Celestial Pearl Danio unwell??

[Elissalamb]

I bought 6 CPDs 3 days ago, but one really doesn’t look happy!
What can I do to help my fish?
I notice that its tail is not the same shape as the other 5. It seems to have to swim a lot harder than the others to get anywhere. Its gills seem to be swollen and it spends most of its time alone, not far from the surface.

I have a 120 litre juwel tank
2 small pearl gouramis
The new 6 CPD
3 apple snails
4 amano shrimp

I know that over the Christmas period that I didnt water change as often as I should have but I did a change the day before purchase and again today. Unfortunately I went to test the parameters and found water had got into my packet of test strips and has used them all! Currently isolating with covid so cannot get out for more, will have to wait for some to be delivered and will update thread.

 

[Elissalamb]

 

[Sgooosh]

seems to just be a parasite infection?
maybe mouth infection too...

 

[Elissalamb]

seems to just be a parasite infection?
maybe mouth infection too...

Is there anything I can do to help it? Thank you for your advice!

 

[Elissalamb]

View attachment 151431

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

The fish is either suffering from poor water quality or an external protozoan infection. Do the following.

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 them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

If there's no improvement after a week with daily water changes and salt, post some more pictures.


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

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres 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.

 

[Elissalamb]

Hi Colin,

Thank you ever so much for your detailed response, I wiped the sides and cleaned the filter sponges earlier today when I did the water change so that’s a start, will get hold of some aquarium salt ASAP!

Thanks again
Elissa

 

[Colin_T]

If you can't get aquarium salt, get swimming pool salt from a hardware or pool shop, or rock salt from a supermarket. It's all the same stuff (sodium chloride without any additives).

 

[Elissalamb]

Hi,

The salt arrived this morning, but it appears I am too late- the fish has disappeared! Could my amano shrimps be at risk of catching anything from eating the CPD? I will continue to use the salt/water changes anyway just in case of any of the others start to have any problems

Thank you
Elissa

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish had an external protozoan infection, then all the fish in the tank can get it. Shrimp won't get it.

If you use salt for a week it should prevent any of the others from getting sick.

 

[hansgruber7]

I find that CPDs often come with various health issues and tend to slowly waste away one by one. I'm not sure what the reason is. I used the Aquarium Co Op quarantine trio medication the last time I bought them and that seemed to work and they all survived.

 

[DoubleDutch]

I find that CPDs often come with various health issues and tend to slowly waste away one by one. I'm not sure what the reason is. I used the Aquarium Co Op quarantine trio medication the last time I bought them and that seemed to work and they all survived.

You're right about this Hans. There seems to be something in CPD's.

The Coop Trio is a scam to me .

 

[hansgruber7]

How is it a scam? I've used it to quarantine new fish more than once and I have had good results. Especially with my CPDs.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Using med

How is it a scam? I've used it to quarantine new fish more than once and I have had good results. Especially with my CPDs.

Advising to throw in meds that are normally used to treat specific diseases on fish is a scam to me.
Other than deworming I think the mis- and overuse of these specific meds only cause more issues on the long run than they solve in the beginning.
Quaranting also is something different than treating (for certain / specific diseases).

 

[hansgruber7]

Interesting. I don't know if you watch the Aquarium Co Op youtube channel, but they seem to know what they are doing and I've learned a lot from Corey. They routinely quarantine new arrivals and treat them with the quarantine trio to avoid diseases. I only have used it on my CPDs when I get them and I notice that they seem to diseased, which seems to happen every time I've bought CPDs. But I can see what you're saying as well. It's important not to overmedicate or use medicines when it's not necessary, because you're right that it can lead to other sorts of problems. I just found that my CPDs also had problems otherwise. Now, I just breed my own which is way more fun and I don't seem to run into those problems and I don't need to use any medication on them of course.