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Round indoor pond project queries.

As long as the fish is eating you've got quite a good chance. Beefheart wont be an issue for now, it will give it more of a chance to bulk up than the bloodworm.

The dark poo is also a good sign, fingers crossed you've cleared it of any parasites.

Cheers

Conor
 
Thanks Conor.

I just checked on the temperature and it is 33.8 C. :eek: Both fish are ok,....for now. I think max temp I'll let is 34C. The heater max is 33C but is also very warm outside.

Yes, the discus keeps picking on food, which is a miracle considering its state but his appetite is poor. He certainly likes the beef heart best though...Right now its probably a good thing.

I do think he's slightly better than when I got him. I was looking at his gills and they don't seem so swollen anymore. Yes, the last couple of times he pooped it was black.He stayed in a heavy dose of flubendazole for 6 days. Flubendazole is also effective against protozoa but meds can mostly reach the gut. I am hoping the temperature will kill the rest, but not the fish of course. Yeah, I am a bit weary now looking at the thermometer.....
 
A couple of more pics

The new lily is on steroids. I've never seen such growth in a plant...You can see some of the clay pebbles floating. It takes weeks for them to stay in the basket....very annoying but once they settle its a great substrate.

ApicLily.jpg


The crypt in the other tub is going to flower again.

ApicCrypt.jpg
 
Just read the whole lot, love clown loaches. they are great characters and will get some when swmbo allows me to have an indoor pond as well.

the dedication to get mr discus right, is outstanding

I have to stop looking for ill fish or i'd have approx 50 tanks
 
Thanks OB.

That lily seems to have grown more in 2 weeks than the peace lilies in a year...I can notice the difference every day....amazing...The clay pebbles in the basket were actually in the pond for a long time until one day I took it out as the plants inside it didn't make it(ferns of some sort). So they must hold some sort of nutrients still. Unfortunately I took out a kuhli loach with it too and found it dried out only recently, inside the basket, which I had left hanging on a chair to dry out.

Today the temp in Mr. Discus tank has been steady between 33.3 and 33.5C

On a negative side, I think he's stressed and the overall situation is not good looking. He's hovering on one spot and will not chase food. I did read that loss of appetite during heat treatment is actually the case with even way healthier discus but in his condition that could be detrimental as he's too skinny. The stationary position is probably also normal as they apparently decrease activity to regulate the body temperature. I've already started the heat treatment and if I stop too early I may cause even bigger problems if parasites are left as they first multiply rapidly then they supposedly die off completely around the 4 day mark.I think around Monday evening I'll start turning the heat down, bit by bit. I really hope the fish lives through that ordeal.....

On a positive note, today I noticed that his lips/mouth have recovered. He had white lips, not rotting but more like a fish that had rubbed their nose and peeled the skin off. All his mouth/nose appeared white about a week ago when I got him. I did have a close look at the time I noticed and didn't see any rotting so I wasn't alarmed. However, this now seems gone and recovery of the mouth means that at least some tissue is regenerating.

The betta is tolerating the heat well.... I also think he's empathizing with the discus as he goes to him and gently nudges him from time to time. At least that's what it looks like :) It is really odd..he'd just go and put his nose against him.... He's no longer flaring at him either or is acting scared, and sort of hangs around the discus a lot lately...

And surprisingly, there's a shrimp alive in the tank, after the flubendazole and high heat it's a miracle. I hadn't even seen shrimp in the tank in a while. On another hand, all snails are dead. The flubendazole had them walking out of the tank within the first dose and I dosed for 6 days after that. I removed what climbed out. I haven't seen snails since.
 
The heat will stop them being active so they eat less aswell. The 02 in the water at that temperature is pretty low aswell another reason they conserve energy.
He does sound and look better and the betta,what a guy.
Cheers
 
So I went out today for a while. I came back and I got a shock as I could not see the discus.

Upon looking around the tank I find him sort of behind the filter, kind of listless. I look at the thermometer and it shows 34.2 C! My hair stood up.. I look for the betta, see him swimming around and catching some invisible stuff...no issues..

So I panicked I fried the discus and did an immediate water change to drop the temp down to 32C. Panic is no good....but what would one do?...Then I dropped the heater down to 30C to allow the rest to drop slower. I see the discus at the bottom behind the plants...He never stayed at the bottom before...I left him be for a while.

So not long ago I check again, no discus. I panicked he's dead somewhere. I search and search and I can't find him. I switched off the filter and started poking around with my bare hands to maybe feel the body. There's a tick blob of peace lily roots in one corner... At some stage he pops in right into my hands. I nearly squished him. He looks weak but alive. However, surprisingly, he was not dark. He had the bars but he was orange/yellow sort of color, the lightest I've seen him so far.

Well, I don't know if he'll survive. I dropped the temp a bit further down to 30C and will keep it there at least for another while as it is not a critical temp, perhaps even almost normal range for discus although I think 28C is idea. What happens next only time will tell.

Betta had no negative issues whatsoever withstanding these high temperatures by the way...
 
Have you been cleaning those leaves with milk
It's always when you try and help they do something stupid.
 
I believe mine is the exact same plant as that's what was written on the label.
Yeah, the leaves are glossy because they're fairly new and the plant exploded with growth. I had done about several 100% water changes on that tub but the clay pebbles I used for substrate were "charged" from being in the pond for a long time before I took them out. Clown loach poop=glossy plants, lol
 
Sad news to report guys.
The discus is dead. I managed to kill him :oops:

I think he was already dead yesterday but because the body stood up in straight up position I got confused he's still alive. Today I saw no gill movement so I picked him up, very dead:oops:

I actually just finished a microscope session. I found nothing on the gill sample. I took a sample of the intestine and I think what I saw was a dead capilaria worm. Apart from that, there wasn't much of anything that was moving. I think I nuked the most parasites.....and the fish in the process. However, I saw 3 oval shaped things that were dead but looked like a bug. They were oval in shape, with a "seed" in the middle of the shape of almond. I don't know what they're but they were dead. I may have seen one thing moving, unless it was my eyes playing tricks at staring at the thing but whatever I saw was really small, too small to see what it was, and was moving too fast...It was pretty much one or two bugs the most, so generally the samples were rather clear of life forms.

As for the discus, a sad story. I may have contributed to its death but I tried and and if I was ever being objective about the situation I think he was too far gone. I was just being unrealistically hopeful something can be done. It's one of those experiences that will haunt me for a long time now...but I called for it.
 
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