Unknown swelling disease in carpintis cichlids! HELP!

Kaliedoscope

Fire Eel
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Jan 14, 2010
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I have been keeping and breeding cichlids for a very long time and I can't figure out what is going through my baby carpintis. Please help!

It started with a group of carpintis babies I am raising, they are about .5-1.5 inches.
At first (about a week ago), they were all in a big tank together, and a few turned up dead, one every couple of days. None of them were showing signs of stress, so naturally I assumed they were fighting, so I separated them by size into several different tanks. But after this they kept dying, and now I have a good idea of the symptoms

At first they look fine, except they start breathing a little heavily, and at this point some sit on the bottom.
within one or two days, they are dead, and the abdomen is swollen with fluid. The fluid is pinkish in color. I have not seen one alive with this swollen belly, it probably happens in the hours preceeding their death. Usually when they are found dead, the stomach has ruptured at the bottom.

I thought it might be a bacterial infection of the stomach lining, so in one group I tried a combination of kanamycin & nitrofurazone, as I have heard this is a good powerful combination against gram-negative bacteria, which can infect the stomach lining (am I right about this?)
This has not seemed to work, as they are still dying in these tanks, but slowly.

One tank (40 gallon), just a few babies are in, along with a parrot cichlid (it was already a hospital tank and I had no other place to put the parrot : ( ). I noticed that the parrot wasn't opening one of his gill plates. This combined with the heavy breathing of the babies made me think that possibly it was a gill fungus, so I tried tetra fungus guard in this tank nitrofurazone, furizolidone, potassium dichromate. The next day, the parrot was breathing normally, and he is still fine. I thought this may have been a success, but two days later, one of the babies died. There are only two other babies left in this tank, and I am out of fungus guard, so I have not dosed again. I do not know if the parrot's gill was related to this infection.

In another tank, where I put the largest babies (~1-1.5in), I tried a small amount of methylene blue, because it promotes conversion of hemoglobin, which could help with the breathing? (I am not 100% about this but it seems like it would help based on what I have read). I also added some salt to help with breathing, but not much, as I didn't have but a couple tablespoons. (this is a 30 gallon tank with 5 fish).
I also treated this tank with parasite guard, (praziquantel, diflubenzuron, metronidazole, acriflavine), and hoped for the best. But today I found one dead.

I also tried some parasite guard in a different 30 gallon with a few babies. I also found one dead today, earlier than the fish in the other tank.

Medications I have on hand are
Parasite guard (praziquantel, diflubenzuron, metronidazole, acriflavine)
Nitrofurazone
Kanamycin
Praziquantel
Metronidazole
Aquazole (metronidazole + potassium dichromate)
Ich meds (formalin + malachite green)
Dimethicone
Seachem Paraguard

So far the only thing I think might have helped is the potassium dichromate, but the only potassium dichromate I have on hand is mixed with metronidazole. I don't want to keep switching medications, but I have separated them as much as I can, and tried so many things, I don't know what else to do

PLEASE HELP! I cannot figure this out, these fish are extremely important to me!
 

Oddball

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Sounds like bacterial bloat to me. Metronidazole and heavy water changes are the plan. First, a big water change to reduce the bacterial population. Then, a full dose of metro. Another large water change in 48 hours followed by a full dose of metro. Keep repeating until you note a major reduction in edema. Feed as sparingly as possible during the course of treatment. Good luck.
 

Aquanero

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+1 you could also double dose the first Metro treatment.
 

Kaliedoscope

Fire Eel
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Thanks. I will try to increase the metro in those that already are being treated with metro in hopes that that helps. I'm already treating two tanks with parasite guard which contains metro, but I should be able to increase the metro because of the high therapeutic ratio.

I'll see if this works... still open to suggestions though if anyone thinks different!
 
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