I'm going to give this a try - though it's freshwater.

[MnFish1]

Curious - what would anyone make of this - a discus tank - in operation for 10 years

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The videos are just a bit too short for me to see much. To be honest though, fancy discus have always been a huge issue for me! They are prone to gill flukes, but they can also develop a myriad of other issues, some of which are not treatable (coccidia for example).

Another thing that they show is major intraspecific aggression. This has been the biggest issue for me....I'm totally dismayed at housing discus in groups and always having the low man on the totem pole go belly up on me - time and time again! I can never seem to solve that, unlike with marine fish, I never see ripped fins or even attacks with these....it almost seems that the weakest fish just gets intimidated by the other discus and they die off. When that fish dies, the next one in line gets the problem....ugh!

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

The videos are just a bit too short for me to see much. To be honest though, fancy discus have always been a huge issue for me! They are prone to gill flukes, but they can also develop a myriad of other issues, some of which are not treatable (coccidia for example).

Another thing that they show is major intraspecific aggression. This has been the biggest issue for me....I'm totally dismayed at housing discus in groups and always having the low man on the totem pole go belly up on me - time and time again! I can never seem to solve that, unlike with marine fish, I never see ripped fins or even attacks with these....it almost seems that the weakest fish just gets intimidated by the other discus and they die off. When that fish dies, the next one in line gets the problem....ugh!

Jay

This is nitrite poisoning in freshwater. After a major over-feeding yesterday by a Child.... However you're absolutely correct - they tend to take the weakest, then the weakest then the weakest until there are 2. There were 5 mated pares in the tank

 

[vetteguy53081]

Years ago I had a discus tank and challenges are As mentioned flukes, need for warmer acidic water and stable with amazon plants and hiding with plants. I had turquoise- red heckel- standard wild and blue diamond. the wild ones did best.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

This is nitrite poisoning in freshwater. After a major over-feeding yesterday by a Child.... However you're absolutely correct - they tend to take the weakest, then the weakest then the weakest until there are 2. There were 5 mated pares in the tank

Nitrite poisoning in a ten year old tank is unexpected - what levels did it hit? A bit of salt in the water will help with that, but of course, discus don't appreciate too much salt.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Nitrite poisoning in a ten year old tank is unexpected - what levels did it hit? A bit of salt in the water will help with that, but of course, discus don't appreciate too much salt.

Jay

The issue was a combination of stupid things - a 'friend' overfed the fish the day before - and coincidentally, the pump (return from sump) stopped pumping sometime in the AM when I was gone out of the house. I posted because - though all 15 fish were floating on the top of the water - after adding a detoxifying agent (and starting up the pump again) while waiting to do a water change - most of them turned around - I lost 3

 

[MnFish1]

"Fish with nitrite toxicity will present with tan to brown-coloured gills and show signs of hypoxia such as gathering at the water inlet or surface. Changes in oxygen affinity and blood pH increase the movement of oxygen to the swim bladder. This can lead to buoyancy problems."

I did not check levels due to timing - but the symptoms seemed classic. I suppose some ammonia could be playing a role as well. Today fish seem ok.

 

[MnFish1]

The issue was a combination of stupid things - a 'friend' overfed the fish the day before - and coincidentally, the pump (return from sump) stopped pumping sometime in the AM when I was gone out of the house. I posted because - though all 15 fish were floating on the top of the water - after adding a detoxifying agent (and starting up the pump again) while waiting to do a water change - most of them turned around - I lost 3

I take that back - The other 2 are ok! - the tank was pretty dark - but when I went in to take them out, they are swimming normally. Will update pictures later. Its hard to see in the pictures - but many of them had swim bladders perhaps 4x normal size

 

[MnFish1]

PS - I suppose (since I didn't have a nitrite test kit) it could have been hypoxia due to poor flow - however, the rapidity of recovery and the number/amount of plants in the tank (the lights were on) - suggests against this - there was also no bacterial bloom

 

[Jay Hemdal]

PS - I suppose (since I didn't have a nitrite test kit) it could have been hypoxia due to poor flow - however, the rapidity of recovery and the number/amount of plants in the tank (the lights were on) - suggests against this - there was also no bacterial bloom

Hypoxia from a pump failure is faster showing up than nitrite is. For nitrite to show up, the Nitrobacter bacteria (not the new name for them, I know) need to die off, while the Nitrosomonas bacteria (also not the new name!) need to still be alive in order to process ammonia into nitrite. I'm never seen that happen though.....

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Hypoxia from a pump failure is faster showing up than nitrite is. For nitrite to show up, the Nitrobacter bacteria (not the new name for them, I know) need to die off, while the Nitrosomonas bacteria (also not the new name!) need to still be alive in order to process ammonia into nitrite. I'm never seen that happen though.....

Jay

The interesting thing is that within 30 minutes adding product xxx (not sure I should mention it) - the fish were better - FWIW - it was not prime lol. However - I think it might give some evidence that toxins can be 'captured' by various products that claim to do so

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The interesting thing is that within 30 minutes adding product xxx (not sure I should mention it) - the fish were better - FWIW - it was not prime lol. However - I think it might give some evidence that toxins can be 'captured' by various products that claim to do so

But aeration was restored about the same time?

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

But aeration was restored about the same time?

Jay

Actually 'no' not for a couple hours - draining (attempting) to drain a large tank with a small hose). Curious though, have you seen swollen swim bladders when fish are just gulping at the surface?

 

[MnFish1]

But aeration was restored about the same time?

Jay

Long story short - the tank had lost about 1/4 of volume - due to the house sitter thinking if it's not bubbling it must be good. Then the accidental overfeeding - which various people were calling me with comments 'should we stick a needle in the fish' (we're a medical family lol). I added the 'antidote' - while draining the tank from the other side - after about 3 hours - I refilled the tank - but by the time I had the pump working again - the fish (except for 3) were swimming normally and acting normally

 

[MnFish1]

Long story short - the tank had lost about 1/4 of volume - due to the house sitter thinking if it's not bubbling it must be good. Then the accidental overfeeding - which various people were calling me with comments 'should we stick a needle in the fish' (we're a medical family lol). I added the 'antidote' - while draining the tank from the other side - after about 3 hours - I refilled the tank - but by the time I had the pump working again - the fish (except for 3) were swimming normally and acting normally

however - I get your response - causality between medication and recovery is not well documented

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Actually 'no' not for a couple hours - draining (attempting) to drain a large tank with a small hose). Curious though, have you seen swollen swim bladders when fish are just gulping at the surface?

There are two types of fish: physoclistus and physostomus. The first dose not have a connection between the mouth and the air bladder and the latter does. Physostomus fish can fill their gas bladder by gulping air, physoclistus fish cannot (they get their "air" from some physiological function, from the blood).

Cory catfish are physotomus, discus are physoclistus


Jay