Please Help Me Diagnose This Disease.

[Nosnibor]

Hello,

The bottle says 'Protozine must not be used in aquaria containing ...., shrimps or when related species are present.

I have two Bamboo shrimps, so stupid question. Do I have to take the shrimps out whilst the treatment is going on?

What a pain, no second tank

Thank you

Martin

 

[rabbut]

Hello,

The bottle says 'Protozine must not be used in aquaria containing ...., shrimps or when related species are present.

I have two Bamboo shrimps, so stupid question. Do I have to take the shrimps out whilst the treatment is going on?

What a pain, no second tank

Thank you

Martin

You would, yes. Protozine is baced on copper, which will poison the shrimp

HTH
rabbut

 

[Nosnibor]

Thank you very much.

I have taken the shrimp out and put in the Protozine (12 ml) weird it went all blue, I was scared I was killing the fish! If I have this right, it says to treat on day 1,2,3 & 6. I take it day 4 & 5 is a rest day.

I was thinking about putting in some Carbon when I do the big water change on the 7th day then giving it a good 12 hours before putting the shrimp back - does that sound about right?

Thanks.

It all started when one of my Dutch Rams was breathing heavily constantly, then he was always at the top but there seems to be enough oxygen in the tank. There is a bubble stone and we had just done a PWC. Then yesterday we noticed a couple of white spots on his tail then one on his fin. I'm assuming that whitespot has many symptoms right?

Thank you for all your help people

Martin
PS By the way, should I still carry on feeding them the same way/amount?

 

[WILDER]

http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/protozin.htm

 

[backtotropical]

Hi,

Protozin will kill shrimp and all other invertebrates. It is supposed to make the water blue, thats nothing to worry about.

Days 4 & 5 are rest days, do not dose medication on these days.

On the morning of day 8, i would usually do a reasonably large water change and start dosing meds again to be sure. If you do, treat day 8 as day 1. It can't hurt and gives extra reassurance that the disease is gone and less likely to re-occur.

When medication is finished, i would put the carbon in, do a big water change and leave it 24 hours before re-introducing the shrimp. Even very small amounts of copper can be bad for invertebrates.

It sounds like it could be whitespot, any idea what caused it? Whats your water stats?

It is important to establish the cause of disease so you can rectify the problem so it won't happen again. If you have any ammonia or nitrite present, i would cut feeding in half.

Also, if it is whitespot, turn up the temperature to about 28 - 29C. This speeds up the life cycle of the parasite and therefore it dies quicker.

Hope this helps.

Backtotropical

 

[Nosnibor]

Thank you very much for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Unfortunately the male Dutch Ram died during the night So sad as he had such a wonderful personality He will be missed terribly.

I feel really bad as I think I could have acted quicker and would have saved him, but I am so new to the disease side of things. The thing is, our female Sunset Gourami is starting to give me the same symptoms with the heavy breathing and not eating

I tried to take a photograph of the Dutch Ram when I removed him from the tank but you couldn't tell much as his fins were closed and he was obviously so colourless.

My water composision is:
No2 - 0mg
Ph (4,5-9,0) - 7.5
NH3/4 - 0mg
No3 - <20mg

How it started:
On Saturday we bought our second Bamboo Shrimp and a piece of bog wood with a plant on it, it is the kind of wood that has the suckers on the end so we could stick it on the glass near the outflow for the Shrimp to filter feed from.

On Sunday we did our PWC, I noticed in the evening a few hours later that the male Duth Ram was breathing hevily. I also observed this behaviour the following day and that's when I started getting a little concerned. Because I was working in London and didn't get home until very late on Monday I couldn't get to the lfs to get anything but watched the fish closely.

On the Tuesday morning before I left to go to work I noticed what looked like a couple of white spots on the tail and a couple on the fins. The fish had the erratic breathing still and was now spending most of the time at the top of the tank where usually he was in the middle/bottom. He had also lost alot of his beautiful and punchy colours. I went to the lfs yesterday afternoon, I was advised and bought 'Waterlife Protozin'.

Last night after reading the instructions on the Protozin bottle I removed the two Bamboo Shrimp and added the treatment. I noticed the Cardinals getting a little stressed out as they lost their colour and went very pale but look okay this morning.

Unfortunately we woke up this morning to the dead Ram I really want to make sure I catch it in time in the future. The thing is, our female Sunset Gourami is doing the erratic breathing now and I want to make sure that if she goes through the same as the Ram I want to treat it and catch it in time. I have no idea how they caught this, could it have been brought in by the Shrimp, the wood!!!

I have a few questions please:
Q1. Does it sound like anything else other than Whitespot that the Dutch Ram died of?
Q2. Should I still carry on with the full treatment even though the Ram has died and the others (apart from the female Gourami) look fine?
Q3. I read a thread once about a medication called cure all or something like that and the person was wanting a raving on about how great this stuff was, does anyone know what it was?
Q4. Is there any medication that you can recommend that I can keep in stock in case of things like this?
Q5. Is there any information that I have missed out to help diagnose this?

Thank you again for all your help out there.

Kind reagrds,

Martin & Nina

 

[-germ-]

Not got time to read/answer final post, just a small pointer;
If your fish is gasping/breathing heavily/seems to be struggling to breathe, don't turn up the temp, even if the fish does have whitespot it's probably not the wisest action to take

 

[backtotropical]

Germ is right. I should have said, create more aeration by creating surface agitation with a powerhead or airstone. If the fish stop gasping, then you could turn up the temp. Thanks Germ, it was late. Lol.

 

[Nosnibor]

But surely that's not what killed him.

All the other fish (apart from the female Gourami) are just fine. I already have a stone in there but the female Gourami is acting more and more like the one that died. Now she is at the top a lot of the time, I have turned the temperature down a little thanks


If anyone can answer the questions above that would be great.

Thanks

Martin

 

[korunks]

I am by no means an expert in the area of Fish Disease but the gasping sounds an awful lot like gill flukes, Wilder what do you think?

 

[Nosnibor]

I am by no means an expert in the area of Fish Disease but the gasping sounds an awful lot like gill flukes, Wilder what do you think?

I will look it up, thank you very much.

Martin

 

[rabbut]

I am by no means an expert in the area of Fish Disease but the gasping sounds an awful lot like gill flukes, Wilder what do you think?

Although gill flukes is not a disease that I have personal experience with, it cirtainly sounds consistant. If it is gill flukes, treat with waterlife sterazin, rather than protozin, as protozin will have minimal effect of gill flukes.

HTH
rabbut