Comments on: 10.1. Diseases in General https://tankstartguide.com Based on Science and Logic Fri, 22 Aug 2025 08:24:56 +0000 hourly 1 By: Dave https://tankstartguide.com/10-1-diseases-in-general/#comment-1601 Fri, 22 Aug 2025 08:24:56 +0000 http://tankstartguide.com/?page_id=1449#comment-1601 In reply to Mike.

In reply to Mike ……. Probably just some birth defects. I wouldn’t worry about it.

]]> By: Mike https://tankstartguide.com/10-1-diseases-in-general/#comment-1600 Thu, 21 Aug 2025 23:52:54 +0000 http://tankstartguide.com/?page_id=1449#comment-1600 Hi Dave I’m not sure where to ask this. I have a well established very well over filtered 37gallon thriving aquarium large healty growing plants all fish seem active and healthy. I have 7 albino corydora 6 of the 7 all have there fins perfectly intact. 1 of the 7 only has a partial dorsal fin and 1 of the pectoral fins looks mostly gone. It’s barbells are totally intact. It swims eats just as like the others. I’m asking if you have any ideas as what could be the problem or could it just be something from birth as all it’s other fins are intact

]]> By: Dave https://tankstartguide.com/10-1-diseases-in-general/#comment-1599 Sat, 30 Sep 2023 18:16:43 +0000 http://tankstartguide.com/?page_id=1449#comment-1599 In reply to Dena Winchester.

In reply to Dena … I would hit them with Kanamycin in a pipette down the throat (Maracyn 2 [not Maracyn] is better but you have kanamycin so go with that). Medication needs to get inside the fish to be effective. I suspect bacterial gill infection. You have to pipette it or bath it (shallow bath where fish flops around a lot, swallowing a strong bath of the medication) as they are not eating. http://tankstartguide.com/index.php/11-15-fish-not-eating/

]]> By: Dena Winchester https://tankstartguide.com/10-1-diseases-in-general/#comment-1598 Sat, 30 Sep 2023 17:13:53 +0000 http://tankstartguide.com/?page_id=1449#comment-1598 Thank you for all this information! I have mostly discus fish (29) in my 4 aquariums (plus 2 hospital tanks) and do not encounter illness very often. All tanks have UV sterilizers and either FLUVAL FX 4 or FX 6 (except my Red Sea). I had 1 unexplained and sudden death about 2 months ago. Then, about 4 weeks ago, I noticed 2 in my 150g with gill hyperplasia and tachypnea. I immediately thought flukes? Since I don’t routinely de-worm my tanks, I decided to use Absolute Plus dewormer. After a couple days, there was no change in the 2, so I plopped them into my 37g hospital tank. I treated with aquarium salt and pure Praziquantel, waited 5 days, repeated Praziquantel. No change. Continued with daily water changes (aged RO with Discus Trace) and aquarium salt. The discus became less active, hiding in a back corner, appetites decreasing. I administered Potassium Permanganate treatment. Nope, that didn’t help. I continued with daily water changes and aquarium salt, giving them a break while I contemplated my next move. And they continued to worsen. No longer eating or swimming at all. So I pulled out my trifecta. Pure Metro, Nitro and Kanamycin. I did this for 4 days. And still, no improvement. The smaller dark angel discus was now becoming pale white and skinny as a razor. The blue heckel has become very dark, losing weight but not as skinny because he started out huge. Yesterday evening, I thought the dark angel would be dead soon, as his frail body was now curving into the current. As a last ditch effort, I moved him into my 15g hospital tank. I decided to try Tetra Lifeguard along with a Hail Mary. I added 1 tab to ‘start off slow’. Hmm. He began to swim around, leisurely exploring the new surroundings. Within 3 hours, his white dorsal fin became blue again and he began to regain some of his color. Interesting. I calculated the amount of ‘actual’ water, and determined it to be 13.6 gal. So I added another Lifeguard tablet. Since he seemed to improve so much, I began to add Lifeguard to the 37g tank with the heckel. I added slowly, again. This morning, I gave the dark angel the other 1/2 tab, and the heckel the last 1 1/2 tabs. The heckel has not shown any significant improvement and remains dark and hiding towards the bottom of the tank. The dark angel has his normal color again, but not swimming and is in a back corner.
So, I just keep doing the best I can and should these 2 get much worse, I will probably end up euthanizing with clove oil followed by liquor. This is the most difficult for me as I end up crying through the whole process, apologizing to my fish for not being able to help. I am an RN of several decades,, working full time for a healthcare system that owns several hospitals. I am an ‘in-house specialty traveler’, meaning, I am an employee of the company who works full time and ‘travels’ (gets sent to) ANY of their emergency depts (my specialty…. emergency medicine) where they are short staffed. So I guess you could say I work full time in multiple ED’s in the ‘Valley of the Sun ” (ie Phoenix). As such, I work as hard for my fish as I do for my patients.
Thank you, again, for these inpotartant informational reports. I’m sure I will read every single one and will keep them in my ‘database’ for discus/fish care..

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