susie,hillybilly,discus guru's need asap

[MadRussian79]

As a last resort, beg, buy, or steal some established bio media from someone's else's tank to give yours a kick start, and keep changing water until it cycles.

If you don't have any friends in the hobby around you with established tanks. If you have an LFS worth trusting talk to them and see if you can grab their filter pads when they change them. Rinse and put in you filter before your bio media and let the water flow through the pad and populate your filter material. This would be a last resort though.

 

[hillbilly]

Why would I euthonize the fish in the first blurry photos? Because I don't like seeing creature suffer like that. They are in horrible condition.

 

[MadRussian79]

I had it set up for 6-8 months, then the fx5 went hey-wire and spit out the carbon on to the gravel. so I bought a 55 gallon set that up with some of the bio-max from the fx5 I put the discus in the 55 gallon everything was fine.
took out all the water, and gravel.so to get the carbon out I drained the 135(yes gallons a 135 gallon tank)kept the fx5 wet added pool filter sand, new water and put prime and stability in there. I keep getting it test, no not ready. then 2 1/2 -3 weeks later(which was a week ago) I went to a discus breeder shop, and got the water tested and they tested it with those electric pen probs and the wife said everything was good but the ph, then after 5 mins. the ph reading dropped from 7.5 to 7.0 I said is that ok, and she said yes. so when I got home, I put the discus(35) from the 55G in the 135.(sold some of them and got my total count of discus down to around 20) everything was going fine. oh before the discus I put 10 bumble bee catfish in there. everything was going fine. then I ran out of flake food I was feeding tetra min, I picked up hagen flake food and ocean nutrition discus formula and feed the discus that stuff along with sanfrinsico(spelling?) bay bloodworms and beefheart. as so as I started feeding the different flake and added the discus formula is when they started to act weird. there is also this white jello looking stuff on the net. there 2 - 250 watt hearts on one side of the tank next to the outtake where the water returns from the canister.
I have a corallife digital read out themometer but it's going heywire.
so I've been using one of those float around at the bottom it reads 85.
86-87 if I leave the lights on for a long time.

is it possible that the benifical bacteria died off from not having oxagen? or is it possible the wife didn't do the test right with those prob pens. because I walked in the store and said I need my water tested and she goes it's for discus right, and I said yes I'll be in the back looking at the fish.
then 5 mins later she comes back and says everything is fine but your ph is 7.5 it needs to be 7.0 that is what we keep are discus at. so then I walked up to the counter and she still had the ph pen probe in the water and its reading dropped to 7.0 she said oh look at that the ph is 7.0 you're good to go, so I said I can add discus, she said yes you can add discus. I'm guessing this was a bad move, and should indecateded something since the ph droped .5 in 5mins?

I'd get you water tested somewhere else. Those pH pens need calibrations and are usually calibrated for either high or low range and the broad range ones are very expensive. If she used a SW/African set probe the reading could be anything. Also the change in pH from 7.5 to 7.0 over time means that their probe may be cracked and leaking solution into your water so the reading may be off from that as well. Also check you water and tank phosphate levels. I've seen similar issues with phosphate poisoning which can result from tap water contamination and some commercial fish foods. Phosphate poisoning could attack almost any organ in the fish as it depleted calcium. Enough of it will screw with pH readings and may distort the reading of common commercial test kits.

 

[MadRussian79]

Why would I euthonize the fish in the first blurry photos? Because I don't like seeing creature suffer like that. They are in horrible condition.

What am I missing from the picture? The fish has clamped fins but not other obvious injury. If I'm missing something please correct me. I just set up a 265 g for discus and any incite would help.

 

[hillbilly]

What am I missing from the picture? The fish has clamped fins but not other obvious injury. If I'm missing something please correct me. I just set up a 265 g for discus and any incite would help.

These fish have excessive slime production, clamped fins, burned gills from ammonia and nitrite, with possible secondary infections, possable damaged organs and hemorraging etc. etc. etc. They are in very poor condition. They are stunted for life, which will probably be a very short one anyway. Fishyjoe will sell you some discus at a good price. Just kidding.

 

[MadRussian79]

These fish have excessive slime production, clamped fins, burned gills from ammonia and nitrite, with possible secondary infections, possable damaged organs and hemorraging etc. etc. etc.

How are you seeing the excessive slime coat and burned gills from the picture? Given what has been said I'd expect these fish to have those problem. I usually see this in un-cycled tanks. I can't see it in the picture.

 

[hillbilly]

How are you seeing the excessive slime coat and burned gills from the picture? Given what has been said I'd expect these fish to have those problem. I usually see this in un-cycled tanks. I can't see it in the picture.

Look closely at these pictures. That white stuff on the fish is excessive slime. Look at the gills. Do you see how discolored they look? I know you must me messing with me if you can't see that.

 

[MadRussian79]

I see the gill discoloration now and the peach color should not be spreading between two different photos. The change in angles between two of the photos make it obvious.

 

[Bobears]

I think maybe we have an ammonia problem here. So, I agree with the uncycled tank theory. From my understanding of the time frame and amount of livestock poor bio seems the likely culprit. Can we have some full tank shots Fisheyjoe?

Change lots of water everyday till this is under control, just like hillbilly said. Double the amount of Prime into the tank so the ammonia builup won't bother them as much. You should add 27 ml at every water change for a week or so.

On a morbid note.... these fish really don't look like they have much of a chance for living long happy lives.

The ph tester thing. Those pens sometimes take a minute or two to settle on a correct answer. Water usually has to be agitated long enough for the ph to change, which I doubt was being done long enough in the store to assume a five minute test showed a true swing.

Get your water straight and leave it alone. I wouldn't buffer a thing.

 

[fishyjoe26]

These fish have excessive slime production, clamped fins, burned gills from ammonia and nitrite, with possible secondary infections, possable damaged organs and hemorraging etc. etc. etc. They are in very poor condition. They are stunted for life, which will probably be a very short one anyway. Fishyjoe will sell you some discus at a good price. Just kidding.

yep I'll sell you some for a good price..what's left of them,Just kidding.I got to bust out another water change but it's nearly 3am. I don't want to wake up the rest of the family.