Cory lathargic, need advice

[Fluvalflex101]

Ok, the guppy in question is now losing buoyancy, struggling to breathe and staying near the surface. It's back fin has completely eroded away in the past 7 hours. This does sound like a protazoan disease but which one and is the treatment the same as you mentioned?

 

[Colin_T]

All protozoan infections are treated the same way, with Malachite green or getting the temperature up to 30C for a couple of weeks. Malachite is quicker but more toxic so handle with care, don't overdose and wash your hands and arms with warm soapy water after handling the medication or putting your hands in the tank.

Bacterial infections can also chew up the fins quickly but formaldehyde will treat most of them. Methylene Blue is also good for bacterial and fungal infections but wipes out filter bacteria so should be used in a separate tank.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

I've increased the temp to 30°C and I do have anti-white spot treatment which contains formaldehyde and malachite green. If it wipes out filter bacteria though am I not best treating the fish in a seperate tank?

 

[Colin_T]

Methylene Blue wipes out filter bacteria and stains silicon (the glue holding the glass together) blue.

Formaldehyde kills bacteria but doesn't always wipe out filters like Methylene Blue does.

Malachite green does not affect bacteria, but is carcinogenic so should be handled with care. Formaldehyde is also carcinogenic.

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If you have the water temperature at 30C, you do not need to add malachite green or formaldehyde. And if you do add medications to the 30C water, you will reduce the oxygen in the water even more than the temperature does.
It is preferable to only use one method of treatment rather than both together.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

Ok well I'll keep the temp increased and keep an eye on it. The temp here in England is increasing to 30°C in general so will need to monitor. I'll keep on top of my water changes and do a full clean at the weekend.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

Ok so another guppy died, this time with no obvious signs of illness and the fins were all in tact.
I'm struggling to keep the temp to 30 degrees because of the weather. If i keep it at 28 it jumps to 31 in the day due to the heat at the moment. I'm literally down to 2 guppys, 2 mollys and a guppy fry from having a full tank 2 weeks ago. At this point even if I wanted to treat the tank I'm not sure what the best treatment would be because there's no obvious signs of ich.

 

[Colin_T]

A broad spectrum medication is the one of the things you can use if you don't know what the problem is. Broad spectrum medications generally contain malachite green, formaldehyde and methylene blue. It basically kills anything and everything including filter bacteria.

If you only have a couple of fish left you could just let the tank run and see what happens without medication. If they all die then drain the tank and refill it and start again.

Because there are only mollies and guppies left, you could try adding salt (sodium chloride). You can use any sort of non iodised salt but the cheapest is usually swimming pool salt, rock salt, or sea salt. You add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres of water and leave it in the tank for a couple of weeks. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose. Mollies and guppies are fine with salt and this level will kill most flukes and external parasites, as well as fungal and minor bacterial infections.

You can use salt with medications and with heat, but if you are unsure what the issue is then try adding salt without medication and see how it goes.

When using salt try to increase the aeration/ surface turbulence because salt water holds less oxygen than fresh water.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

I don't want to use methelyne blue because it stains the tank and starts the cycling process again. I could try salt but I have a cory and plec in there at the moment. I could always put them in my mates tank till the tank is treated, but there's every chance the protazoa in the tank can only be killed by the methelyne blue, that's what the dilemma is.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

I've been looking at Interpet Anti-Internal Bacteria. Since I'm unable to identify any external protazoan issues I'm wondering if this might do the trick.

 

[Colin_T]

If you have a Corydoras and a pleco in the tank, do not use the salt treatment I suggested, because it is too much salt for them. You can use 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres of water and Corydoras and plecos will be fine with that. But do not use more than that.

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I am not familiar with 2 of the ingredients in the Interpet Anti-Internal Bacterial treatment, and there's not much info online about how well it works but it seems to be more for treating bacterial infections, and I don't think your fish have a bacterial infection.

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Malachite Green kills protozoa, whereas Methylene Blue kills bacteria and fungus. You could try the ich treatment you have and see if it helps, that doesn't contain Methylene Blue. However, the high water temperature should have killed any protozoa in the water by now.

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Don't put your fish in your flat mate's tank because if they have a disease they will transfer it into the other tank.

If you move all the fish out of the tank then any protozoa in the tank will die after 3 or 4 days without a host fish. So if you removed all the fish and left the tank without fish for a week, it would be free of any protozoans. However, you would still have to treat the fish before putting them back in the tank because they would still be infected, assuming it is a protozoan infection.

You could set up a separate tank/ storage container with water from your flatmates tank in and see how the fish go in that.

 

[Fluvalflex101]

Ok I've done some research and seachum paraguard seems to be a broad spectrum treatment which is not as toxic to the tank. I've ordered some. I came home to no deaths but I'm still gonna treat the tank, this has stressed me out to no end.