Curviceps Acting Listless

[FoundMoney]

I have a young curviceps that I purchased recently, along with two others. When I purchased them, this one seemed to be the most dominant of the three. However, over the past day he has become darker, listless, seems to have labored breathing, and is not feeding well. He seems interested at feeding time, but "just picks".

I have removed him from my main tank and put him in a 5 gallon hospital tank. I don't have any meds on hand right now and I'm not sure what to treat him with. I have read that curviceps can be susceptible to internal parasites. I have added some salt to the water in hopes that might help. Can anyone help with the diagnosis and suggest a course of treatment? Thanks!

 

[tttnjfttt]

What are your water stats, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH, KH, and temp?

The symptoms you listed are unfortunately general symptoms that show he is stressed or something is wrong. If you look at his gills, are they red and inflamed? Has he been scratching on objects in the tank? Do his gills look dark? Are the edges of the gills jagged? Internal parasites usually show up by the fish wasting away, or red strings hanging out the anus, so check for those too.

Since you noticed the heavy breathing, i would increase airation by adding an airstone.

 

[FoundMoney]

Water stats are all good, 0,0,5 for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. pH is 6.8. Temp is 79F. I don't have measurements for KH or GH. Besides the symptoms I mentioned he does not show any other signs. Despite the fact that the fish does not seem to be eating, he did have a little poop today and it looked normal.

 

[tttnjfttt]

How are his gills looking? I know i listed several things to check for that are less obvious, and you dind't respond to any of them

 

[WILDER]

Going darker in colour can indicate a bacterial infection, has the fish tummy swelled up.
Sorry if he's stopped eating and laboured breathing he's dosn't sound like he's going to make it, can you issolate the fish.

 

[steelhealr]

So far, you are taking the right steps. Isolation/quarantine, adding salt, checking params. If the fish is showing no other signs of disease and is 'failing to thrive', it is always a tough decision to decide whether to embark on an 'empiric' treatment.

I found some information on curviceps disease, I cannot conclusively say what that is what your fish has, but, here is the link:

http/lists.thekrib.com/apisto/9902/msg00009.html

IMO, if you do nothing the fish may die, so, I would institute therapy. SH

 

[FoundMoney]

Going darker in colour can indicate a bacterial infection, has the fish tummy swelled up.
Sorry if he's stopped eating and laboured breathing he's dosn't sound like he's going to make it, can you issolate the fish.

Sorry, I didn't respond to any of those because the gills look fine apart from labored breathing. The fish was as I described in my first post.

 

[FoundMoney]

The fish has now started swimming sort of erratically. It seems to always have its head pointing upward and has some trouble controlling its swimming. Unfortunately, I was so busy today I was not able to get any meds at the lfs. I'm going tomorrow, although I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to buy and I hope it's not too late.

 

[WILDER]

Sadly i think it's far to late for meds anyway, as he dosn't sound strong enough for them, sorry, can he maintain his balance as it sounding bacterial at this moment in time.

 

[FoundMoney]

Sadly i think it's far to late for meds anyway, as he dosn't sound strong enough for them, sorry, can he maintain his balance as it sounding bacterial at this moment in time.

Good news, bad news. The fish seems much better and on the mend. I treated it with parasite medication first and then with Maracyn II. The fish is vigorous and eating. However, the bad news is I think it has gone blind. I say this because when I put food in the tank it starts to search for it and eats food off the bottom, but does not seem to go after food that floats right in front of its face.

If the fish is blind, do you think I can put it back in the main tank? It can't be all that comfortabe all alone in a 5 gallon tank. On the other hand if it is blind will it be able to compete in the main tank?

 

[WILDER]

Is there to much aeration that it can't get the food of the top of the tank, as it blows him every where.

 

[FoundMoney]

Is there to much aeration that it can't get the food of the top of the tank, as it blows him every where.

No, I think the fish just goes to the bottom because it knows if it pokes around enough down there it will find food.

 

[steelhealr]

I would return him..what would happen in the real world? If it were blindness, and you don't know for sure, it might be temporary. SH

 

[FoundMoney]

I would return him..what would happen in the real world? If it were blindness, and you don't know for sure, it might be temporary. SH

All right, I'll put it back in the main tank tonight. I'll report back what happens.

 

[FoundMoney]

I was going to put the fish back in the main tank last night. I floated a plastic container in the main tank and was going to acclimate the fish to the water in the big tank. However, as I did so I noticed that the fish had some white spots on it, which I am assuming is ick. I put it back in the hospital tank and started treating it with Quick Cure.

The good news here is that if I didn't try to put the fish back into the main tank it would have probably been several more days since I noticed the ick. Hopefully, treating this will result in a healthy (and perhaps sighted) fish.