Geos w hith?
- Thread starter knobhill
- Start date
Take a look at the pics 3 of my brazilienis geos have got divits near their head. This showed up earlier this week. Water quality is good. Nitrate may be around 40ppm at most. I do weekly 30% water changes. There are 6 brasiliensis, 6 balzanii, and 8 thin bar silver dollars. I treated with melafix and prazipro yesterday. The one fish with two spots, had raised red bumps yesterday, now they are white divits. Any help would be appreciated.
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I figured south merica cichlid folks might chime in since they have species specific knowledge. I am thinking it is flukes and hoping a water change and prazipro will knock it out.
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there are mods in the disease forum with species specific knowledge & who advise accordingly.
you also need to post exact water parameters: ph, nitrate, nitrite, ammonia because many treatments work best (or barely at all) in certain water conditions.
I once had Tapajos "red head" that once develop something similar. I solve the problem by feeding them a variety of food other than just one kind of food. Trying giving it a mix diet and meaty foods.
Ive been feeding kensfish flake, small nls pellet, sometimes frozen bw. Will try some more cichlid pellets
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If you could please post water parameters include, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph. You said you are doing 30% weekly water changes. How often do you vacuum the substrate and rinse the filter media? These two things are just as important as water changes. You also didn’t mention the size of the tank so I don’t know the stocking density (bio-load) as it relates to water volume and filtration rate.
This is what I can say, nitrates over 30ppm long term will cause low level stress which in turn begins to compromise the immune system allow unwanted pathogens to gain a foot hold as the nitrates go higher increased stressors further compromise the immune system and hex is arguably one of the most opportunistic pathogens in these conditions.
My recommendation is more water changes, get the nitrate down below 20ppm consistently. The lower the better below ten being ideal but below 20 will do. A test kit will help you determine the amount and frequency of water changes to reach the desired levels. Always check the levels before doing your water change to get accurate readings. Vacuum the substrate rinse the filter media in a bucket of tank water, do a large 50%+ water change. Treat the tank with Metronidazole or API General Cure. Dose the tank as per instructions and in addition soak some pellets for about 15 mins in a ten gallon dosage using just enough water to dissolve the powder and pure it directly into the tank. Remove any carbon from the system if used and add 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water. Follow the treatment and dosage instructions on the package.
The key to prevention is maintenance keeping the water and system as clean as possible and you’ll avoid 99% of most issues. HTH.
This is what I can say, nitrates over 30ppm long term will cause low level stress which in turn begins to compromise the immune system allow unwanted pathogens to gain a foot hold as the nitrates go higher increased stressors further compromise the immune system and hex is arguably one of the most opportunistic pathogens in these conditions.
My recommendation is more water changes, get the nitrate down below 20ppm consistently. The lower the better below ten being ideal but below 20 will do. A test kit will help you determine the amount and frequency of water changes to reach the desired levels. Always check the levels before doing your water change to get accurate readings. Vacuum the substrate rinse the filter media in a bucket of tank water, do a large 50%+ water change. Treat the tank with Metronidazole or API General Cure. Dose the tank as per instructions and in addition soak some pellets for about 15 mins in a ten gallon dosage using just enough water to dissolve the powder and pure it directly into the tank. Remove any carbon from the system if used and add 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water. Follow the treatment and dosage instructions on the package.
The key to prevention is maintenance keeping the water and system as clean as possible and you’ll avoid 99% of most issues. HTH.
The tank is a 55g. The silver dollars are 4", braziliensis 3-4", balzani 2-3".
Parames are: pH 7.4, ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 40
This is after a 30% change and rinsing out the filter (FX-5).
The tank has slate tiles on the bottom so substrate accumulation is not the problem, I vacuum any detritus under the tiles each water change.
They are already looking better and I might be overreacting here. Never kept these type of cichlids before. They are flaring their gills at each other, chasing each other around the tank, and looking like they want to spawn. Two of them have layed eggs twice before. I am starting to think that these are wounds from fighting and not hith since none of the other species of fish in the tank are having any signs of this.
Parames are: pH 7.4, ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 40
This is after a 30% change and rinsing out the filter (FX-5).
The tank has slate tiles on the bottom so substrate accumulation is not the problem, I vacuum any detritus under the tiles each water change.
They are already looking better and I might be overreacting here. Never kept these type of cichlids before. They are flaring their gills at each other, chasing each other around the tank, and looking like they want to spawn. Two of them have layed eggs twice before. I am starting to think that these are wounds from fighting and not hith since none of the other species of fish in the tank are having any signs of this.
