Discus fish gill problems

TomCarter13 · May 31, 2016

I keep getting discus fish and everytime they are in my tank within 1 week they start breathing fast through 1 gill.

Anyway this is the third time I have kept discus and once again three of the four fish are breathing through one gill fast and it's only the 5th day of having them. They are in a brand new 150 litre aquarium that I bought for them to quarantine them so I could treat them and watch them for 6 weeks before moving them in my 450 litre.

The fish are honestly acting fine and they are even pairing off and laying eggs and stuff like that. They eat a variety of foods like frozen foods and pellets. They have erect fins and there is plenty of aggression in the tank. The fish are between 4-5 inches and they are very good quality imported from Asia. Just would basically like to know what's up? is there something in my tap water that's setting them off or what because i honestly don't get it. I will be treating the fish for flukes and parasites etc. the medications arrive on Thursday so not much I can do right now apart from water changes.

Something interesting that happened yesterday though was I did a large water change and the tap water was filled with a lot of micro bubbles flowing into the aquarium. The fish before the water change had been fine since I got them and then boom. They all were breathing through 1 gill after that WC. They soon went back to normal after about 2 hours though so I'm guessing the micro bubbles irritated them.

The gill thing is kind of off and on though. Since day 3 only 1 of the fish started doing it and the fish has sort of stayed in the back and he gets a little beat up which must stress him out.

The tank is cycled by the way i had pre cycled the filters and I did have the aquarium up and running 2 weeks prior. I will do a water test soon to prove it but yeah.

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Matt68005 · May 31, 2016

Assuming the tanks cycled and your aware of the aquarium cycle, It
Sounds like maybe your tap water contains Chloramines and maybe old rusty pipes or too high levels of flouride
I would start by asking your water company
Do you know the GH? Discus like really soft water as far as i know. Especially those coming from asia.
Discus are pretty picky on water quality, maybe use prime instead of just declor?
Other than gill flukes i really dont know.

TomCarter13 · Jun 6, 2016

Matt68005 said:
Assuming the tanks cycled and your aware of the aquarium cycle, It
Sounds like maybe your tap water contains Chloramines and maybe old rusty pipes or too high levels of flouride
I would start by asking your water company
Do you know the GH? Discus like really soft water as far as i know. Especially those coming from asia.
Discus are pretty picky on water quality, maybe use prime instead of just declor?
Other than gill flukes i really dont know.

I think they had some sort of fluke because I dosed in some prazi 3 days ago and they have all been breathing normal through all gills. I still have a minimum of two treatments left to go for treating with prazi anyway so hopefully it will get rid of most if not all parasites they may have.

Just a quick question though. Is it normal for discus fish eyes to stick out a little bit? Like they aren't bulging and they don't have large eyes like stunted discus fish tend to have. They just kinda stick out of there sides a little bit haha. I'll post some pictures of them anyway but yeah. It's the only other thing concerning me.

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TomCarter13 · Jun 6, 2016

Also these are not wild caught discus. They are pigeon and red panda strains. It's a long story why they were imported from Asia but basically Asia tends to have nicer high quality fish. Most of the discus where I'm from are not very attractive and are poorly kept making them either stunted or just unhealthy or both. It's sad and also a huge rip off. Oh and also I do use prime haha. I've used the whole time I've kept fish, it's great.

Here are some pictures of the fish: