Disease Control, by Vern Archer

As stated earlier, good water quality, nutritional food such as a vitaminized beef-heart with a non aquatic live food will go a long way in keeping your discus happy and in good health.  Buying your fish from a quality breeder who practices the above will also get you started on the right foot.

But let us say you did rescue some fish from a store and/or a wholesaler and you end up with a problem or two.  Or you want to breed some live wild caught discus “Heckel Discus” maybe? What should you do to start with?

Quarantine; first of all you need a reasonable size tank (30 gallon or larger depending on size and quantity), away from the rest of your fish, bare bottm, off the beaten path, with a separate net and other aquarium utensils.  I like to lower the light level and maybe cover a portion of the front of the aquarium with cardboard so they feel safe. At this point the discus don't trust you, trust is gained by spending time with them quietly watching them from a few feet and of course they eventually fiquer out you are the food provider.  At this point if you have a white worm culture a few treats thrown their way quickly breaks the ice in the relationship and gets them eating. 

Why quarantine? Recently a world wide epidemic occurred (first appeared Dec. 09 and is still going on as of June/10), a nasty viral infection came in from Asia infecting most if not all the stores in my area.  This infection impacts the immune sytem of the fish and the fish secomes to the secondary bacterial problems in your aquarium, usually attacking the gills of the fish and slowly suffocating your fish.  In a quarrantine situation the fish purchased look fine since they have been previously exposed and cured using an anti biotic but unfortunately they are now viral carriers with the potential to infect and kill your fish. Also I am told these previously infected fish are carriers and can pass this virus along to their off spring. I recomend if you are purchasing fish from a store or unscrupulous wholesaler make sure you have a good supply of anti biotics available to treat if a problem should occur.  Also you will need a vollunteer from your regular tank stock to be placed with these new fish to see if in fact they are infected.  I recomend a 2 week period of observation with the new fish and your vollunteer in the quarantine tank. In addition be looking to make sure the feces is dark not white and stringy and that the fish are not scratching and breathing hard all signs of a potential problem.  Unfortunately some people have to learn the hard way and don't take the time to quarrantine with disasterous results.

Water Quality; to start with, the water should be aged tap water, have a cycled filter system with lots of aeration and the temperature should be around 88 to 90 degrees F. This temperature should be increased slowly from the normal 84 to 86 degrees F.  You should have a water source, drum or garbage pail, of aged water for water changes. Water changes should be done daily or at the very least until the health of the discus is restored.

Food; if the fish are not eating entice them with some live food, white worm, red worm would be good.  A good source of Live Food” will make it much easier to get rid of any problems you might have. You simple soak the worms in a small water and medication solution for a few minutes or until the worms are almost dead and feed the worms to the discus.  If the fish are eating your beef-heart mix just add medication directly to the beef-heart and then freeze, more about this in a minute.

I strongly encourage you to invest the time in a live white worm culture. I have included a number of hobbyist’s methods of keeping these cultures on this web site. 

Now let’s say your fish are eating, bring the temperature back down to 86 degrees F. slowly.  We now wait and observe, let them get adjusted to their new surroundings and you of course.  It is a good idea if you plan on being a serious keeper of discus to invest in a microscope. If you happen to have a microscope analysis of the feces may shed some light on the health of your discus.  If you do not  have a microscope, the feces should be dark not white and stringy.  Microscopes are a very good investment. You will save money in the long run learning to diagnose problems accurately rather than a medicated shotgun approach which can further stress your fish as well as cost you $$ in both medication and fish.  I don't care how good you think you are at fish keeping there will come a time when you make a mistake and get into trouble, knowing and anticipating is key to success.  

After a week or two of observing what do you see?

-         White stringy feces?

-         Are the fish scratching themselves against objects in the aquarium?

-         Are the fish dark in colour?

-         Are the eyes dull and cloudy?

-         Are the fish fussy on eating?

If the answer is no to all questions you have some pretty healthy discus, and if you have a couple of yes's then lets break it down;

Internal - (See article below by Horst W. Koehler regarding internal tapeworms and treatment) the feces should be dark not white and stringy, if the fish are of wild stock I would de-worm anyway. As Horst has indicated in his article use Flubenol 5% or Droncit (praziquantel). A new product called Wormer Plus (Google Wormer Plus) contains flubenol and is effective against most parasites. Prazi pro contains praziquantel and can be used as directed, or soak your live white worms in a light solution prior to feeding.

Bloat - if your fish has over-eaten and has suddenly developed a very swollen abdomen that is not receding over a short time (1/2 day of not feeding). Isolate the fish, stop feeding lower temperature again gradually to 80 82 and try an Epson salt treatment. Gradually add the Epson salt over 3 or 4 hours until you reach 2 tbs per 5 gallons. Leave the fish lights subdued for two days after which do a 25 to 30% water change.  The key is to catch the problem early. Avoidance - good water quality and not overfeeding.

Flagellates - Fish have lost their appetite, are facing the back of the tank, and have long white stringy feces.  There are many suggested solutions out there.  This is what works for me. I source a good quality Metronidazole. I get mine from a local veternarian so I know its good quality and hasn't been sitting around for awhile, this is key. I do a 25% water change and raise the temperature of the tanks to 93 degrees F gradually. This must be monitored very closely use two lower watt heaters so if one sticks on it can't boil you fish.  I treat 500mg per 10 gallons every 24 hours for 3 treatments with no water changes. than day 4 I do a large 50% water change and again on day 5 than I start the medication again for 3 more treatments. I then repeat after two days of water changes a third treatment. During this time the fish are encouraged to eat with live foods if you haven't a source of white worm I suggest fresh steamed mussels (steam for about 4 minutes in a covered frying pan with a little water and a clove of garlic cut fine and feed). In about a week your fish will be as good as new.  Note if you have several tanks I strongly suggest treating everyone so your fish don't get reinfested.

External – this can usually be seen by scratching, and the respiration appears high you may have gill worms (flukes).  Recent information I have read by Dieter Untergasser in the book "Exotic discus of the World" by Dr. Clifford Chan it is suggested that most drugs today used to combat gill worms (flukes) may kill the flukes but not the eggs and reinfestation will continue to be a problem. Dieter Untergasser suggests using formeldahyde 8ml per 100 liters (26 gal) for 10 hours and then move the fish to a tank that is set up new that has previously dried for 3 days. Three days of drying kills the eggs. The tank left behind would be drained and allowed to dry again for a minimum of 3 days, restarted after that point and be ready to receive the next fish. When using formeldahyde  DO NOT TREAT IF YOUR FISH HAS ANY CUT OR WOUND, wait until the wound or cut has healed. If you are moving the fish prior to the formeldahyde treatment wait a couple of days to ensure no damage to the skin has occurred during the netting process.  

Nutrition – Now say our fish has been de-wormed and de-fluked, but the colours and the eyes are still not sparkling and full of fire.  Now we look at Nutrition, what are we feeding are the gills swollen indicating an iodine deficiency, are we lacking the essential vitamins that our fish needs to feel healthy?  What is in that beef-heart mix that you’re feeding? As I have been preaching from the beginning, much like us, the Discus requires a balanced nutritional diet and most serious hobbyists and breeders use a beef or turkey-heart, fish mix.  I have placed some good articles on this web site to address nutritional needs, please read, trust me you will notice a difference in behaviour and colour within a few days.

Head Standing - Recently I had one of my female Butterflys who had been knocked around by her male wanting to spawn become a head stander which over the years has meant it's not reversible. Antibiotics have been known to work in rare cases. I researched one of the forums BIDKA (British International Discus Keepers Association Forum) and I found a thread on this subject which provided me two different cures. The first is to lower the water level very slowly over a few hours and like wise fill the tank by dripping daily for two weeks and also using the antibiotic Kanamycin. The second treatmeant was to place the fish in a shipping bag with fresh water pH 6.4 and pure oxygen and float on the tank for a day.  I was amazed at the oxygen treatmeant as the fish recovered after three treatmeants.  I basically tried both methods at the same time.  I started bagging her with fresh water pH 6.4 with oxygen for about 8 hours with constant monitoring and changeing out the oxygen half way through the day. I then placed her in a 30 gal tank with only about 40% water just enough that my sponge filter  to work..I placed Kanamycin in the water overnight.  Following day I slowly filled the tank by dripping fresh water and once the tank was full I slowly drained by use of an air line until the water was back to 40% of the tank I again placed Kanamycin. Day 3 I again placed her in a bag of fresh water pH 6.4 and oxygen.  I repeated this process for a bout a week and I can say she is now as good as new.  Thoughts...I think what may happen is the female was hit in the swim bladder area dislogging the air in the sac leaving her with no ability to float properly there was no sign of bloat or any swelling in her side. I believe the pure oxygen re generates the swim bladder somehow and the lowering and raising of the water exercises the swim bladder back to normal while the antibiotic prevents any infection.

I am interested in feedback please feel free to submit information archer@rogers.com in addition to the above.  The purpose of this article is to point out the importance of a good preventive program it will save you time, money and promote healthier discus in the long run.

 *****

"Worm Concern"

Comments from Horst W. Koehler, Publisher & Editor of Diskus Brief, Reprinted from “Our Discus” Volume 4 Issue 1

Editors note: Horst is referring to an article posted in "Our Discus" N.A.D.S. publication asking a number of question in which Horst had previously answered most of the questions through his publication on internal tapeworms. I  have recently visited a number of forums where hobbyists are looking for answers for their constant reinfestation with tapeworms. I hope reposting Horst's article gets the message out once again!

It is really a pity that, in spite of all my efforts and suggestions, there is yet no international cooperation and hardly any exchange of experience and knowledge regarding the keeping, breeding and treating of the discus.  Hopefully, this situation will change soon – to the benefit of all of us involved and, last-but-not-least, our fish too!

Yes, we do have experience with using Flubendazole (more efficient than Mebendazole,  and not toxic at all) to successfully combat tapeworms in Discus fish.  Back in 1987, I suggested in a publication to mix 100 to 150 mg of the active agent into 1 kg of beef-heart, which means 2 to 3 g of the available formulation Flubenole 5% (which contains 5% of the active substance). Alternative: bath 1 kg live red mosquito larvae in a bucket with tap water containing about 4 to 6 g of Flubenole 5% (continuous stirring until the first larvae begin to die is necessary) and freeze the larvae afterwards.  Regardless if you feed Flubenole containing beef-heart or mosquito larvae, this medicated food should be given exclusively for about 12 days.

An alternative medical treatment is Piperacincitrat, which is contained in the available formulation Droncit, produced by the German company Bayer.

A fight against the tapeworm larvae in fish is not useful, as a light infection will be borne without reaction.  In a heavy infection, when the larvae are killed off, the dying parasites usually cause a deathly strange eggshell white poisoning for the fish.  The employment of Masoten and Niclosamiden has know effect, according to our experiences here in Germany.

Regarding tapeworm reproduction, Rob is on the right track; I think. Yes, in the past it was clear that tapeworms can only infiltrate with live food to parasitize aquarium fish, and tapeworm infections cannot spread out in a tank since the final host is always lacking.  Hence adult tapeworms in the intestinal tract of tropical fish are only possible among wild caught species.  This was the situation up until last year.

However this seems to be no longer the case.  My assistant editor, Mr. Roland Teufel, has investigated in his laboratory more than 100 Discus of different sizes in 1989, which he received from different sources.  During his investigations with these and other Discus fish, he discovered a tapeworm species named Botriocephalus Acheilognathii in a surprisingly large percentage of these fish, even in Discus fry only 10 to 14 days old and 3 to 4 mm in size: 60% of this fry, for instance, was heavily infected with approximately 20 cestodal larvae, 4 to 5 tapeworms with maximum 15 mm in length, as well as numerous eggs in the intestine, 20% were affected to a lesser degree and 15% showed only a few tapeworm larvae and worms. Only in 5% of all investigated fry, Mr. Teufel did not find tapeworms, but eggs.  In the larger discus, between 5 and 8 cm, he found between 12 and 15 larvae and numerous tapeworm eggs.  It is worth mentioning that none of the potential carriers of tapeworm larvae were given to these fish, like tubiflex and Cyclops. To be absolutely sure, even planarians and Artemia nauplies in the Discus tank were investigated for possible indications of cestodal life – without any result. This leaves us with the only possible explanation: at least this very tapeworm; B. Achteilognathii must be able to reproduce in the aquarium. What a surprise!

Doesn’t news like this strongly indicate a need for international Cooperation in connection with Discus? Let us start to work together!

Horst W. Koehler 20/7/90

Editors Note: two key points; one, these internal worms can reproduce in the aquarium on their own and two, treatment for the worms should be everyday for 12 days.