Discus Diseases can harm your fish. Get the complete guide on discus fish care and learn how to prevent and treat discus diseases.

1. Discus diseases are one of the things that you want to
learn and understand about. You need to know how to deal with them and learn how to prevent
them from attacking your discus fish. The key thing is to make sure that you keep your tank
water clean and you keep your discus fish healthy. You can do this you will prevent some of the
discus diseases you will and can encounter.
Discus Diseases - Introduction to Gill Fluke
Gill fluke is one of the most common discus diseases. Gill fluke is really dangerous to discus
fish fry and older discus fish. Gill fluke can be prevented if you make sure that you keep the
tank water clean at all times. Parasites thrive in dirty water. Most discus fish will catch diseases
easily if they are stressed out. If you you keep them healthy, it's possible that they wont catch
the disease at all. Gill Flukes are external parasites that destroy the gills. This can trigger heavy
breathing and irregular swimming, these are signs to let you know that they have discus
diseases. The discus fish that is suffering from this disease can turn out to be paralyzed and can
sink down to the bottom of the tank.
Discus Diseases - Why is it Hard to get rid of Gill Fluke
The problem with gill flukes is that it is hard to get rid of them. They must find a host or they
will die within a couple of days, but not before they lay more eggs. Once the eggs are laid, they
can stay dormant for 3-5 days (some researchers say up to a month). The reason why it is so
hard to get rid of them is because you first have to kill the adult and then wait for the eggs to
hatch before you can kill the young. Hopefully, you can do this before they lay more eggs.
Unfortunately, there is no medication that can kill the eggs you have to watch for them to hatch.
If your tank is dirty, you are giving them a breeding and thriving home.
Discus Diseases - Treatment
Salt Dips is one option for discus diseases. You take the fish and dip them into a high amount of
salt for a few minutes and this is supposed to kill the parasites. The thing that most people forget
about is that you have to quarantine your tank and attempt to kill any parasites that are still inside
of the tank. If you put your fish back in you are re-infecting them.

2. Formalin is another option. Be sure to read and follow the directions. This is good because it
will kill most or all of the parasites that are swimming around in the tank.
Potassium Permanganate is yet another option. This is another medication that you can give
your discus. It is said to be very harsh on the fish and your tank.
Change your Tank. In order for this to work, you must have a temporary home for the discus
that you have treated. You must completely empty the contents of the tank and clean them. You
have to wipe down the tank with alcohol (including everything else including filters) and let it sit
for one month. If you use one of these options, you will kill the parasites.
Theresa Jordan
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For a Complete Guide on Discus Fish Care be sure to visit Discus Diseases
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