Fish TB?? Fluke?? Any help or advice would be so appreciated 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Hello, Thank you ever so much for taking a look at this thread and my fish! I appreciate it ever so much.

I have a 120l Lido Juwel tank, with 15 Diamond Tetra (that have been happily breeding for the last two years), a 17 year old Bristlenose Pleco, 5 Amano shrimp and 2 Ottos. I absolutely love fish keeping, I am self taught like most fish keeping enthusiasts, which leads to so much anxiety when things go wrong.

I am absolutely panicking as I am struggling to diagnose my fish and I am so worried it might be fish Tb? I made the stupid decision a year ago to introduce 6 Ottos to my mature tank from my quarantine tank prematurely, as they seemed healthy but would not eat and looked dangerously skinny so in a bid to safe them I took a risk.

I have not stopped having problems since adding these Ottos, some of which I sadly lost even after my best efforts. After adding them some of my older fish developed red gills, cloudy eyes, loss of appetite, rapidly losing weight, flashing, hiding in the tank and something wrong with some of their mouths. I thought it was Fluke so dosed the tank as instructed with Fluke Solve a few times, did water changes and monitored for four weeks.

This was 4th of March 2022, I managed to save most of my fish, they started having lots of fry, slowly gained some of the weight back and seemed happy. Please see before and after photo included. None of the younger fish or fry showered any signs of illness at all and all seemed fine.

But now the problem has come back and 3 of my oldest and most loved Diamond Tetra fish, that were original ill a year ago, have developed slightly bent spines and look like they are losing weight again, really red gills and one has a slightly cloudy eye. A Otto is showing similar symptoms too. I am totally at a loss as my water parameters seems fine, please see photo included that I did yesterday from my test kit, and I do weekly 25% or 50% water changes.

On Monday I also rescued some fish from a hording situation. I tested the water from their original tank, which had high ammonia and nitrate levels. The fish were clearly suffering from neglect, fin rot, mouth fungus, ammonia poisoning, red streaks and blood on their bodies and anus, total loss of colours and high levels of stress. Unfortunately, even to my best efforts, I lost 2 of them and one I gently put to sleep. I only now have one Peppered Cory left in my hospital tank and I am greatly worried for his survival rate, though they are now eating, their colour has returned and I'm doing a 50% water change in the hospital tank every day and dosing with Seachem Stess Gaurd and giving them small amounts of catfish pellets and blood worm. I am about to start dosing the tank work fin rot treatment just in case.

Any help would be so so appreciated and would mean so much as I don't want to lose any fish! Thank you for giving this a read too.

Hope you are having a nice day!

Oh, I'm so sorry! You clearly care so much about these fish and have put a lot into them. I'm not a diagnoses person on this forum, but I can say be careful with that Cory. Panicking and over-medicating or adding meds it doesn't need could do more harm then good.

The problem with diagnosing Mycobacter, fish tb is that its symptoms are shared with a number of other diseases. The rectangular patch lesions seals the deal in my mind, and you don't have that showing. So short of sending the fish to a lab, you can't be sure.
It does sound like it though.
The year ago and today gives hope - tb fish don't rebound, and the decline is slow but steady. I have had new arrivals show some scary weird bacterial diseases, recover, and then a year or two later, show the same thing. Those diseases usually stay in the species unless you leave dead fish to be scavenged.
It's probably bacterial, but anyone who is certain is confident, but not clear. There are just so many things that could be. Parasites, bacteria...

The hoarded fish sound like .... hoarded rescue fish with septicemia. Watch the Cory and if she recovers, you'll have a decision about whether to go for lifelong QT or not. I would. Rescued fish from diseased tanks are dangerous.

In a few minutes, someone who has never seen the tetra species or tried to photograph diamond tetra scales will say they have ich.

Ellie Potts said:

Oh, I'm so sorry! You clearly care so much about these fish and have put a lot into them. I'm not a diagnoses person on this forum, but I can say be careful with that Cory. Panicking and over-medicating or adding meds it doesn't need could do more harm then good.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for relying Ellie and for your advice! I really do! I've not had a Cory before and thankfully haven't dosed it yet, so I will hold off and just keep doing water changes. Fingers crossed they pull through

GaryE said:

The problem with diagnosing Mycobacter, fish tb is that its symptoms are shared with a number of other diseases. The rectangular patch lesions seals the deal in my mind, and you don't have that showing. So short of sending the fish to a lab, you can't be sure.
It does sound like it though.
The year ago and today gives hope - tb fish don't rebound, and the decline is slow but steady. I have had new arrivals show some scary weird bacterial diseases, recover, and then a year or two later, show the same thing. Those diseases usually stay in the species unless you leave dead fish to be scavenged.
It's probably bacterial, but anyone who is certain is confident, but not clear. There are just so many things that could be. Parasites, bacteria...

The hoarded fish sound like .... hoarded rescue fish with septicemia. Watch the Cory and if she recovers, you'll have a decision about whether to go for lifelong QT or not. I would. Rescued fish from diseased tanks are dangerous.

In a few minutes, someone who has never seen the tetra species or tried to photograph diamond tetra scales will say they have ich.

Click to expand...

Hey Gary, thanks so for your advice and for your really helpful reply!

You've totally hit the nail on the head! I've found it so hard to diagnose what it wrong with my Tetra as so many symptoms overlap other diseases.

I've never had to send a fish to a lab before, I currently live in the UK, but I may have too as I'm desperate to get to the bottom of it. I've been trying to get in touch with a local exotic vet but they are going on holiday tomorrow and can't see my fish till they return in a week or more.

Haha thanks for the heads up

If it is tb, there is no treatment and all the fish would be simply doomed. That pathogen can survive bleach.

It leaps species (I caught it - 6 months of antibiotics cured it) so don't handle your tank with open cuts or if you are immune compromised. It doesn't cross the species barrier often, but when it does, the treatment is hard on your body.

GaryE said:

If it is tb, there is no treatment and all the fish would be simply doomed. That pathogen can survive bleach.

It leaps species (I caught it - 6 months of antibiotics cured it) so don't handle your tank with open cuts or if you are immune compromised. It doesn't cross the species barrier often, but when it does, the treatment is hard on your body.

Click to expand...

I'm really praying it isn't as these fish are such a joy to watch and care for.

Oh that must of been horrible and I'm glad to read you are all okay now and fully recovered! That's another thing I am worried about as I am immune compromised .

I doubt it's Fish TB. Fish TB (Mycobacteria sp) is becoming quite common in aquarium fishes due to the disease coming out of Asian fish farms. Common symptoms of this include the fish bloating up (getting fat) over night, stop eating, do a stringy white poop, gasp at the surface or near a filter outlet, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms.

Most fish do not show any other symptoms prior to this happening. Some fish can get a curved back but any sort of internal growth can cause that, and so can old age. Rainbowfish that don't get enough plant matter in their diet can develop ulcers caused by Fish TB, and they can develop gill tumours from it.

The following link has some basic info on Fish TB.

---------------------

EXCESS MUCOUS
The fish in the pictures are covered in excess mucous, which is caused by something in the water irritating the fish. This can be from ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, medications, plant fertiliser, or a poison entering the aquarium from an outside source.

Red gills and cloudy eyes is also water quality related.

Treatment for this is big (75%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate to dilute anything toxic in the water. You should clean the filter too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Make sure any buckets, hoses, sponges are free of chemicals and used purely for the aquarium and not used for anything else.

Make sure your hands and arms are free of chemicals, perfumes, hand sanitiser, moisturising cream, etc. Perfumed soaps can leave a residue on your skin that is toxic to aquatic life.

---------------------

OTOCINCLUS CATFISH
Never buy skinny fish because they usually have an underlying health issue. Skinny Otocinclus catfish are starving due to not being fed while at the exporters, importers or the pet shop. These fish need biofilm, algae and driftwood otherwise they starve to death. Most importers and exporters have bare glass holding tanks that are free of algae and driftwood and this means a lot of the suckermouth catfish (in particular Otocinclus) starve. Once they have gone past the point of no return, they usually die.

If you want to buy Otocinclus catfish, make sure they have rounded bellies not sunken bellies.

---------------------

Flashing or rubbing on objects can be caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the skin. It is also caused by external protozoan parasites like Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina, whitespot and velvet. If the water quality is good then it's usually an external protozoan infection. However, the fact there is something in the water irritating the other fishes (white film over their body, cloudy eyes, red gills), poor water quality/ poisons can't be ruled out completely.

The fish don't appear to have white spot or velvet so cleaning the tank up and adding salt might fix the rubbing/ flashing. See directions below for salt.

---------------------

Loss of appetite is usually caused by poor water quality, an internal infection or an infection in the face/ head/ mouth area.

Fish losing weight rapidly over a few weeks (normally 1-2 weeks) is an internal protozoan infection. Loss of appetite is a common symptom of an internal protozoan infection. Stringy white poop is also a common sign of an internal infection or intestinal health issue.

Metronidazole is the treatment of choice for internal protozoan infections.

The following link has information on treating fish that do a stringy white poop and covers internal bacterial infections, internal protozoan infections, and intestinal worms.

---------------------

Skinny fish and fish losing weight slowly over a period of months can be caused by starvation, intestinal worms or gill flukes, or a combination of these.

If the fish are fed well and still losing weight slowly, then it's probably intestinal worms, which are very common in fish coming out of Asian fish farms, but also in pet shops. The link about stringy white poop has info on treating intestinal worms.

Gill flukes can usually be treated with salt. Praziquantel will also treat gill flukes and tapeworm in fish.

---------------------

The slight curvature of the body on the diamond tetras can be caused by poor water quality, external or internal protozoan parasites, ill health or old age. They might have a growth in them but their external appearance would suggest there is a major issue in the tank and it is not TB.

The tank looks heavily planted and probably needs a good clean.
When was the last time you gravel cleaned the substrate?
Is there any gunk building up under the plant leaves?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

---------------------

WHAT TO DO NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

After a week of water changes, if the fish are still losing weight rapidly then treat the tank with Metronidazole. One of the commonly sold fish medications has Metronidazole and Praziquantel in and that would treat internal protozoan parasites, tapeworm, gill flukes and possibly external protozoan parasites.

If the fish are still having issues after that, post more pictures and add some salt to the tank. The catfish and plants will be fine. After 2 weeks of salt, do some water changes to remove the salt and then try deworming the fish with Levamisole or Flubendazole.

---------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Colin_T said:

I doubt it's Fish TB. Fish TB (Mycobacteria sp) is becoming quite common in aquarium fishes due to the disease coming out of Asian fish farms. Common symptoms of this include the fish bloating up (getting fat) over night, stop eating, do a stringy white poop, gasp at the surface or near a filter outlet, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms.

Most fish do not show any other symptoms prior to this happening. Some fish can get a curved back but any sort of internal growth can cause that, and so can old age. Rainbowfish that don't get enough plant matter in their diet can develop ulcers caused by Fish TB, and they can develop gill tumours from it.

The following link has some basic info on Fish TB.

Questions regarding fish TB

So I have been reading things in Manual of Fish Health and this forum and have a bunch of questions regarding fish TB: 1. Why TB are common in fish from south/asian farm? 2. Can fish get TB even if you don’t buy new fish? 3. I always have cuts on my hand (I don’t know how?) How many percent can...

www.fishforums.net

---------------------

EXCESS MUCOUS
The fish in the pictures are covered in excess mucous, which is caused by something in the water irritating the fish. This can be from ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, medications, plant fertiliser, or a poison entering the aquarium from an outside source.

Red gills and cloudy eyes is also water quality related.

Treatment for this is big (75%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate to dilute anything toxic in the water. You should clean the filter too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Make sure any buckets, hoses, sponges are free of chemicals and used purely for the aquarium and not used for anything else.

Make sure your hands and arms are free of chemicals, perfumes, hand sanitiser, moisturising cream, etc. Perfumed soaps can leave a residue on your skin that is toxic to aquatic life.

---------------------

OTOCINCLUS CATFISH
Never buy skinny fish because they usually have an underlying health issue. Skinny Otocinclus catfish are starving due to not being fed while at the exporters, importers or the pet shop. These fish need biofilm, algae and driftwood otherwise they starve to death. Most importers and exporters have bare glass holding tanks that are free of algae and driftwood and this means a lot of the suckermouth catfish (in particular Otocinclus) starve. Once they have gone past the point of no return, they usually die.

If you want to buy Otocinclus catfish, make sure they have rounded bellies not sunken bellies.

---------------------

Flashing or rubbing on objects can be caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the skin. It is also caused by external protozoan parasites like Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina, whitespot and velvet. If the water quality is good then it's usually an external protozoan infection. However, the fact there is something in the water irritating the other fishes (white film over their body, cloudy eyes, red gills), poor water quality/ poisons can't be ruled out completely.

The fish don't appear to have white spot or velvet so cleaning the tank up and adding salt might fix the rubbing/ flashing. See directions below for salt.

---------------------

Loss of appetite is usually caused by poor water quality, an internal infection or an infection in the face/ head/ mouth area.

Fish losing weight rapidly over a few weeks (normally 1-2 weeks) is an internal protozoan infection. Loss of appetite is a common symptom of an internal protozoan infection. Stringy white poop is also a common sign of an internal infection or intestinal health issue.

Metronidazole is the treatment of choice for internal protozoan infections.

The following link has information on treating fish that do a stringy white poop and covers internal bacterial infections, internal protozoan infections, and intestinal worms.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

---------------------

Skinny fish and fish losing weight slowly over a period of months can be caused by starvation, intestinal worms or gill flukes, or a combination of these.

If the fish are fed well and still losing weight slowly, then it's probably intestinal worms, which are very common in fish coming out of Asian fish farms, but also in pet shops. The link about stringy white poop has info on treating intestinal worms.

Gill flukes can usually be treated with salt. Praziquantel will also treat gill flukes and tapeworm in fish.

---------------------

The slight curvature of the body on the diamond tetras can be caused by poor water quality, external or internal protozoan parasites, ill health or old age. They might have a growth in them but their external appearance would suggest there is a major issue in the tank and it is not TB.

The tank looks heavily planted and probably needs a good clean.
When was the last time you gravel cleaned the substrate?
Is there any gunk building up under the plant leaves?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

---------------------

WHAT TO DO NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

After a week of water changes, if the fish are still losing weight rapidly then treat the tank with Metronidazole. One of the commonly sold fish medications has Metronidazole and Praziquantel in and that would treat internal protozoan parasites, tapeworm, gill flukes and possibly external protozoan parasites.

If the fish are still having issues after that, post more pictures and add some salt to the tank. The catfish and plants will be fine. After 2 weeks of salt, do some water changes to remove the salt and then try deworming the fish with Levamisole or Flubendazole.

---------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Click to expand...

Hi Colin_T

Colin_T said:

I doubt it's Fish TB. Fish TB (Mycobacteria sp) is becoming quite common in aquarium fishes due to the disease coming out of Asian fish farms. Common symptoms of this include the fish bloating up (getting fat) over night, stop eating, do a stringy white poop, gasp at the surface or near a filter outlet, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms.

Most fish do not show any other symptoms prior to this happening. Some fish can get a curved back but any sort of internal growth can cause that, and so can old age. Rainbowfish that don't get enough plant matter in their diet can develop ulcers caused by Fish TB, and they can develop gill tumours from it.

The following link has some basic info on Fish TB.

Questions regarding fish TB

So I have been reading things in Manual of Fish Health and this forum and have a bunch of questions regarding fish TB: 1. Why TB are common in fish from south/asian farm? 2. Can fish get TB even if you don’t buy new fish? 3. I always have cuts on my hand (I don’t know how?) How many percent can...

www.fishforums.net

---------------------

EXCESS MUCOUS
The fish in the pictures are covered in excess mucous, which is caused by something in the water irritating the fish. This can be from ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, medications, plant fertiliser, or a poison entering the aquarium from an outside source.

Red gills and cloudy eyes is also water quality related.

Treatment for this is big (75%) daily water changes and gravel cleaning the substrate to dilute anything toxic in the water. You should clean the filter too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn outside.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Make sure any buckets, hoses, sponges are free of chemicals and used purely for the aquarium and not used for anything else.

Make sure your hands and arms are free of chemicals, perfumes, hand sanitiser, moisturising cream, etc. Perfumed soaps can leave a residue on your skin that is toxic to aquatic life.

---------------------

OTOCINCLUS CATFISH
Never buy skinny fish because they usually have an underlying health issue. Skinny Otocinclus catfish are starving due to not being fed while at the exporters, importers or the pet shop. These fish need biofilm, algae and driftwood otherwise they starve to death. Most importers and exporters have bare glass holding tanks that are free of algae and driftwood and this means a lot of the suckermouth catfish (in particular Otocinclus) starve. Once they have gone past the point of no return, they usually die.

If you want to buy Otocinclus catfish, make sure they have rounded bellies not sunken bellies.

---------------------

Flashing or rubbing on objects can be caused by poor water quality or something in the water irritating the skin. It is also caused by external protozoan parasites like Costia, Chilodonella, Trichodina, whitespot and velvet. If the water quality is good then it's usually an external protozoan infection. However, the fact there is something in the water irritating the other fishes (white film over their body, cloudy eyes, red gills), poor water quality/ poisons can't be ruled out completely.

The fish don't appear to have white spot or velvet so cleaning the tank up and adding salt might fix the rubbing/ flashing. See directions below for salt.

---------------------

Loss of appetite is usually caused by poor water quality, an internal infection or an infection in the face/ head/ mouth area.

Fish losing weight rapidly over a few weeks (normally 1-2 weeks) is an internal protozoan infection. Loss of appetite is a common symptom of an internal protozoan infection. Stringy white poop is also a common sign of an internal infection or intestinal health issue.

Metronidazole is the treatment of choice for internal protozoan infections.

The following link has information on treating fish that do a stringy white poop and covers internal bacterial infections, internal protozoan infections, and intestinal worms.

What to do if your fish has Stringy White Poop.

Fish do a stringy white poop for several reasons. 1) Internal Bacterial Infections causes the fish to stop eating, swell up like a balloon, breath heavily at the surface or near a filter outlet, do stringy white poop, and die within 24-48 hours of showing these symptoms. This cannot normally be...

www.fishforums.net

---------------------

Skinny fish and fish losing weight slowly over a period of months can be caused by starvation, intestinal worms or gill flukes, or a combination of these.

If the fish are fed well and still losing weight slowly, then it's probably intestinal worms, which are very common in fish coming out of Asian fish farms, but also in pet shops. The link about stringy white poop has info on treating intestinal worms.

Gill flukes can usually be treated with salt. Praziquantel will also treat gill flukes and tapeworm in fish.

---------------------

The slight curvature of the body on the diamond tetras can be caused by poor water quality, external or internal protozoan parasites, ill health or old age. They might have a growth in them but their external appearance would suggest there is a major issue in the tank and it is not TB.

The tank looks heavily planted and probably needs a good clean.
When was the last time you gravel cleaned the substrate?
Is there any gunk building up under the plant leaves?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

---------------------

WHAT TO DO NOW
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens so any medication (if needed) will work more effectively on the fish.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

After a week of water changes, if the fish are still losing weight rapidly then treat the tank with Metronidazole. One of the commonly sold fish medications has Metronidazole and Praziquantel in and that would treat internal protozoan parasites, tapeworm, gill flukes and possibly external protozoan parasites.

If the fish are still having issues after that, post more pictures and add some salt to the tank. The catfish and plants will be fine. After 2 weeks of salt, do some water changes to remove the salt and then try deworming the fish with Levamisole or Flubendazole.

---------------------

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Click to expand...

Hi Colin_T, thank you so much for your detailed and super helpful reply to my post! I really appreciate your great advice, help and fish know how and your time it took to type that all out.

Your keen eye is right my aquarium does need a scrub in those photos, I took them on the day I do my weekly water change, plus I do have some pesky beard algae. I do weekly water changes of 25%, where I clean the gravel and filters with water from the tank. I always make sure the water is the same temp going in and use Prime to treat the new clean water. My water parameters are ammonia 0ppm, Nitrite 0ppm and Nitrate 0ppm and it's been that way for quite awhile hence my great worry as why my fish were showing all these awful symptoms and not responding to any meds I ever gave them.

So after lots of desperate calls and emails, the day after you replied, I managed to finally find a vet who would see some of my fish, after I had been turned down quite a few times from others. So I drove 45 mins to the other side of the city with some fish safely in a travel box with a heat and pump set up. They were the only zoological medicine and WAVMA certified Aquatic Species Veteranian I could find within miles and was so relieved they managed to fit me in on the day. They tested my water which came back as all 0ppm, I was doing everything correctly when it came to fish care and said they thought something had been introduced to my tank through the Ottos. They unfortunately had to put two of my sick fish to sleep and they were sent off the lab. Unfortunately the results came back today and they showed they were negative for everything (parasites, infections, fungus, finrot ect) bar Fish TB which they both tested posted for. I'm absolutely gutted and I'm not sure what to do next? The vets said to carry on with care but absolutely kitted up with gloves, which I already do thankfully, masks etc but so many other forums have said the best thing is to put all the fish to sleep?

Thank you all though so much for your help and Kind words when trying to help my fish

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I posted a response on your other thread about TB, which covers your options now and how to deal with this.

Colin_T said:

I posted a response on your other thread about TB, which covers your options now and how to deal with this.

Click to expand...

Thank you Colin_T for all your help! Hope you are having a good day