# Why are my discus producing extra body mucous???



## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

All of my discus seem to produce extra body mucous that comes off them in strands. All my parameters are where they should be, I do water changes every 3 days of 50%, the temp is set at 86 degrees. There are live plants in the tank that help keep nitrate levels down. There are other fish in the tank that this doesn't seem to effect. The discus don't seem to be stressed in any way and they act like they usually do. The other tank mates I have with them are clown loaches, bolivian rams, cardinals, and some BN plecos. The only major thing I have done lately is add substrate to the tank which I did a few weeks ago, but they were producing the extra mucous even before then. Should I be concerned about this? Why is it just the discus that are doing this? How can I fix this if it's a problem?


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## FLGirl1977 (Jul 24, 2007)

Discus DO produce mucus, but yours sounds quite excessive. Are they dark in color?? Check out this section:

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=15

This came to mind, hopefully this is not the case....but if it is, this is the link that will tell you what you need to do:

http://www.discusforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4766

Keep us updated and good luck..


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## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

That's the thing though, they don't seem to be showing the same symptoms, just the excess mucous which I cannot figure out. I was reading on one page it could be from high ammonia levels, but my ammonia reads 0 and I do regular water changes. 6 out of my 9 discus are wild caught, could this have anything to do with it? I did however QT any wild caught fish for 4 weeks and treated with anti parasite meds before they went in. All my BN are WC, along with the cardinals. The others are all domestic raised.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

What you are describing does sound excessive. Have they been doing this since you got them, or is this something that just started right before you changed the substrate?

It sounds like your tank maintenance is up to par for discus. Do you notice this worsening immediately following a water change?

No flashing? No redness in the gill area at all?

How long have you had the wild ones?


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## Guest (Dec 3, 2008)

Does this happen all the time or during water changes? I used to have this happen to my discus during water changes and it usually is a sign that there is a lot of dissolved gasses in the new water. If this is happening all the time, then I am not sure what the problem is, but I don't think it's a big issue.


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## cc_woman (Jan 31, 2008)

It has been happening on and off for a couple of months now. It seems to be worse right after water changes. My 2 adult wild caughts I have had since about february, and my 4 juvie wild caughts I have had for a few months now. I QT'd the 4 juvie wc's for 4 weeks and treated them with jungle parasite clear before I added them to the main tank. I don't see them flashing, no redness anywhere, but I do know with my 2 adult discus they get stressed out over the littlest things, and won't eat for a week or so after making any changes. I try to leave them alone as much as possible because of this.

I was told it could be a parasite called costia, but even then I was reading up on that and they just don't seem to show the signs of it, except the mucous part. I added some extra salt tonight, hoping this will help if it happens to be a parasite. I just find it weird because sometimes it goes away, then it will come back either on a few of them or all of them. I have 9 discus in total, 3 of them are domestic.


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2008)

If your discus are skittish that usually suggests something is off with water. You have 9 discus and bunch of other fish. How big is your tank? Also, what's your water temp? As long as your discus eat well and seem healthy, I wouldn't necessarily try to treat the fish. Go to simplydiscus.com and see if you can get additional help. Good luck.


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