S.african Lungfish Trouble

[ClaireD]

I have had a south african Lungfish for roughly 6 years (3 foot 6).
He's always been generally healthy, lively and eaten well.

He is kept at 25 degrees with a fluval 3 filtration (provided mostly for my own sanity)
His water is changed weekly. There have been no additions or changes in his lifestyle recently, and there has been no cross contamination between his tank and other tanks.

My problem started a couple of days ago when i noticed his eye was cloudy. I inspected and decided he has hurt himself while digging around but today I woke up to find what I have to discrible as a slimey fungal infection covering his eye are part of his face. Also part of his face is discoloured from a normal grey/purple to a bleached yellow.
normal eye vs swollen/discoloured eye

I am worried about using something like protozin because, (although i've never read it anywhere and really have nothing to back it up with) I always believed him to have very sensitive skin. Also I'm never really sure whether or not to class him as an amphibian rather than a fish....It's been suggested to me that adding a little salt to the water to change the ph a little would be enough to kill the fungus.

I'll be really greatful of any suggestions you can make. This guy means a lot to me!

and if anyone on here keeps a lungfish themself, i'd love to talk to you just about general care....and i've yet to meet someone else who keeps one.

 

[SBL]

1.) He is a fish.

2.) Ask the local fish store and look for disease that has the symtoms.

3.) I hope he lives and pray.

 

[ClaireD]

well...yeh...the clue is in the name.

Sadly I have no trust in my local 'fish stores'. Generally useless people past, present and future.
They will sell me a bottle of mixozin, a small plastic castle and a half-dead goldfish and call the transaction a success.

I've been inclined to treat the lungfish like a Dojo in that he doesn't have scales and common medicines may be harmful.

 

[scooterchick]

I've been inclined to treat the lungfish like a Dojo in that he doesn't have scales and common medicines may be harmful.

Agreed. Don't add salt, he won't tolerate it. Looks bacterial to me, lots of water and an anti bacterial med.

 

[CFC]

Water changes are the best thing for cases like this, i'd up the temperature to 28c and start with a 25% change and then do 10% changes every day for 7 days after that and see if there is any improvement, adding some melafix or home made tea tree alternative wouldn't hurt either. I wouldn't use stronger medications unless there is no improvement in the eye after 4 days of the raised temperature and doing water changes.

It is most likely that he has banged his eye on something in the tank and got a mild infection, you don't say what size tank it is in but prehaps it could be an indication that it is time for a bigger tank, i would certainly advise some larger filtration as they are messy fish and at 3'6" yours will be producing more waste than a Fluval 3 can cope well with.
I've not kept African lung fish before but i do have a south American lung fish and had a 2 foot one before that which sadly got out of its tank and died.

 

[ClaireD]

aww, im sorry about your lungfish. They're such bizarre little creatures.

Mines actually in a juwel 450 with the included filtration along with the fluval.

I haven't had a fishy illness problem in a really long time.
Melafix is a good idea, what's your opinion on methylene blue? That always seemed to me to be a mild general

 

[CFC]

Methylene blue is a copper based medication which can be bad for many fish species (copper is a poison to all aquatic life but some are more sensative to it than others) personally i only reach for a medicine bottle after clean water and heat has failed.

The juwel is probably a little too small for your lungfish to be honest, i would be pretty certain that the infected area is where the fish has been rubbing the side of its face against the glass for a long time as it turns around where the tank is too narrow for a 40 inch long fish, this sort of damage and infection is common in long skinny fish like eels and arowana's where they don't appear to take up much room because they dont have much bulk but are longer than the tank is wide. Really i'd be looking at upgrading to a custom built tank that is 8 feet long and 40 inches wide with a couple of large canister filters or a sump on it.

Windsor Aquatics (see the site sponsors at the bottom of the forum front page) should be able to give you a good price on a custom built tank which they will build on site in your home.

 

[mark7616]

I think your problem my lye in your tank and filtration. You have a 3ft6 fish in a 5 ft tank with a filter that is only capable of filtering a lightly stocked 130ltr tank. Even if you were running it alongside the original juwel internal you would still be way under filtered for that fish. I believe as CFC pointed out that it has injured its eye in the tank on something and has got a slight infection. I also believe that this will continue to happen until you get it a much larger home with adequate filtration.