Need Some Help, Just Want To Get Some Second Opinions

[Wills]

1. Water parameters. Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate - tap water is 40 I do my best to keep it as close to that but in all honesty dont trust the home test kits any more.

2. A full description of the fishes symptoms. - 2 of my Geophagus are quite gaspy and a little lethargic. One is not eating at all - or very little every few days and the other is much less greedy than usual - one has red gills the other is not too bad. My threadfin Acara has red gills but this has been like this since he was small to no ill effects though I suspect its something being laid dormant and then this issue started after a rescape.

3. How often you do water changes and how much. 40-50% each week - alternate filter change every 3-5 weeks (so each one gets cleaned every 6 - 10 weeks)

4. Any chemicals and treatments you add to the water. - Protozin as a precaution but stopped that 4 or 5 days ago

5. What tank mates are in the tank.
6. Tank size.

I will merge these two

tank is 135 gallon 512 liter ND aquatics tank with 2 fluval FX5s been set up for about a year and a half but the oldest filter has been going on my tanks for about 2 and a half 3 years.

Stock

1 Chocolate
1 Heros Severus (true severum)
3 Geophagus Winemilleri
1 Threadfin Acara
1 Thoricthys sp. Mixteco Gold - Firemouth type
1 male Nicaraguan (young)
6 Giant Tetras
5 Annostomus Ternetzi
4 Dwarf Hoplo
2 Flagtail Cats
2 Agenisous sp.
3 Whiptail Cats


7. Finally Have you recently added any new fish?

The male Nic was added about 3 weeks ago - which is the same time the first Geo started acting odd and stopped eating. I also did a rescape before I added him so kind of did a boo boo In the same weekend I also added plants and wood. Wood was from a local shop but fish and plants were from Wharf.



So my action plan - get some waterlife sterazin do a water change, start dosing and hope for the best.

Thanks Wills

 

[minnnt]

Hmmm, its a tough one mate. hard to even begin to work out what could be the reason behind it. did you visit that vet?

My normal action would be water changes, never really had to dose anything for illness so not the best person to ask mate.

Remember my dodgey wood that wiped out most of my stock.

 

[Mauigirl]

Protozin.. was it constant? ..
then you stopped?

If so you may have, just like many fish stores made weak/ dependent fish.. restart your regimen in full and wean as I see no other red flag..
precautionary medications unless fish are in a decisive bulk is a marked mistake.. unnecessary to say the least.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Bit of a long short Wills, but any chance you can grab a plastic tub to isolate the Nic and then see if things improve with the Geos?

I'm still beating myself up for not observing my plastic tub enough a month ago, I lost 7 of my 10 Microsynodontis sp. 1 over the space of a few days. I finally saw the Ilyodon fry were being aggressive with the catfish, despite the 8 goodeid parents being fine with the catfish, in 3 weeks of isolation after seeing a nip I've lost no Ilyodon and the final few Microsynodontis have been fine. I'm wondering if there is some secretive bullying going on in your tank?

 

[Wills]

I was initially thinking it was gravel stuck in the gill of the first one.

Now I am reasonably certain its between something to do with the wood (which is out the tank now) and possibly some kind of gill parasite which is why I think the Sterazin is my best option.

The new nic is pretty well behaved.

Tonight both geos ate well but spat a lot out like they couldnt swallow it? Any ideas anyone? Is Wilder still active here?

Wills

 

[Wills]

Managed to get some of the Sterazin today not enough for a full weeks dose though Did a water change before adding it and during the water change the geo that has been illest the longest has started bottom sitting Does not look good.

Just gutted supose best I can hope for is no other fish get ill.

Oh and in taking the wood out it seems to have set of teritory wars again so got 2 weeks of fighting to look forward to as well now.

Wills

 

[Wills]

Just lost the largest Geo that has been ill for quite some time - just annoyed I thought it was something stuck in the gill rather than a disease However at least the time scale is reasonably large so could mean the rest have a chance.

Wills

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Fingers crossed the Sterazin does the business.

 

[Wills]

Thanks goat

I emailed Waterlife and they agreed with my diagnosis - they said to watch out for a bacterial gill infection as well which was good of them and recomended the right meds for that if it is - top notch service!!

A general update on the tank

- just the one Geo that is ill now after the last one died But hoping I have enough time to get it cleared up. Just want him to start eating again.

- new male nic is acting odd, a little skitish but just seen my Choc pushing him around a little so that could explain it - he is eating well though. Nics are hard to tell as IMO they are naturaly gaspy if you know what I mean?

- rest of the fish are fine so far as I can tell - all nice and active, all wagging when I got in from work to be fed and all ate well including both Agenisous, all the whiptails and the hoplos and flags were at the front of the tank

Fingers crossed

Wills

 

[Wills]

An other update - not sure where I am now...

Lost a second Geophagus Lost him on Monday night? So only have one left now.

This morning a few fish look gaspy but it is water change day and there is meds in the tank, will continue to dose for a few weeks to make sure the tank is clear.


Right now not 100% what I want to do with the tank when its clear of the parasite. Feeling quite low around it all and quite in favor of selling up.

Andy

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sorry to read your news, Andy, I was wondering how things were going

Did the Sterazin seem to perk the fish up?

I'm now on the 7th day of adding Esha 2000 to my 5x2x2 "tank of death." The Pyjama Synos are looking much better (lost virtually all the whiter patches that were hiding most of their bold black/gold stripes); the Torpedo Barb's open wound behind his/her head is now white rather than red and might be getting smaller while generally the 5 of them all look healthier with a definite green upper body tint; the Clown Syno's dorsal fin is healing nicely too. Just gutted to have lost a barb, my final Panda Garra and my final Golden Wonder Killifish over the space of ~6 weeks down there, not to mention my bad call on trying to move 8 of my Ilyodon younsters into the Rio240 with their parents and the Lionead mob (who quickly caught 1 and pulled it apart, rest got moved back to the plastic tub sanctuary).

 

[Wills]

Wow, that sounds pretty bad as well

I have my fingers crossed that no other fish in my tank are infected but it could be possible, I need to go get some more sterazin tomorrow as the shops near me only have the smallest bottles for 180 liters lol so I need 2 bottles a week and only one shop had 2 bottles in (the others had none)

I sent an email to waterlife just asking for some help and they came back to me which is great service! They said if the gills go white and look like they are rotting its bacterial but Ive not seen any of that so sticking with the parasite and trusting Sterazin.

I think come a few weeks I am going to have change in the tank because loosing the Geophagus has just made the tank loose so much of its attraction but just want to get through some of this first and then work out what to do with it all...

Wills