Sorry guys, its been a tough 8 days, so no nice photos of unboxing and putting the discus in the tank. Had more serious issues to deal with I am afraid. Here is the story.
So...If someone advised you that it wasn't safe to drive at high speeds on the motorway with your eyes closed...you would think that was pretty good advice and no doubt you would take it...yes!
So what if someone advises you that you should never add new Discus to your tank without Quarantining them first? Otherwise you will more than likely get some cross contamination and probably some parasite / bacterial infection which could wipe out your fish. Would you ignore it and take the risk? Or think hmmm maybe I should quarantine these first, no matter what the suppliers told you just to be on the safe side. Well I ignored the warnings and took the risk...and paid for it big style...I put the five new Wild Red Spotted Greens into the tank a week ago on Thursday. Everything was fine on the Friday and Saturday, then on Sunday morning I noticed the first signs something was wrong and by Monday things went downhill rapidly.
This was a very stressful situation and at one stage I thought I was going to lose at least five of them. One fish was completely black lying on it's side totally still, I thought it was dead so went to net it out. As I touched it with the net it quivered and moved, so still some signs of life, maybe there is a chance to save it. Well after five days of 60% water changes with heated tap water, scrubbing down every surface inside the tank with 3% Hydrogen Peroxide in a 1 litre spray bottle and treatment with medicated food and dosing with Protozin there was what seemed a miraculous turnaround with all fish recovered and now eating well and swimming around again.
Some very early starts at 05:45 and late night finishes as late as 01:00 doing everything I could to save these fish.
The moral of this story for me is if you are not prepared to quarantine the fish before putting them in with others in the same tank, DON'T buy the fish. This could have been a very costly mistake, fortunately following advice from the suppliers I got away with it this time. A new tank is on its way which will be my future QT Tank. See photos for how they looked when they first went in, a few days later, and then following treatment. I should add this was Wilds being mixed with Wilds.
Arrived on Thursday photo taken on Friday
Sunday Morning
Monday Morning
Monday
Monday
Treatment - Tetra Tips Crushed mixed with 400mg Metronadizol mixed into pase and added to more tablets left overnight to dry and fed th next few days
Four days of 60% water changes and dosing with Protozin
Thursday the same week
This photo is of the fish with all the mucus on its skin, you can just see some grey left at the end of the tail fin
Fish have turned the corner, and now I am recovering.
Updates to follow.
Cheers Steve