Different strain of ich?

Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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So I'm having a problem and this is the 2nd time it's happened to me now. My goonch is definitely gonna be dead within an hour but it has what appears to be ich but doesn't look like the stereotypical ich. Everything looks completely normal except it looks like what we would call goosebumps all over the outside of the body. Not the usual white dots everywhere. But then on some spots underneath, ex under the whiskers and random spots on the belly, it looks like normal ich. This also appeared extremely fast; overnight.
So here's what I've observed. Last night, he was sitting in his usual spot acting completely normal. Even ate 4 pieces of cut up smelt and just hung out like a normal goonch. This morning, he's swimming all over the tank and he has all the bumps on him and he's breathing extremely hard. Now he can't swim, the skin is sloughing off and he can't even turn upright. He's lying on his side.
What is going on? This is the 2nd time this has happened and it only has happened to goonches.
Now for tank parameters: standard 40b, ac110, 2 koralia 750's and a large airstone. Ammonia and nitrite are 0 and nitrate is barely detectable <.5ppm. Temp is at 74F.
When I saw him this morning, I immediately did a 25% wc, added 8tbsp of salt and started raising the temp to the low 80's.
What is this, how does it attack them so fast and where did it come from? Both times, the goonches were the only fish in the tank and their sizes were 4" and 7". ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1408231565.824449.jpg


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Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Well he's dead now so I took a better pic outside to show the "goosebumps" I'm talking about ImageUploadedByMonsterAquariaNetwork1408231818.261062.jpg
As you can see, the skin isn't smooth like its supposed to be but extremely rough but none of the spots are white like typical ich


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kendragon

kendragon

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MFK Member
Mar 23, 2009
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That sucks.
 
M

MarineMike

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 31, 2014
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Sorry to hear of your loss. I've no idea what's happening to your poor fish. Were both Goonch losses in the same tank? I ask because bacteria and viruses can forum spores when conditions become less than ideal and remain in that state until conditions improve. Spores are really difficult to kill. The smelt you feed it, was it fresh or frozen? If it was fresh, say from a fish market maybe the disease came in on it. Your water parameters seem great so other than adding a high quality UV filter I doubt there was much more you could have done to prevent this.
 
Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Over there
No they were in separate tanks. The 1st 1, 7", was in a 150. The smelt was frozen that I fed. I just really want to know what this is and how to prevent it since it happens so fast, there is no time to treat it before it kills the fish. Also to try and keep the tank as clean as possible, until I can put them on drips, I do a 25% wc the day after feeding to help keep everything stable.


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A

Aquaticfan

Gambusia
MFK Member
Feb 27, 2013
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The goose bumps your noticing arent Ich of any form. Not sure why Salt was a used treatment. Salt especially with scaless fish like cat fish can be quite hard on them. The osmotic function workload of a fish increases with standard Sodium chloride salt. It can also cause cortisols in the fish to rise causing further issues. There is another secondary issue at hand, Its mosty likely a compund issues of a form of parasitic issues with bacterial. Unfortunatly with out the use of a microscope its sometimes impossible to identify the pest.

Was there any color under the bumps? Where they red or white? Do they resemble a pimple? Anything sticking out the bumps?
 
Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
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Over there
No color change and nothing under the bumps. The fish looked perfectly normal except for those and it was breathing extremely heavily. I used the salt since it's 1 of the 1st things suggested usually. What puzzles me is how fast it all happened from when the bumps and heavy breathing occurred to when it died. It was less than a day


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B

Blkpiranha

Polypterus
MFK Member
Jun 8, 2007
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Do you have a uv on the tank? If not I would invest in one as it would definitely help if there is anything in your water. Since goonch are so new to hobbyists and not many people keep them for long periods of time there isn't any real data yet on what diseases or parasites affect them. Here is a list of some diseases affecting fish. Maybe you can narrow it down to how your gooch looked in the tank to something on the list.

http://www.fishnet.org/sick-fish-chart.htm
 
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