They all died within 5 hours.... (my discus)

[melissa1977]

Hi guys,

Before I start with my long story, I just want to thank everybody from the chat that tried to give me advices online yesterday. Thank you Greenmagi, menagerie and everybody that I forgot the name of....
: )

So here is my sad story....

I just lost yesterday night my 3 discus. I lost a small German Ram as well. The reason why I am writing this post is that I am looking for some answers on why did they die....

I had theses guys for about 3 months already. They were about 2 and a half inch. (one rose discus, one snakeskin and a pigeon blood.) The tank was 43 gallons, planted, aquaclear filter (on peat moss) and plenty of heat (around 29-30 degree)... Water change once a week. No ammonia, nitrite or nitrate. Feeding once or twice a day (brine shrimp, bloodworms and Jack Wattely frozen community food). This weekend I think that I went overboard with the feeding. I fed them about 3 time saturday and sunday. I don't know if that has anything to do with their sudden death.

Oh and I added some plants last weekend.... Could this be blamed for their sudden death? ... I am not sure.

This is how is all happened.

They have been acting funny friday and saturday, snakeskin was more shy that usual and a little darker. Pigeon blood has been pointing his nose up like if he was looking at the water surface once in a while. Rose discus and snakeskin had a little bit of cloudy eyes. Pigeon blood seemed to have a little bit of fungus on his top fin... I was not sure about this since the spot was so small. They were all eating. I was a little worried, I tried to treat with melafix and salt.

Then sunday night at around 9 PM after a 70 % water change, pigeon blood started hanging out at the surface of the water like if he was waiting for food. I tried to feed him nuked peas (I was under the impression that he was consipated) without any success... then snakeskin started doing the same thing... It seemed that they belly wanted to be on top is was making it hard for them to swim. They started swimming upside down and spinning at the surface of the tank. The the Rose discus joined them and finally, the small blue ram joined the group. After about 2-3 hours of floating around, they all ended up in the bottom of the tank, calm and relaxed floating on their back berating and moving their fins a little...then later at around 3 AM I woke up to check on them and they were all dead.

I have other fish in this tank and they were not affected by this decease. I have some glowlite tetra, some cories, ottos, one pleco and 2 more rams...

Does anybody could explain to my what happen last night ? I am so sad and confused.

Thank you so much for reading me.

 

[Menagerie]

I am so sorry to hear this.

Snakeskin has been acting funny friday and saturday, more shy that usual and a little darker. Pigeon blood has been pointing him nose up like if he was looking at the water surface once in a while. Rose discus and snakeskin had a little bit of cloudy eyes.

I was under the impression only one (at first) was near the surface and after an hour all were at the surface last night.
I am at a loss for what to say. Maybe members with discus experience will help out.

 

[Jchillin]

I'm truly sorry to hear this Melissa. I too was present in chat when your problem was being discussed.

The only thing I can think of is Discus plague. I suggest sending a PM to BrianNY who is a discus keeper and knows alot about this situation.

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you guys.

You are correct Menagerie.

I was under the impression only one (at first) was near the surface and after an hour all were at the surface last night.

However, the following occured friday and saturday (before they started going near the surface):

Snakeskin has been acting funny friday and saturday, more shy that usual and a little darker. Pigeon blood has been pointing him nose up like if he was looking at the water surface once in a while. Rose discus and snakeskin had a little bit of cloudy eyes.

 

[BrianNY]

I'm sorry Melissa. Menagerie PMd me and asked me to respond.

All of the fish that died suddenly are very picky about water quality and severe changes to their environment. Just venturing a guess I'm going to state the following.

Young discus need very clean water. Weekly water changes will simply not be enough to eliminate the DOCs which will build up in a tank. A 70% pwc is enough to put any sensitive fish (especially one that's in stress), over the edge.

 

[melissa1977]

It does make sense BriyanNY...

I was under the impression that I was giving them all the proper care that they needed. They were so beautiful...



I feel so bad.

Is there anything that I could have done yesterday to save them ?

 

[macman7010]

Melissa,

When you say you did a 70% water change, were you certain the new water you were using was the same ph, temapture, and conductivity of the water that was existing in the tank? I would think if those values were very different it could cause for discus to suddenly die, but if they were the same the 70% change should not have effected them this way. In asia many breeders do 90-100% water changes, typically using drip systems but still I know american breeders who do this size water change by draining the tank water then refilling it.

 

[melissa1977]

I did the water change with my Python system from the tap. I always did. I never had problems with this procedure before. I guess the discus were already stressed out... It was just too much for them to handle.

 

[greenmaji]

After the fact.. I dont think you could have done anything that would have helped.. I wasnt able to completely understand the problem you were having in chat..
If you could wind back time to thursday or friday.. then something could have been done... but Im not so sure that would be extreamly productive..

Overfeeding added to the DOC, evidence being the fugus on the tip.. I would assume if you tested for ammonia saturday or sunday you might have gotten a postive reading.. I would guess that the surfase pointing could have been low O2 from a too warm water change. more frequient smaller water changes (because larger ones wouldnt be nessiary with enough frequency of the smaller ones) would have helped keep them in better general heath to help them survive small mistakes.. HTH

 

[greenmaji]

I did the water change with my Python system from the tap. I always did. I never had problems with this procedure before. I guess the discus were already stressed out... It was just too much for them to handle.

its a good idea to test tap water peramiters to see if they have changed.. or your tank water has changed signifigantly..
Im assuing you were using some kind of declorinator.. does it remove chlorimides and has your local municipality started using chlorimides?

 

[melissa1977]

I always use Aquaplus when doing water change...

 

[BrianNY]

Melissa try not to feel too badly. You haven't done anything that many newbie discus keepers haven't done. It's very difficult to keep juvenile discus in a community tank. Discus are susceptible to so many pathogens.

The only thing you could have done was daily 30% water changes. In most cases this will leep discus healthy and hungry. Don't give up on these great fish. Time to try again.

 

[coolchinchilla]

Just wanted to say I'm so sorry about your fish. Be gentle with yourself.

 

[Zagz]

I don't know anything about discus really other than they are beautiful fish. I'm sorry for your loss and don't think you should be hard on yourself at all. You obviously loved your fish and tried to save them. If all fish could have someone that loved them like that, the world would be a better place.

 

[Apocalypse_Gold]

Tap Water=Death
I've killed much hardier fish with my tap water. Between PH swings, off the charts hardness, even very high nitrates (that killed three rainbows overnight ) I have sworn off tap water. I have switched to using only RO water and bought some RO water additives. My mortality rates have plummeted since the switch. It would be a good investment if you want to keep discus and german blues.

 

[melissa1977]

Thank you all for you comforting comments.


I don't know if I will keep discus again (too expensive, I just lost about $ 250) but I will definitely keep my tank going.

I am currently wondering what kind of fish to get next....

As for the RO system... I was under the impression that it was somewhat expensive.