Unknown Symptom In Fish Sickness.

[thomas]

I've been treating my fish after an outbreak of some sort of bacterial deseise, treatment with melafix and triple sulfa has worked on all the fish so far, however there is one fish (cichlid) that is still sick from it.

Aswell as the symptoms associated with the previous fish (swollen belly, swim bladder problem), just within the last few hours he's developed an entirely new symptom I've never seen on any fish ever before.

I really have no idea what I'm looking at, it doesn't match anything I've ever read. I've heard of swollen eye's as a symptom, but this is completly opposite, it's effecting both eyes and they seem to be actually going inwards.

What do you think I should do? I can move him back to the original tank, or do water changes to remove some of the medication.

Just... what the heck is it....

Photo's attached:

Picture 1
Picture 2

 

[tttnjfttt]

I've never heard of this before. Perhaps the fish's body is just swelling so the eyes are looking like hey are sunken in?

 

[The-Wolf]

The only thing I can think of that causes suken eys is Blood Flagellates
this is a parsite that destroyes the red blood cells.
I'm sorry to say that it is untreatable and euthinasia is the best course of action if it is this disease.

later symptoms of this disease are emaciation, listlestness and pale gills.

 

[thomas]

I should probably add that there have been NO new fish, other fish tank water, or new fish tank contents (plants, rocks, etc) with the exception of water changes in the 2 years I have been looking after these fish... so complications that require the introduction of something new outside of water changes are virtually impossible.

Also, wolf, I have found since the start of this thread some other things that can cause this sunken eye condition (Now that I know what to call it, it's helped my search, thank you). And I have personally seen fish fully recover from conditions said to be impossible to cure in the past. So euthinasia is not an option I will take just yet.


Any further advice from anyone will be appreciated.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I just replied to your other thread having not known you had this thread going as well- this is what i posted;

"Well you need to cycle your hospital tank somehow, it will be very difficult to successfully treat fish in a hospital tank that is not cycled, stress can lower the efficiency of a fish's imune system and ammonia and nitrites are very stressful for fish, on top of underfeeding and the stress of meds themselves, will make it very difficult for the fish to recover.
What med/s have you been treating your fish with and how many gallons is the hospital tank?
A hollow belly/wasting away should look like this;

http/www.fishpalace.org/unknownwasting_connieacmepet.jpg

"

Never heard of triple sulfa, what exactly does it treat?

 

[The-Wolf]

I'm sure there are other diseases that cause sunken eyes, but as I said the only one that came to mind (just woken up five mins before posting) was Blood Flagellates.
I really do hope your fish dosn't have this terrible affliction.

I'm glad my ost help in some small way to further your research. good luck
and keep us posted.

Tokis
from what I've read about trisulphur it cures the same things as melafix does.

 

[thomas]

I just replied to your other thread having not known you had this thread going as well- this is what i posted;

"Well you need to cycle your hospital tank somehow, it will be very difficult to successfully treat fish in a hospital tank that is not cycled, stress can lower the efficiency of a fish's imune system and ammonia and nitrites are very stressful for fish, on top of underfeeding and the stress of meds themselves, will make it very difficult for the fish to recover.
What med/s have you been treating your fish with and how many gallons is the hospital tank?
A hollow belly/wasting away should look like this;

http/www.fishpalace.org/unknownwasting_connieacmepet.jpg

"

Never heard of triple sulfa, what exactly does it treat?

Yes, as I have now replied in that thread, I think I should clarify a bit more on the situation.

I have 2 current threads on this forum, one in the emergency section (this one), and one not. This one is for the cichlid you see in the picture above, with a severe illness. The other one is for a currently much minor symptom involving what otherwise seems to be a health fish (although has only recently recovered from an illness itself). The fish in this thread is in the uncycled emergency tank, of which ammonia's and niterites are being controlled as best I can through other means. It's not a great solution, but it's the best I can think of. The fish in the other thread is in the cycled main tank.

To simplify, there are 2 fish that appear to be sick, and another 2 that do not, 1 of the fish is in the emergency tank and is pictured above, the other is in the main tank with the 2 fish that do not appear to be sick and the subject of a different thread in the non-emergency section, as the symptom is currently very minor, and may be nothing at all, and not an emergency yet.

What the fish this thread is about is showing is symptoms I have not seen on any of the other sick fish.

Prior to this problem, 2 of the 4 fish had shown symptoms of a bacterial desiese, which I treated with triple sulfa, and appeared to make a full recovery. Within the last 2 days another one has become sick, showing symptoms I have not seen with either of the previous fish (which showed almost identical symptoms and both were treated successfully in the same way), and one of the fish that appeared to have recovered is showing an unusual skin problem, with no other symptoms.

My bottle of triple sulfa says the following: "Triple-Sulfa Broad spectrum medication for fresh and salt water: Is and aid in the control of the following diseases: White Spot, Mouth and Body Fungus(Columnaris Disease) Fin and tail rot, and other external bacterial diseases"

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Do the fish appear to get spinal curvature or their flesh warping at all as their illness progresses at all?

 

[thomas]

Do the fish appear to get spinal curvature or their flesh warping at all as their illness progresses at all?

Possibly, I need a better idea of what you're referring too... if so what would that mean?

 

[tttnjfttt]

Here is a pix of the "curved spine" taken from http/www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#TB

 

[thomas]

Yes, that has happened this and a different fish before... I have a hard time believing it was fish TB though... It says that happens only in advanced cases, and the other fish that showed curved spine managed to recover.


What are the odds of recovery from advanced TB if that's what it was?

 

[thomas]

Alright... It's a new day with new developments.

The fish is still alive, and will eat infact... but only if food makes its way right near his mouth.

His fins are being eaten away (this has happened with the other 2 fish that were sick, but they recovered from it), however something new is the way in which they are being eaten away.

In the past there has been very slightly cotteny stuff right near the fin as it was eaten away. The medication I was using to treat them (triple sulfa and melefix) is also suppost to be effective against fin rot. After they both recovered, their fins fully grew back. THIS time they are being eaten away differently, their are white almost worm like (though they are round/oval in some areas) things right at the edge of the fins, and the fins are looking red.

I am unsure what this means, but it is different to fin deterioration i've seen in the past.

I was unable to get a good photo of what this is being on a moving fin in a dark area of the tank.

They are blued, but just before the redness right at the end of the fin their is a solid, not transparend, paste/worm like substance just before it.

This may be finrot... but I've seen finrot before and it's never looked like this.

Picture 2
Picture 4

 

[WILDER]

Curved spine and sunken in eyes can be a sign of fish tb, sorry, can you issolate the sick fish.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Fish have been known to make tempory recoverys from fish tb only to then fall into a worser state of health, it does sound like fish tb to me though, its largely untreatable and although there is supposed to be a cure of some sort, i havn't heard much on the recovery rate of fish.
Fish tb eats away at the flesh of the fish and destroys the imune system and it can take many months to kill fish, its not uncommon for fish infected with fish tb to also get fungal infections as well.

 

[thomas]

Curved spine and sunken in eyes can be a sign of fish tb, sorry, can you issolate the sick fish.

The sick fish is already isolated, and was isolated before most of these symptoms showed up.