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Today I went to a lfs and while looking around I saw this 5 inch Discus but had one of the pectoral fin badly damaged and had an eye infection with pop-eye. He was going to put her down but I suggested otherwise and gave it to me for free.

I prepared a tank which was already cycled and waiting to increase the temperature to around 31 degrees. Hopefully I will put some anti-bacterial medication in the tank for pop eyes.

Any urgent suggestions?

Good luck with him, I am sure with a nice clean tank, some heat and meds he will come around. Thats great you got him free casue if you can get him back to normal he could be a beautiful fish some day.

Hopefully things will go well, keep him in good clean water, maybe a little melafix, at the top end range of his temperature limit and he should pick up. Beware though, that a fish already in that condition may be susceptible to the dreaded hexamita, so get his diet up to scratch, and theres a disease profile there if you need it, good luck!

Unfortunately Melafix is not available. I am using Interpret Anti-Bacterial as a remedy against pop-eye. Do you think is effective as well?

Try to get some Melafix through e-bay from the UK, but in the mean time cure it with what you have. Goodluck with the fish & hope it will recover well.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Thanks for the information. I will keep you updated and try to uplaod some pics

Got some shots, this evening but will try to get better pics

Discus in all its glory

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i88/noelcutajar/IMG_3145.jpg

The disease!!

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i88/noelcutajar/IMG_3150.jpg

Not a good pic but it shows the state in which the fish is!!!

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i88/noelcutajar/IMG_3149.jpg]

Ouch! Didnt realise it was that bad from the description, thats more than popeye thats major bacterial plaques that are seriously threatening the eye, and his overall condition is pretty awful. Forget the melafix, go straight for the major antibiotics like oxytetracycline and metronidazole. Its too late for the softly softly approach, he'll need serious sustained medication for at least a couple of weeks.

I bought some Flagyl pills which have metronidazole and will start treatment.

Thanks guys for the help. Today I went for the second treatment with Flagyl. It seems that it is getting worse. I might try a Magnesium Sulphate baths later on this week. I am partially changing 20% water every two days. It seems that it is not eating and not even bloodworms. This could be a problem as it might weaken more and the disease spreads even further. I dissolved 100mg in 80Litres. We shall see how it reacts.

I wish you all the best of luck with this little fella, there was an oscar with exactly the same symptoms at work recently, and I arrived to late to save him,having only worked 2 days so far, but I hope you'll get a better ending.When symptoms have gone that far its aways difficult to save the fish, and moving them to better conditions is often a bit of a shock for them in itself. I think its great your willing to try when others clearly wouldnt have bothered, dont get too disappointed if things dont work out though,its not always easy to undo the legacy of long term damage.Discus are notoriously hard to save when they get that ill. Kudos to you for trying though, whatever the outcome.

That looks really bad, but at least you're trying to save him. I just hope you'll save it & good luck with your treatments.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Unfortunately, the Discus gave up fighting. It was not eating at all and the treatment although it might have been effective if it had the enough energy to cope with the stress. Thanks for the help and comments.

Hard Luck Niko, but at least you tried to save the Discus.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Thats too bad. I have been keeping up with this one to see if he wold make it. At least you tried. He was very handsome on his good side

Sorry he didnt make it.