Please Help., Fish Dying

[wullie-d]

Hi everyone, First I think I should introduce myself. My name is will, and im from Scotland and ive been keeping and breeding fish for a number of years now...................however......About 8 weeks ago one of my tanks (4ft x 2ft x 2ft) which houses a variety of small dwarf cichlids started to incurr some deaths. The pattern would go that the fish would be absolutely fine then would go off food, would show no signs whatsoever externally, would retire into a corner and within 4 to 5 days would be dead. only one or two fish seem to get "infected" at a time. I have also noticed a few fish flicking.
Water parameters are perfect and upon noticing signs I installed a powerful u.v filter and treated (over the space of 8 weeks) with a variety of medications. including active ingrediants such as silver proteinate, formaldehyde,melafix. I personally believe it is some sort of internal bacterium and got an anti-biotic from the vet called metrodinazole (as i noticed one of the fish with white stringy poop)..............long story guys I know..........but none of these have worked at all??? Ive recently tried salt now and am awaiting to see the result.
Any help, anything at all, I would be really gratefull.
P.S. My maintenace schedule is 20% water change every week with a third of my tank gravel vac'd. I run two Eheim wet and dry external filters and a 24 watt u.v filter at the moment. I feed a variety of flake, frozen and live food.

 

[Tolak]

What was the dosage rate with the metro? It's an antiprotizoal med, and works better at higher temperatures.

 

[wullie-d]

What was the dosage rate with the metro? It's an antiprotizoal med, and works better at higher temperatures.

I halved my tank capacity to 50 gallons (uk) and put in 5 intravenous infusion metronidazole 100ml bags. strength at 500mg/100ml . Temp raised to 30 degrees

 

[WILDER]

Internal parasites can cause bacterial infections on top.

 

[Tolak]

Internal parasites can cause bacterial infections on top.

Yes they can, they weaken the fish's immune system. The dosage rate you are using with the metro sound right, you may want to look into a med that treats gram positive as well as gram negative bacteria. I've had good results using epsom salt along with meto or other antibiotics. I'll give you my usual cut & paste metro medication regime that I use with angels, you may be able to catch something in therethat may help;

This is what I do for angels, you may want to look into the maximum temp your fish can handle. Metro was originally designed for humans, the closer you can get the tank to 98.6F the better.

Put the angel in a quar tank, I usually use a 10 gallon. Increase the temp over a day or so to 90-94F. Treat daily with 40 mg/gallon metronidazole, with 50% water changes daily. If the fish isn't eating, don't feed for the first 3 days. After 3 days, get some frozen brine shrimp. Take a portion about the size of a few match heads, and sprinkle on some metro. You have to eyeball this one, make the shrimp look kind of like a tiny powdered donut. Once it thaws, mix it in & feed. Sometimes they still don't eat for a few days, but once they start to mouth the food & spit it out, the meds seem to get in their system real good. Continue medicating the water & food for 7-10 days.

Metronidazole is sold as flagyl, het-a-mit, and a few other names I can't recall offhand, used to treat hexamita & hole in the head. They usually suggest 20mg/gallon, this often isn't enough. Metro deteriorates in 8 hours, so you could do twice daily water changes. I've done this on the weekends when I have time.

I've also added epsom salt while using metro, this helps with any constipation issues, cleans out the digestive tract. I start with 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water, increasing by 1 teaspoon daily for 2 more days to bring it up to 3 teaspoons per 10 gallon. You will have to adjust how much you use when doing water changes. You may want to give this a try.


BTW, it sounds as if you have a good vet that you are working with. Many don't seem to care much about fish, there should be better vetrinary care available for fish.

 

[wullie-d]

Tolak, did you ever see your fish flicking when you were treating with metro?

 

[WILDER]

Some meds can make fish flick, it means there sensitive to it, are they flicking alot.

 

[wullie-d]

yes a hell of a lot

 

[WILDER]

How long has the med been in it might take them a while to adjust to it, as long as there not laboured breathing, fin clamping or gone pale.
Have you increased aeration with the high temp and med.

 

[Tolak]

After thinking about this while I was at work today, a couple of things came to mind. At cooler temperatures, below around 75F, metro precipitates out of a solution. If you are using a pre-mixed solution, this may be part of the problem. Also, metro starts to deteriorate rather quickly, after half a day it is done doing it's thing.

Try getting powdered metronidazole, see if that makes a difference.