Hi all.
I wanted to circle back around and report on this. It's been almost a year since I last posted/saw this issue, and I'm happy to report I have solved this and learned a few things.
First off, thank you so much to all who chimed in.
TLR: It was a long, stressful battle, but I'm pretty sure I was dealing with flukes.
Solution was a triple round of API general cure. (I didn't mess around.)
History catch up:
Over the last year, I observed the scratching continue off and on.
I continued pouring hours into internet research throughout.
In July of last year my wife and I went on vacation for a week, and I returned and realized I had not drawn the drapes and the sun had hit the tank every day raising the temps dangerously high.
On top of that, my automatic feeder had failed.
I lost several of my glowlight tetras at this time.
This obviously caused some pretty severe stress in the tank and that turned the on and off scratching to a constant scratching.
Soon after, more symptoms were added:
- near constant head shaking
- clamped fins
As these two new symptoms progressed, I began treating for whatever seemed most logical.
Long story short, I knew I was losing the battle against an unknown enemy and racing against time, so from August through November I treated for just about every parasite I could think of, without change, until I finally realized the new symptom list matched some reports of flukes.
I hit them with three courses of API general cure (Praziquantel/Metronidazol), and all symptoms have since ceased. We are currently two months symptom free and everyone is looking better than ever.
During that time I have also built a nitrate reactor with some success to help out with water changes. I went from two 50% water changes a week, down to once a week keeping Nitrates under 10 ppm.
I need to rebuild it as it's a little small, but I learned a lot with it.
Speaking of nitrates, don't over feed your fish. Yes, you probably overfeed your fish.
It's a habit I think we all fall into from time to time. (I cleaned up my fish feeding habits/routine)
I stopped using Seachem Equilibrium as the powder form of the product did agitate the fish a bit, and instead began using a liquid GH supplement instead.
Because of this, the ph is now a lot lower then I would like, but they seem to have adjusted so I've left it alone. (I stopped using PH regulators during my last post)
I'm stilling looking around for the cichlid lake salts that were suggested. I have yet to try them, but would like to.
Hopefully this helps someone else who's searching around frantically trying to figure out why their fish are mysteriously scratching with no visible signs of Ich or Oodinium. (Or anything else for that matter).
The progression of head shaking and clamped fins are what sealed the deal on treating for flukes.
Thanks again.