Help with discus, please...

[Ron Sower]

...Liz...A friend in the club has a discus swimming upside down with a bit of a swollen bell...

...any ideas on what it is and how to treat it?...

[LizStreithorst]

It's probably a lost cause at this point.  If he wants to try anyway use Kanamycin coupled with Epsom salt and 100% WC daily with stable water.

[LizStreithorst]

Oh, and his the temp of his tank should be 82.

[Ron Sower]

...Tahnk you, Liz...it seems that the fish has straightened out things on its own...weird!!!

[LizStreithorst]

That is weird.

[Ron Sower]

...yep...tell me about it...I usually just destroy fish when that happens...but it hasn't happened for me for many years...

[LizStreithorst]

Well, I'm happy for him.  Do you happen to know what he feeds?  It must have been in intestinal blockage.

[Ron Sower]

...Beef heart, bloodworms, myssl shrimp, brine shrimp, and spirulina algae frozen food all mixed up, once a day...
...he had fed his Cories some algae wafers that night and saw the discus pecking at them...

[LizStreithorst]

I've heard of problems with bloat with some Algae wafers although I have never experienced it myself.  I don't feed brine shrimp nor mysis but I wonder if it could have been the shells in it.  I have no real answers, just things to consider.

[Ron Sower]

...Thanks LIz...I passed this on to Vilo...

[Ron Sower]

...Vilo asked me what you feed your discus....

[LizStreithorst]

I feed Captain Bob's Teenie Greenie and a pellet from another guy who also makes his own food and freeze dried black worms.  I used to also feed frozen bloodworms but considering they're mostly water they cost a lot to ship.  For a while a had a red wiggler culture going but It was too much trouble so I tossed the  whole batch on the garden.

[Barb]

 I feed mine freeze dried black worms, and several good quality flakes, pellets and bits.  They are full grown now, I got them as half dollar size, and they have eaten only my dry foods.  They range in size from 5-7" now.
Barb

[Ron Sower]

...thanks ladies...I've passed both menus on to Vilo...

[LizStreithorst]

As long as it's a nutritious and tasty food the fish will eat it and do well on it.  I still have a question in my mind about shrimp shells getting stuck in the gut.  Why don't you suggest to him that he ask on Simply?  Someone there will have a better idea of the culprit than I do.  They like questions that are puzzling like this one is.

You know I forgot to ask one important question.  Is the fish in question a Blue Diamond?  They have been known to bloat more often than the other strains.