Discus Disease - How to Prevent Disease From Invading Your Discus Fish

Similar to any other fish, discus disease can strike your tank if you are not paying attention. In this article, I will go over some of the common ailments your fish may develop. By identifying problems early and taking action, you will minimize the risk of serious problems. Overall, the best way of reducing the risk of discus disease is to create the proper recommended environment for your fish, which usually means controlling water quality, temperature, and diet.

Hole in the Head

Hole in the Head is a common discus disease. Early treatment is important because the longer it lasts, the harder it is to cure. Left untreated, your discus fish will die. One common method to treat Hole in the Head disease is to raise the water temperature to about 36 degrees C for 8-10 days. You must make sure to increase aeration at the same time, since the additional heat will lower oxygen levels. If you notice that the heat treatment is stressful to your discus, you must lower the temperature and try medication.

Gill fluke

Gill flukes are a type of discus disease involving external parasites that infect the gills and cause heavy breathing and erratic swimming. Gill flukes are an especially bad problem for discus fry since their immune system is not strong enough to fight the infection compared to adult discus. Gill flukes can be treated with medication, but the best practice is to isolate discus fry into their own tank as soon as they are big enough to eat external food. This way, they won't be infected in the first place by the adults.

Bacterial infections

Bacterial infections usually occur in aquariums with less than ideal conditions, but they can also happen in well maintained tanks as well. It would be impossible to identify every possible type of discus disease bacteria here without access to a laboratory, but fish stores can supply you with broad spectrum antibiotics that will treat a number of different infections. Make sure to follow the directions closely, so as not to overdose your fish. In many cases, a significant improvement can be seen within 8 hours.

Most cases of discus disease can be prevented in the first place by regular water changes, a clean diet, and quarantine methods. However, if your discus fish become sick it is important to take action immediately. In an enclosed ecosystem such as a fish tank, small problems become big problems quickly. I encourage you to become knowledgeable about various fish diseases and treatments so that you will be ready to act if need be. Good Luck!

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Discus fish disease

Discus fish disease is one of the things you want to learn not only because you want to know how to deal with it but also prevent the disease from striking your fish. One of the most common problems among specific big cichlids including the Discus fish is having a hole in the head. Early detection and treatment is very important because the longer the disease exists, it can be the cause of death of your fish. Even if the fish heals after the treatment, the wound can leave a permanent scar. Treating the wound while it is still small is strongly recommended. You can treat the disease by increasing the water temperature from 30 degree Celsius to 36 degree Celsius for a couple of days, 8 to 10 days is ideal. Remember that an increased water temperature should be combined with increased aeration to keep the oxygen level up. You can combine heat treatment with Metronidazole, this should be administered orally. You can give this to your Discus fish once every three days. If your fish is not responding well to heat treatment, you can just use the Metronidazole treatment.

Another Discus fish disease is gill fluke. This is very common among Discus fish and it is very dangerous for Discus fry. Gill Flukes are external parasites that destroy the gills and cause heavy breathing and irregular swimming. The affected fish can become totally paralyzed and can sink down to the bottom of the tank. You can cure this by using formalin. Infested parents can still spawn but when the offspring grow to about the size of a 10 cent coin, gill flukes transmitted by the parents can become serious problem. Another form of Discus fish disease is being affected with internal parasites. The fish can have internal parasites without posing some serious threats but sometimes these parasites can grow uncontrollably and that's when the problem begins. Common symptoms include emaciation and white feces. While it can be difficult which specific parasite affects your Discus fish, a dose of Metronidazole usually clears the problem out. If your Discus can still eat, you can prepare a solution of 200 ml water and 10 ml liquid Metronidazole and soak its food in it for an hour. Feed your Discus fish with the medicated food every 2 days for a period of 10 days. If your fish is no longer eating, you would have to force feed it using a syringe without needle.

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Discus Fish Disease Risks

Native from the Amazon River, yet successfully bred all over the world in aquariums, discus fish are not too fragile or sensitive creatures. However, all breeders should be aware of the risks of discus fish disease, as they are often exposed to various health problems because of improper care conditions. Saying that breeders are most often the ones responsible for the discus fish diseases doesn’t mean we’re pointing the finger, this is the truth. Improper care, poor or inadequate living conditions, co-inhabitance with other breeds are usually responsible for the various discus fish diseases.

The most common discus fish diseases are the ones common to fresh water fish in general. For instance the ammonia poisoning is a discus fish disease that appears because of improper nitrogen cycle in your aquarium. Don’t add tropical fish in the water until the ammonia has been eliminated in the water, and maybe the filters don’t function properly. In order to avoid this discus fish disease, change the water regularly and avoid over-crowding the tank. The symptoms of this discus fish disease include red and swollen gills and the fish staying at the water surface gasping for air.

Another discus fish disease that results from poor water quality is the Ich or the white spot characterized by the appearance of white spots on the fish body and fins. The best way to fight this discus fish disease is by increasing the water temperature and administrating medication available in any pet store. Before adding the medication for this type of discus fish disease, take the carbon filter out as this may absorb all the useful substances. In case you want to bring other fish to the tank, make sure you use a quarantine aquarium in order to prevent any discus fish disease.

If the water temperature is not appropriate you expose your pets to another discus fish disease such as the oxygen starvation. A higher water temperature also requires an increased level of oxygen in the water. Therefore, you can easily avoid this discus fish disease by taking care of the aeration level, speeding up the flow rate of the filters. You may want to turn off the tank light for a while, as this also causes temperature to rise and exposes the fish to the risk of the oxygen starvation discus fish disease. All in all, keep in mind that the proper temperature for the discus fish is 31 degrees Celsius at the maximum.

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Discus Fish Health

Discus fish health is a highly debated issue on Internet forums, on chats and in special magazines. The problems appear due to the failure cases that many owners face because they don’t know how to preserve their discus fish health. The coordinates for perfect discus fish health are very simple and easy to follow: keep them clean, well-fed and loved and everything should work great. Don’t make the mistake of combining discus with all sorts of other species as they may not be compatible. The results of an unfortunate co-inhabitance may have severe effects on discus fish health as well as on that of the rest of your aquatic pets.

Discus fish health is just fine if you place them with fish smaller than themselves, on condition that these are not catfish with sucker mouths. This species is dangerous for the discus fish health as they attach to their scales producing severe tissue injuries. Some of the environmental discus fish health problems are sometimes solved by simply adding some medicine in the water, but this happens in the most fortunate of cases. This is why it is so important to prevent rather than to cure. In order to learn about the discus fish health risks you can have a look at

Discus health fish very much depends on nutrition; feed your discus enough protein and they will have all the energy necessary. Furthermore, amino acids are also highly important, and they come from the meat you feed your discus. The only discus fish health problem that may arise here comes from over-feeding that may lead to water deterioration and the lowering of the standards in the living conditions. Your discus fish health should be well protected if you have a very powerful biological filter in the aquarium and you perform regular water changes.

The most adequate method for water filtration and therefore preservation of discus fish health is by reverse osmosis. This is possible with the help of the semi-permeable membrane inside the filter that allows only water molecules to pass through it. It removes minerals, trace and any other substance, producing pure water that is so necessary for your discus fish health. A few minerals should be however added in the water to actually recreate the discus fish health-friendly environment. Keep a watchful eye on everything that goes on in your small ecosystem as you’re in charge.

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