Bizarre One - Discussion Only No Fix Reqd

[Glitzy]

Just a bit of a weird one really. Wanted people's thoughts as is certainly has got my friend, me and the LFS stumped!

Friend has a 6ft tank, capacity in the 600 litre ish range (not 100% sure how much it holds but am a bit jealous!). Mainly stocked with barbs and tetras in small quantities, she's re-stocking the community tank.

Anyway... Just after Christmas she got 4 silver sharks. All appeared to be well until suddenly this week they started to appear to be really rather unwell. All the tank parameters were fine, no ammonia or nitrite and around 10-20 nitrate. Temp approx 26 deg c, pH 7.8.

It's a mature, cycled tank.

Symptoms were: rapid gill movement accompanied by rapid mouth opening and closing. They started hanging in the water vertically and appeared to not have full movement control on attempting to swim. InItial thoughts were oxygen deprivation, but the filter outlet disturbs the surface, plus there's an air stone pumping out large bubbles 24 hours a day.

Their eyes appeared cloudy which I am aware can be a sign of poor water quality, but the parameters are fine as I said earlier. There are no signs of external infection ie ich or fungus, no holes, missing scales etc.

We're all just completely stumped. The LFS has taken them back and is 'treating' them but they don't know what for, they're not expected to survive though. Next update will be on Monday but was advised today that one of them now has ich...

Every other fish in the tank appears perfectly happy and healthy. Just can't understand what is wrong with them although the LFS has said they've had other deaths/sick fish from the same batch so quite what this is beats me!

 

[Tuxyu3]

Sounds like it could be some kind of chemical poisoning, could anything (aerosols, air fresheners, cooking fumes etc etc.) have gotten into the tank? I know your friend doesn't have them anymore but a picture would help.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The ich is more than likely a secondary ailment since the fish's immunity is down.


Any chance it might be gill flukes?

 

[Tuxyu3]

Oh yes, i completely forgot about parasites.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, with only the new fish being affected it sounds more disease/parasite oriented than water quality. Hopefully it isn't a parasite like that, because it could conceivably start to affect this person's other fish as the life cycle of the parasite continues.

 

[Glitzy]

No air fresheners etc in use and tank well away from kitchen. It's bizarre.
Any early warning signs for parasitic? Guess not as they went down so fast.
They'd been in the tank nearly 3 weeks before this happened too.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Hmmm... That's weird. The timeframe would kind of indicate that they should all have been infected, if that were the case, I guess. But I am far from an expert on gill flukes. I've never had my fish infected by them... fortunately. But, that would be a cause for them to be gasping at the surface, as the flukes impair their ability to draw oxygen from the water. And from what I understand, they can also cause excessive mucus production by the fish which can cloud their appearance (and I guess their eyes also).

 

[Tuxyu3]

Ahhhh my bad, i read it as they were the only fish in the tank at the time. This being the case i am inclined the agree with eagle on this one.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

I would say you are right in mentioning the LFS. As the tank and filter seems to be where they should be, i would nod towards some sort imperfection/s from the stores' livestock...and shop elsewhere.

Terry.

 

[MBOU]

I wouldnt advise you shop elsewhere, all shops have problems, there is no such thing as a shop that doesnt have ANY sick fish.

Work through the problem with the LFS, seems like they are doing what they can to help anyway!

That said, my initial thoughts were water probs (ruled out) and external parasites. There are loads of different types of parasites beyond just gill flukes. Not sure if its the same but see on some fish, especially marines, little lens shaped parasites that attatch to the fishes eyes giving them a cloudy appearence. (the eyes that is!).

I would recomend same treatment as ever for parasites, a QT tank and dose with Kusuri Discus Wormer (flubendazole). At very worst, it wont solve the problem, at best.. it does solve it.

Alternatively, if the LFS can get hold of Solupraz, its only good for 'baths' but putting the fish in a solution of it with an airstone for 2-3 hours will definately help... but tbh, its a much harsher treatment and if you dont know its parasites for sure, i'd not really go for it...

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If not parasites... I wonder if it can still be some kind of bacterial infection...

Then again... the cloudy eyes could just be from excess mucus production, could be that they had early stages of white spot already and it wasnt spotted?

Meh.. who knows.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I know there are other parasites, but I zeroed in on gill flukes based on the gasping at the surface behavior. Of course, I'm not a veterinarian, nor am I that experienced with parasites, but that's the first thought I had.


But, as MBOU says, who knows? I think a vet would be the person to ask, but what are the odds this fish store is going to have a vet or ichthyologist come check them out. Hard to say without pictures, video, etc.

 

[Glitzy]

Considering the problem has now spread to some of the other fish in the tank there is a strong suspicion that it's something parasitic. The LFS has treated the sharks with sterazin and they are doing well.

All good fun...

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Not surprising that it spread... Glad to hear something is working, so I would guess using that for the rest of the tank would be the next step.

 

[Glitzy]

Bit of a post script to this. Turns out it was gill flukes and eye flukes. Sterazin sorted the gill flukes but eye flukes won't clear.

LFS think it was introduced during farming, it's unusual to find in indoor fish apparently? Anyway they had words with their supplier.

I went in yesterday (got some gorgeous pepper corys for my tank yay) and saw them, apart from their eyes they are looking well. Heartened to know LFS will keep them until they know they're well. There's still a tank with others from the same batch 'not for sale' under treatment and from what they were telling me there were two or three other customers reporting fatalities, they think there may have been others but the customers didn't go back.

Friend has had sharks replaced by some from a new batch from a different supplier that have been quarantined for a bit.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

gill flukes...