond lying on its side. There is enough surface agitation and its a 90 gallon tank. Theres not much in the tank except 1 heater, 2 filters, 2 bubble oxygen things, about 2-3 inches of gravel, driftwood, and 5 plants.
mattrox
Aquarium Advice Addict
White stringy poo?
Nope, no stringy poo. Just woke up and they are all here but they seem be still be the same... some look like they got better but the others didnt. Should i do aother 50% water change or would that be bad? Is there anything i can do like buy something for more oxygen?
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
If you tested within a few hours of a PWC, the ammonia could be showing up because of the dechlor, most dechlorinators lock chloramine up but it still shows up on the test kit until it gets biologically removed. However, I don't know much about the products you use. I would test the ammonia again 24 hours after a PWC.
Did you test for NitrIte and get 0? It's strange that you have the tank up for 8 months and you NitrAte is 0 - that should not be 0 in an established tank, unless you've found some miracle way to remove them short of a de-nitrator or turf-algae filter.
I Suggest using Prime instead, it says it has a coating additive, but you use so much less (1 cap for 50 gallons - it lasts forever and is cheap) and Stress Coat is slimy and can leave a film on the surface of the water, which can block oxygen exchange from what I've read. It's not really needed unless your fish are stressed to the point that they don't make their own slime coating - if that's not happening, then you've got something else going on, fish should make their own coating.
As for the oxygen exchange in the immediate, do you currently have a glass top on the tank? Is it 100% covered up? If so, take the top off the tank and put a fan in the room so the air moves across the surface. What I do in my tanks is leave the glass lids on, but I don't attach the plastic slide-on piece across the back, that way it still gets good exposure to air. Also, if you have directable jets, point them at the surface. Beware that this will increase your pH over time. O2 = pH up, CO2 = pH down.
Beyond that, I'm afraid I can't be of much help, because I'm not a discus expert by any means. I've read a book front to back twice and gathered from that book that they like low pH, 7-7.2 sounds OK, but I think they like 6-6.5 and if you don't buffer the water, that may be one problem as well. I would suggest Discus Buffer from Seachem (makers of Prime, I like all their products) and if you have room in your filter, I would put some Seachem Purigen in there as well - 100mL bag runs about $12-14 and works like carbon except it won't starve your plants (Discus like live plants) and you can recharge it up to 6 or 7 times, so it lasts years.
Did you test for NitrIte and get 0? It's strange that you have the tank up for 8 months and you NitrAte is 0 - that should not be 0 in an established tank, unless you've found some miracle way to remove them short of a de-nitrator or turf-algae filter.
I Suggest using Prime instead, it says it has a coating additive, but you use so much less (1 cap for 50 gallons - it lasts forever and is cheap) and Stress Coat is slimy and can leave a film on the surface of the water, which can block oxygen exchange from what I've read. It's not really needed unless your fish are stressed to the point that they don't make their own slime coating - if that's not happening, then you've got something else going on, fish should make their own coating.
As for the oxygen exchange in the immediate, do you currently have a glass top on the tank? Is it 100% covered up? If so, take the top off the tank and put a fan in the room so the air moves across the surface. What I do in my tanks is leave the glass lids on, but I don't attach the plastic slide-on piece across the back, that way it still gets good exposure to air. Also, if you have directable jets, point them at the surface. Beware that this will increase your pH over time. O2 = pH up, CO2 = pH down.
Beyond that, I'm afraid I can't be of much help, because I'm not a discus expert by any means. I've read a book front to back twice and gathered from that book that they like low pH, 7-7.2 sounds OK, but I think they like 6-6.5 and if you don't buffer the water, that may be one problem as well. I would suggest Discus Buffer from Seachem (makers of Prime, I like all their products) and if you have room in your filter, I would put some Seachem Purigen in there as well - 100mL bag runs about $12-14 and works like carbon except it won't starve your plants (Discus like live plants) and you can recharge it up to 6 or 7 times, so it lasts years.
Oh i tested for NITRITE and got 0 but i dont have a kit for nirate. i checked this morning and got 6.6-6.8 pH and 0.25 ammonia and 0 nitrite. i cant really do any tests right until 2-3 hours but i hope the fish are all living.
On my tank, i have 2 glass covers and id say it covers about 80 percent of the top so maybe i should open one cover and put a fan towards the water like you said. When i checked this morning on the fish, I saw them a bit better as when i went to feed them they ate but didnt move as much as they usually do for food. I also noticed that they were breathing harder than normal. They stay in one corner near the tube and stay the the top staring.
One more thing is that 1 of my discus isnt eating but still looks fat (looking at it from the front) and 2 other discus that eat maybe 2-3 days out of the week and dont do much are extremly skinny. Could they have some sort of parasite in their stomach? Do you know any medcation i can use for them and should i seperate these 3 discus into my other tank(10G) and give them medication in there or leave it in the main tank incase the others have it
On my tank, i have 2 glass covers and id say it covers about 80 percent of the top so maybe i should open one cover and put a fan towards the water like you said. When i checked this morning on the fish, I saw them a bit better as when i went to feed them they ate but didnt move as much as they usually do for food. I also noticed that they were breathing harder than normal. They stay in one corner near the tube and stay the the top staring.
One more thing is that 1 of my discus isnt eating but still looks fat (looking at it from the front) and 2 other discus that eat maybe 2-3 days out of the week and dont do much are extremly skinny. Could they have some sort of parasite in their stomach? Do you know any medcation i can use for them and should i seperate these 3 discus into my other tank(10G) and give them medication in there or leave it in the main tank incase the others have it
Floyd R Turbo
Aquarium Advice Addict
It sounds like you have a couple of infections going on. You would probably be right, QT the sick-looking fish and treat. The problem is that it's hard to tell if any other are infected until they show signs, so you might end up having to treat them all.
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