# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Slime Disease On Discus

## unicorn

Hi all,

I've goten a Slime disease outbreak in my 6 footer (120gal) Discus planted tank. Desperately Need Help of how this could be solve, Thanks a Million !! Data as follows :

1. Started when introduction of 1 'sick' juvenile into tank and unable to 
catch it since. The outbreak started during 2nd week...like 'SARS'...
lucky no death rate yet....pray...pray..... 

2. UV light on 24 hours. Lighting as usual @ 8 hours duration.

3. Introduced Dose of : Intrepet #7 (Slime &amp; Velvet), Azoo Bacteria Tablet,
H-2, H-4.

4. Dosing started 2 days back

5. Cease Chiller operation and Temp now is 28deg

6. Discus : 10 full size adult and 8 juvenile varies from 3-5 inches.
Fin closed on all discus (maybe due to medi) but few is normal.

7. Dosing doesn't seems to effect other species : yamatos, Tiger Shrimps, 
oto sp, cardinals &amp; corys sp

8. Attempted change of partial (30-50%) water every day since 2 days ago.

Please help, deperate case..............[ :Knockout: ] 

Thank you !!!

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## lyh

this is the result from stress. just transfer your fish to another tank and keep the water clean and salt added. hope this helps

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## Vican

Actually, the japanese yellow powder is quite good for treating slime disease. Always work in 1-2 days to heal.

But, being in Japanese, have to dose by estimation. 
Also heard that it might knock out your bb in the filter though

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## David

Hi unicorn....

Hope you turn off your UV-filter when dosing interpet No7........not only will the filter destroy the medication, it will go toxic

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## unicorn

Hi all,

Update :

1. Thanks for all the advise, and would appreciate if more could assist.

2. Thanks for the UV like thinggy, will turn it off during lunch....rush home to do it... don't tell my boss : P

3. Yellow Powder....Hmmm I used that before when I had my bettas. Will see certainly give it a try this evening to see if it works.

4. Have already quarentine the 'badly infected fishes and doesing on Intrepet #7 continue. Seems to be recovering, cause when I went to see them this morning, there are quite a bit of slime in the water. The fishes seems to be recovering though the larger ones still seems sick. Anyway, changed the water (100%) this morning snd redose. Fishes...to dear to me...sentimental reason, been looking after them for 2 years plus since they're juvenile.

Will keep you guys updated, and please do try to help me with more advise if you have friends around which have combatted this disease.

Thanks again !! Cheers

Strees out.. 

5.

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## philtre

hi unicorn,

sorry to hear about your discus, what I learnt from a ff breeder was that dose withe yellow powder ... how much? enough to turn the water slightly tinged greenish.

change water EVERYDAY, that's very very important. oh, remember to keep the temperature at about 30-32. best 32.

I suppose your discus are in a planted tank right now? might wanna decide if you need to take out your discus to treat them. 

hope things will settle down soon.

regards
phil

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## unicorn

Hi Phil &amp;amp; All,

Thanks for the advise. The lastest Update...

Have quarentine all my Discus except the infected 'Index'... He is still in the six footer and it has been weeks that am on my nerve to catch it  :Mad:  !

1. Still dosing on Intrepet #7 and temperature @ 30deg.

2. Yellow powder has been included in the dosing but the fishes seems unable 
to take it. immediately after water change I dose them moderately with 
the yellow powder. about 50% of them starts to over turn. Quickly dilute 
the water and spent the whole night holding them up with my hands to save 
them...thank god they all recovered.....except my only remaining juvenile 
blue diamond from my 1st spawn, he died...Now I'm left with the the 
remaining 3 juvenile from my ist spawn which can be confirm not a blue 
diamond. The parent is a mix of Blue diamond and Empror Blue Turquoise.

3. The juvenile has all been recovered and still very week to go back into 
the tank. But has remove them from quarentine and resides them in a 2 
footer bare tank with temperatuer @ 29 deg. Light dosing continues. Has 
stopped using the yellow powder though.

4. This morning, one of my Marlboro Red (Male) of the pair died in the 
quarentine tank....so sad....he is the last to be infected.

5. I am still struggling to recover the adults. 

6. I am into my fifth day now and water changes every 12 hours. No food but 
Denerrel Vitamins drop per evry water change to keep them in health.

7. If I succeed or not in this odeal, I hope that I could start writting a 
journal so as to let the brothers here have the knowledge and the 
preventive measure of having this unfortunate incident which has heppen 
to me.

Cheers

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## philtre

unicorn!

tough few days huh? erm ... did you really mean you put your hand into the tank to right them when they started tilting over?hhehe .... you really put your heart and soul into it .... good for you, and the discus too.

but one thing about medicating, you might not want to mix medications. always try to have a few days in between before you change meds. better still know what you wanna do before you dose them.

in case of emergency, can always call the place where you bought them, for help.

do keep the temperature at 32 as it aids in the healing process too.

I hope all will be well soon.

regards
phil

PS: check your pm.

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## unicorn

Hi Phil &amp;amp; All,

1stly, would like to thank phil for his advise. Here is the latest update of my Discus problem. It is confirmed that all my Discus is infected by the most dreaded desease that Discus keeper is a afraid of....the reknown DISCUS PLAQUE. 

Signs :

1. Fish shows sign of stress and starts keeping together and growing dark.
2. Slime coating would starts to appear on the [email protected] this stage (if planted tanks) scoop all discus out of the tank and carry out a disinfectant procedure.

3. treat fish immediately.
4. If action is delayed...like me....skin would show signs of 'burnt mark' and fins would rot. In my case, Discus reached this stage are incurable...carry out euthanesia.


Case Latest Update :

1. My last Snake skin from Micheal (the german breeder) pass away...she was 
1 years 8 months old. sob....sob...

2. The other female emperor blue torquise pass away this morning too...She 
was incurable from the start. But she never did breed...

3. My breeding male diamond blue pass away this morning too. He has the most 
signs of scars from the infection but he seems to be very strong through 
the ordeal. It came with a surprise that he pass away. My wife cried this 
morning when she called me. Now, my juvenile and his mate is without a 
father......I am so very very very sad....

4. The rest now seems to be fully recovered and dosing of Intrepet #7 still 
continues (water changes process remains the same). As it is now confirm 
that the infection is the reknown discus plaque. I will be changing the 
medication to Malachite Green and Potassium Permanganate you could get 
them from GAN. 

Sad ordeal... Guess the fishes could only go back to the 6 footer planted, a minimum of 3 months after this ...till they are totally strong. 

Mistake and Lesson learnt...

1. Stubborness of not scooping the fishes out immediately.
2. Refusing to believe that it is the greaded 'Black Death' from numerous 
friends advise...
3. Introducing discus from unknown source.
4. Lastly, Don't ICTHY BACKSIDE AND BUY DISCUS !!! YOU ALREADY HAVE MORE 
THEN ENOUGH !!!! That is from my wife .... 

Lesson learnt...

1. Always quarentine Disdus before include into tank...easier siad then 
done.

2. Never buy discus from an unknown source (my neighbourhood LFS)...


I dare not count the death toll now, but the number stands for the 6 footer tank. There are another 4 footer planted which each has a breeding pair which are not infected.

1 x Blue Diamond (Breeding Male)
1 x Cobalt Blue (imported)
1 x Snake skin (Imported)
1 x Brilliant - Juvenile ..This is the index ! ... died in the aquarium after prolong stress induce to catch it !
1 x Juvenile blue diamong ( 6 weeks old)
1 x Marlboro Red (Male) ... this is really a waste.. bought the entir spawn of golden red from Rainbow (LCK) and luck was with me, 2 Marlboro red were produce from the spawn after 3 months of caring ! and they grew to be a mate after 1 year in my planted tank...now the female is widowed .... any one has a grade one (without spots or black tail) male for sale ?

P/S, Yes, phil...I hold them upright the whole night through...you can imagine what my wife would say....~sigh~



Cheers Every one !!!

Look on the bright side, I have learnt alot after this unfortunate ordeal and become a more mature hobbyist...

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## fishboy

Oh dear,

My condolences to you. I can imagine the heartache you are going thru. I myself may be faced with this problem but am trying to get a spare hospital tank free ASAP.

One thing that is irritating me is that my Anostomus Ternetzi (1 pair) are harrasing my sick babies. They keep pecking at the whitich patches. 
Tried cathing them but to no avail.

I will try and isolate them asap.

Thanx for the tips.

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## ek

Hi unicorn,

sorry to hear about your losses. 

Hope the rest will recover soon and thanks for sharing with us this valuable lesson esp for people new to discus keeping like me.

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## unicorn

I would like to extend my Thanks to all the condolences, advises, and concerns from the brothers in this forum. 

Cheers

Next : 

Dear Vinz (moderator),

It was my screwed-up to post this thread under Fish keeping. Would appreciate if you could transfer the entire thread to 'Medical Room' for the benefit of all brothers here. 

Cheers

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## unicorn

Hi Guyz,

Would like to share an experience I had. 

The detail of the encounter is as follows :

A local LFS has imported a batch of about a 100 juvenile pigeon blood and San Merah discus each from Taiwan and Thailand. The pigeon blood arrived with about half being infected by the 'black disease'. They did not contact me till about 40% of the pigeon blood died and the San Merah started to get infected. They called me asking if I could help and I joyfully extend my help if possible...but told them that I may not have a sure win formula.

Down I went to the shop and look at the fishes. Wah !! damn torok man !! even the water has slime floating around..Quickly we catch those fishes that are not so badly infected into a quarantine tank and I drop the PH to 5.5. Added a taiwanese made 'Medication for Black Disease Powder' into the water and added some becteria killer. These medication can be purchase at some LFS and they come in a small round bottle. I don't have the brand with me now as I am in the office. If anyone wants to know, I'll advise duly. But I can't remember where I bought it. 

Anyway, the juvenile was soaked in the aeriated water for about 3 hours and the quarantine tank water was changed. Salt was added into the newly changed water (the tank is about 2.5 feet and I added about quater packet of kitchen salt into it). There we left the fishes in the water for the next 12 hours. After the 12th hours, we pick the fishes up one by one to inspect them. 74 out of the 112 fishes are alright but the remaining 38 went through another process of soaking in medication again, but this time we only soak them for only 1 hour. With another 6 hours in salted water. In the process 4 died, 7 seemed to be very very weak, but the rest seems to be okay.

There were about 20 odds badly infected ones. These fishes were catch in the net and soaked in very concentrated water with the 'mixed medication' which I've mentioned earlier. Don't ask me how long..all is by gut feeling...maybe between 1-3 minutes ? They were then left in another quarantine tank with the same medication which is used for the not so infected fishes. The process of trying to cure these fishes were more or less the same, but the time for soaking them took longer (24 hours for both medicated water and salted water). The result.. 

7 died. and the rest I hope they could survived. They are still left in a quaratine tank now as I speak and I am hoping that they will recover. The last the boss has advised that the fishes are beginning to feed now...

crossing my fingers that things are well...please be inform that the entire process are not for any revenue but to help someone and also to have the chance to explore further into my bobby.


Hope this contribution does help for those that do encounter similar incident in the future. Always detect the disease early ... its easier to cure. 

Cheers

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