Fish disease case nr. 81 Discus with gill flukes and so-called Discus pest

Dear aquarists, especially for the discus lovers, I have my background which I took of course from a fish somewhere at a discus competition, which always lovely discus to see. Unfortunately, we have to deal with problems with discus fish in our hobby or in the industry. And Today my case number 81 talks about a discus which was having problems. And I'd like you to share your presentation on this. It was a discus snake skin with gill fluke and something that looks like the discus pest or discus age. What's in the name? Some reaction of the fish shock. I will mention you what I noticed in my observations. Well, the fish here, you can see they become dark. Some look pretty well in color and pretty well good shape. But some here getting skinny, getting darker. The fins are not looking right. They were all looking for food. But what typically happens in these kind of fish? That the bigger ones, the most colored ones, are the most active ones, taking up all the food. And that the smaller ones, like this one here below, has a little chance. So very important that you avoid that competing for fish food. Just don't drop a block or frozen food in it or a few granulates. No, make sure you spread it in the aquarium so that all the fish can have a chance to eat. Look, they all look hungry. Also the smaller ones, which are not in good condition, they're wasting away and some are dying, but. But it's the bigger ones which are more actively and out compete the other ones. When we looked at the fish, we pulled out the small black one that was basically, we see a lot of mucus here on the side of the fish and here on the fins. So there was an excessive mucus on the scales, which we usually see when we talk about the discus pest. We took a scraping from the skin, but we couldn't see any particular pathogens or parasites, anything like that that would cause that mucus. But look at the mucus here, excessive mucus that was on the scales. I will show you at the end a link to another video where I talk about this kind of observation. What could have been the primary cause of this? We found in the gills also some mucus, but also gill flukes which should not be there. Maybe one, maybe two on a gill arch. Yes, that it's not residuously called an infection. But if you see a few like these here, which are still pretty small, but one nearly eats gill arch. There are several gill flukes, of course, stressing the fish, making the fish not feeling well, so the fish will eat less. And particularly when there is competition for food. Well, he will become weaker and then he will get other problems, secondary infections, particularly bacteria. Because they're kept in tropical water where a lot of bacteria. Here another gillard. And you see the few gill flukes. See flukes here in the middle and here on the side. That's how you can observe the gill flukes. I don't identify what species it is. It's no use for you as a hobbyist. It's for the expert to taxonomy. But you can apply an anti fluke treatment. But look, this fluke is trying to get away. It's trying. Of course it's in a bad shape. Held in the microscope so it going away. And then we saw inside, we saw the spleen which was in a very bad condition. Look at the Milano macrofar centers which are taken away. The macrofax are like have taken a reaction in the organ to defend itself against pathogens, mostly bacteria. So that makes of course the organ of the fish in a very weak condition. So what can we do? Oh, I have a visitor here. It's one of my cats. Looky look who is trying to intervene in my presentation. Sorry, I put them away. But this I'm a cat lover that just to tell you. So health spleen and poor condition. Now to conclude what can we do in a treatment in this case of these fishes? Well, try to look at the origin of the problem since we suspect respect Discus pest. Discus pest can be originating from a poor immunity. The fish are in a poor immune system kept by what reason? Stress, poor water. Many conditions which I talk about in my YouTube films. How can I say losing the immunity and fighting off the fish diseases. And the contact with other South American cichlids, which seems to be, which I explain in my books, a kind of allergic reaction. They're like a kind of asthma that the fish is creating extra slime on the skin and in the gills. Exchange of pathogens of pheromones. It's not well studied yet, but it seems to be that when those fish like discus are in contact with a wild fish or the wild discus or a wild dwarf cichlid or coming from another breeder, you know, tank raised fish from Europe mixed with tank raised fish or discus from Asia. I tell in my lectures, don't combine. If you buy European discus, stay with your European discus. Stay with the same breeder, stay with the same supplier. Avoid risking the problems. That's what everybody does. Also with koi it's the same kind of problem. To try to avoid the problem. Do more water changes. That helps a lot the fish that helps the fish a lot is to eliminate anything in the water which can be bad applying into bacterial treatment. Talk to your fish doctor about that. Try to feed with food that contains immunostimulants that helps the immune system so the fish can be stronger to fight off a problem of anything affecting his body. We Recommend Therefore our Dr. Basilir Baish Food forte and our professional care. So that's a few few ones which really can help your fish in this case. But make sure they're eating the the granulates. You can help with our power fish. Dr. Basser power fish helps the fish to learn to accept granulates. It's a spray you put on your frozen or live food. So check it out. Dr. Bas. There's power fish from a corner Muenster. Prevention is better than cure. Like I said, try to prevent fighting for food. Try to prevent that the immune system is affected. Try to have the contact with strange fish from other areas, particularly other South American cichlids. So take a look at my reference in my books the New Illustrated Guide to Fish Diseases. I will show you the link below to my books in my explanation on YouTube and see my YouTube video which I have here the link which I talk about discus best. So I hope this helps you and particularly the discus lover to be made more aware about this kind of problem. So stay more tuned, stay tuned to more cases to come. Also more cases on discus will eventually come up. So thank you for watching on this short video on a problem of a discus fish. Thank you and good luck.