Heavy head

Hi prof we spoke on saterday when i was there by you with gert. I am amped to get my discus going steady. But this morning when i got up to feed my fish i smiled cause everything was great but tonight when i got home from work my junior discus had gotten that thing you explained saterday where they cant stay up propely and keep standing on there heads. What could have caused this and is it treatable dont wanna lose him?
You mentioned something but almost remeber you saying its not very sucsessfull???

Pleaze tell me what to do.

Btw water temp at 28 - 30

 

Sorry to hear this @Fishwhisperer. This is one of the reasons why I gave up discus. Although I was very successful in keeping them healthy, the time and effort it takes to keep a discus in tip-top condition is too much. It also very depressing when they get sick.

I stopped keeping them to prevent this disappointment. It happens to the best Discus keepers. I hope it is treatable.

TM

 

Hi there FW. Prof. Dirk might take a day or two to reply to this, and if there is any chance of saving that fish you need to get it medicated a.s.a.p. Try getting Prof's phone no. from Gert. What is probably the problem is swimbladder disease. It is sometimes caused by extreme changes in temp. Maybe you fed the fish frozen food which has been linked with this due to the large drop in temperature frozen food cause inside the fish (up to a 25'C drop) There is medication, Prof. will tell you what, but yes, unfortunately success rate is minimal. You also do not have to worry as it is not contagious, and do not do a water change before speaking to Prof. Rgds, Marco

 

Hi Fishwisperer,

Although Marco is correct in that it may be seimbladder disease, it may also just be a bubble in its gut as a result of gulping in some dried food from the surface. If this is the case the fash will pass this bubble within 24 hours and then you will see that the fish will be OK. However if this is not the case and you do have a swimbladder problem, then you will have to treat the fish with sulphonomides. You can purchase Bactrim from the pharmacy and use 1 capsule per 50 litres. Crush the tablets between two teaspoons. You must increase the temp to 30 C at least. You say your aquarium temp is 28 to 30. This already may be the reason for the problem. Your temp MUST be 29 or higher. I get all these wisecracks that inform us that you can keep discus at lower temps, but they never keep them long enough to get to the swimbladder problems. Also if fishes gulp in chunks of frozen food this often causes the problem. As a result I also thaw the food first in a bakkie and then pour it into the aquarium.

Let us hope the problem gets better. Some types of discus are more prone to getting this problem so this may also be genetic.

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Sadly when i got to the tank this morning he had passed away. Still standing strait on his head thought he would fall over???? I am very sad and this is the first discus i ever lost.
This just happend so suddenly???
Fine the morning, heavy head the evening. I didnt feed any frozen food. I checked the temp this morning again and it was at 31degrees.
I had him/her in a tank with 10 rummynoses 10 cardinals and a couple of odd guppys.
I heard that the rummynoses are a indication of water quility.....??????????
I noticed that yesterday all had full nose colour and tonight only about half had full colour and a random guppy died with out any prewarning signs?
I think it might be a ph problem but from what could ph drop so quicly if i made no changes to the tank or anything???
Btw prof. What is that ph tester could that you use and where can i buy one?
I want a more acurate reading of my water.
I hate losing fish and would rather check it regularly then scoop up a dead fish or worse a dead discus.
I nearly cried although i was still to tierd and half asleep.
This discus was growing nicely in this tank for the last couple of mounths and never a problem, why now :-(

 

Just a quick reply as it is very late.

i am sorry you lost your discus, tough luck.

You can expect a constant and ongoing drop in pH in the Western Cape in an aquarium especially if you are feeding strongly and you cannot get the pH up enough just with water changes. I think that you have a pH crash in your tank and that is why your other fishes are also not happy.

pH Meters are expensive R2500 minimum I would say, the hand held models are useless in soft water. Google for Wilwaukee from Spraytech in the Western Cape.

Kind regards,

Dirk