Can anyone tell me what this might be?

[Fishiemang]

Well...first things first...

Did a huge gravel vac with my gravel vac (not the battery operated one, but my siphon connected to the sink), then added a lower than recommended amount of aquarium salt, maybe half-ish. About a tablespoon per 10 gallons or so. Gotta see how the pleco handles it. I know they come from a river than varies in salinity, so he should be able to take it. With any luck, the clean-ness in there with the salt and stuff will help my severum out. The gravel was pretty packed. Not so much out in the open, but the neglect showed under the decorations. Been a few months since I cleaned it that good.

I even found out my horsehead loach was still alive! Ain't seen that fella in months now. Haha. Them loaches always got me thinkin they died, then 8 months later POOF, there they are. I almost sucked him up. That's a plus.

Ima find some floating plants. I have been kicking around the idea of building a top for that aquarium and doing some aquaponics with it. The logistics are somewhat time consuming to design, but I am more than.likely going to go that route at some point here in the future. Some semi-aquatics in the substrate to help with that and some veggies or something in the top. Who knows.

 

[Retired Viking]

I found a loach almost year and 1/2 later when I did a full cleaning of my 55 gallon tank. I thought he was dead and there he was hiding in the gravel. It was when my tank was full of cichlids and I had removed all the other fish except a pleco.

 

[itiwhetu]

I had a spiny eel once. He was missing so long that I forgot I even had him, until I moved the tank he was in. Had he grown!!!!

 

[Fishiemang]

Yea...I took everything out and.vac'd the whole bottom until it came up.clean. I had written the thing off, and as I was slowly working into one spot, I saw a tail going up the siphon, so I backed away and he came popping out...haha. Glad to see the little fella still.goin. Soon as I seen him, he dashed off and disappeared very quickly into the gravel.

 

[Fishiemang]

Well...

Overnight, it seems the parasite blooms on his head are getting better, however, the pop eye is much worse, and starting in his left eye as well. Gonna keep hope alive, but like all the other times, I have never really seen a good outcome from this condition. Makes me sad. He was the only one affected in the tank. He has also developed a discoloration on his head as well that has never been there before.

 

[Fishiemang]

Checkin up on him after work, and his eye is worse. The discoloration moved to around his lips and "nose" area. Left eye is a bit worse. The holes where the parasite was.escaping, a few look like open sores, and around his right eye, the bulge looks to be cracking open a bit, so I added some Melafix to maybe help soothe them open sores. I sure hope this is a case of "it may get worse before it gets better". I am almost certain best case he will lose that right eye. It is kind of clouding up a little bit.

I may add a scrubber pad to the filter. I hate those things as they clog so fast, but they do their job very well and remove everything from the water. On my project list for tonight.

 

[itiwhetu]

I hope he starts to turn around and gets better. Just looking at him, he looks old and just wonder whether he is not just slowly fading away.

 

[Fishiemang]

Water test with my API kit results:

Water temp: 79 degrees f
pH: 6.8~7
Nitrite: 0.25ppm
Nitrate: 10~20ppm
Ammonia: 0ppm

 

[Fishiemang]

I hope he starts to turn around and gets better. Just looking at him, he looks old and just wonder whether he is not just slowly fading away.

I bought him when he was less than 1 inch long a little under 2 years ago. He was a prime specimen up until 3 weeks ago. This pop eye started 3 days ago at the most.

He still young, as they live for a long time.

 

[Fishiemang]

I think.I know why he got pop eye.

I remember a few days back.he was.rubbing the parasite locations on the ship in the tank, and other surfaces. Most likely injury caused it.

Been doing some heavy reading on it, and apparently, it can heal and the swelling can go down, with the use of aquarium.salt (vets recommend this as a first step...spot on Colin_T). I sure hope that is the case.

Either way, the tank is.going on a.diet. Doing that to keep.detritus to a minimum. Gonna keep up on these water changes as suggested, and salt, and with luck, he will heal up. He seems very unhappy right now. But I expect that.

 

[Fishiemang]

Just an update....

Just got the message at work here that my severum died.

I'm pretty bummed out.

Thanks for tryin to help out folks! It just wasn't in the cards this time. Lessons were learned here. Gonna go home and bury my guy, and evaluate.

 

[Fishiemang]

Another update....

As I was cleaning the filter, the entire tank went belly up.

Cause unknown. Things took.a.turn when I added the salt. Only the severum was affected. Now, the entire tank may be lost.

Talk about a bad day.

 

[Fishiemang]

The Bala and Rainbow are the most affected. Bala upside down and breathing hard, discoloring around the face. The Rainbow discoloring around the face, breathing fast, hiding but using effort to stay upright.

The peacock cichlid is struggling, but so far alive.

My Kribensis is going around like nothing is wrong, so with luck, maybe that lil guy (Pierpont we named her before we knew it was a her) will make it.

The convict cichlid is fat in the belly, but acting like he is starving, and.from what I can see in the ship, still alive.

Have not seen the Jewel cichlid. Don't know condition yet.

Common pleco.came out, but looked like maybe it might be having some issue.

No sighting.of the horsehead loach. But who knows with them things.

A very sudden change. The Bala's left eye started clouding after adding salt. He is now twitching in a.corner, and I assume will pass shortly, as will the Rainbow shark.

I have seen these sharks do this time and.time again (minus the color change and cloudy eye) and.make a.full recovery, so maybe. Hope is dim, being my severum passed, even though his pop eye was going down, but I noticed this morning his scales were coming up and he developed rapid sores around his gills (salt perhaps.).

This is the craziest thing I have ever had happen in 30 years of fish keeping. I am not sure what happened here, but it couldn't have been a "dirty tank" issue. There was some buildup under decorations, but for the most part, the gravel across the bottom was fairly clean. There had to be a major biology shift in there after I gravel vac'd. This is why I tend to not stir that substrate up too much. I lost a smaller tank doing that very thing. Was just a few small tetras and extra mollies, so it didn't hit me as hard has this I am.witnessing right now is.

It is also very strange how the Kribensis is seemingly unaffected by anything that has happened thus far. Very tough and hard cichlids it would appear, but of course, this took a hard left on me in the last hour and a half while I tore down the FX4 and cleaned it up again.

Very odd. Never had a major.cascade failure like this before. I'm beside myself.

 

[Fishiemang]

There are micro bubbles in the water it looks like. From the HOB filter I have onthere to just help clear the water up a little bit more (easier than diggin a polishing pad out of the FX4).

I shut that filter off. We shall see. The last time they acted like this, it was micro bubbles. Maybe that is what has happened.

I know I am rambling on and on here, but maybe my plight here, documented, may help someone else. If these sharks start recovering when the micro bubbles abate, we'll know what happened when I wasn't looking. I don't want to blame the salt, as I myself have used it for years to treat various illnesses, as have many others.

The Rainbow seems to be recovering a bit. Easier to stay upright. Breathing getting a little better.

My Kribensis stopped out to say hi to me here. Such a good lookin fish.

I may keep rambling on as the hours pass, so excuse me. Things may go back the other way. I am watching the tank closely.

Just saw the Jewel Cichlid. It is seemingly ok.

Maybe it is a micro bubble issue. Man I sure hope so!

 

[Fishiemang]

My pleco stopped out too!