One more try - Another Amaira

[peter predtank]

i hope things work out for you nzafi , that would be a shame if you lose another one . i havnt read every post in this thread , and your other one about your vz variant , but have read some of both . do you figure its just coincidence ? .
im sure you already are well aware of this and you guys must have hashed it all out in your other thread but just some quick googling tells me that columnaris is a bacterium and hole in the head is a parasite ? i really do hope it all works out and this guy heals up for you .

 

[moe214]

i hope things work out for you nzafi , that would be a shame if you lose another one . i havnt read every post in this thread , and your other one about your vz variant , but have read some of both . do you figure its just coincidence ? .
im sure you already are well aware of this and you guys must have hashed it all out in your other thread but just some quick googling tells me that columnaris is a bacterium and hole in the head is a parasite ? i really do hope it all works out and this guy heals up for you .

I believe the thought is it may be because of the 180 at this point and he may need a new tank altogether. I forgot the reason. RD helped. I know when he puts the wolf in the 40 it always gets better.

 

[nzafi]

Columnaris is a bacteria and no idea how he caught it. It could have been from the 3 feeders in his tank or silversides. It is actually becoming very common due to the overuse of antibiotics in the fish farming trade. I treated it and the spread stopped, but impossible to tell if it is gone or recessed. I also bleached my entire 180g tank and all equipment in hopes to get rid of it.

The hole in the head I believed was caused by leaking voltage in my tank. I tested it with a voltage meter and it was off the charts. I have since tossed a bunch of equipment and added a ground. The HITH went away.

The difficult part is that with all the scarring it is hard to tell if something is new or just an old scar. In my old age, it is hard to remember. I have decided I want to stop feeding silversides, and I will starve him for 2-3 weeks in an attempt to get him on NLS Thera A 6mm pellets which are suppose to be the easiest NLS. I will also try the various hikari I have again.

Water parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, but nitrate looked to be about 25ppm. I need to clean out the filter sponges, add some of that septic bacteria, and potentially increase my drip. My drip right now results in about 15% daily water change I believe.

 

[nzafi]

moe214 correct. He got better in the 40g. In all honesty if he does get sick again I cannot afford to treat and get him a new large tank. I just don't have the budget because of the new house expenses and 2nd baby expenses. We will see, cause I think I am being paranoid. Randomly I look at him and scare myself thinking things are coming back and then get over it.

 

[peter predtank]

Sounds like you have a awesome set up with the drip and everything . its easy to get paranoid when worring about our babies i do it too good idea with taking pics to comepare in the coming weeks fingures crossed for you that its all good

 

[moe214]

moe214 correct. He got better in the 40g. In all honesty if he does get sick again I cannot afford to treat and get him a new large tank. I just don't have the budget because of the new house expenses and 2nd baby expenses. We will see, cause I think I am being paranoid. Randomly I look at him and scare myself thinking things are coming back and then get over it.

Honestly if push comes to shove the 40b would be fine for awhile he just wouldn't necessarily be happy or active, but the footnprint is fine he won't be touching any two sides at once. Might slow his growth for the time being as well due to him not being the happiest.

 

[nzafi]

So I do think something is going on. When I looked at him yesterday it looks like he is developing pits and they are getting bigger which indicates HLLE/HITH. I wont know until time passes and if the holes get bigger. I will say that the grounding probe that I had in my tank was setup incorrectly and I did not notice it. I have fixed that and am hoping it was just due to leaking voltage. I replaced my heaters the last time around and got new thermostat, plus tossed my powerhead. No idea what could be leaking but would not be surprised if it is something. I need to get voltage meter again.

If this is recurring it is truly frustrating. Feelings like I am getting the signal to leave the hobby. For 15 years I never had any equipment or disease issues and the last 2 years have been brutal between fish getting sick, equipment failing,etc.

 

[moe214]

So I do think something is going on. When I looked at him yesterday it looks like he is developing pits and they are getting bigger which indicates HLLE/HITH. I wont know until time passes and if the holes get bigger. I will say that the grounding probe that I had in my tank was setup incorrectly and I did not notice it. I have fixed that and am hoping it was just due to leaking voltage. I replaced my heaters the last time around and got new thermostat, plus tossed my powerhead. No idea what could be leaking but would not be surprised if it is something. I need to get voltage meter again.

If this is recurring it is truly frustrating. Feelings like I am getting the signal to leave the hobby. For 15 years I never had any equipment or disease issues and the last 2 years have been brutal between fish getting sick, equipment failing,etc.

Sometimes we have issues with fish for whatever reason. It took me forever to get an ery that I could keep for a lon period of time, they kept dying for whatever reason, I still don't know because I had other fish in the same tank just fine all were around the same size and I watched them the ery would start jumping not long after. I thought it was due to a faulty heater took it out but to late for the ery, the ery still ended up passing from trying to jump out his head turned greyish. But before I did that I had moved him to another tank where he did fine it was a 20L not wide enough long term. So I when I tried him with everyone else same thing happened and he ended up dying. It was the same thing every time. Then I got my sp Peru raised him in a different tank where he did fine, once he was bigger I introduced him to my 120 and he did fine. Granted they're a lot less expensive than aimara, moral of the story is to not give up. This experience had me think the same thing with jaguar cats. I got my first one and over night my tiger barbs ate it alive. I didn't wanna get another one thinking it was gonna be another species not meant for me but I did and zero issues besides the fact she got stuck in a piece of dw.

But in the end you know what's best for you. Just try to take a realistic perspective over pessimistic or optimistic imo.

 

[nzafi]

So the holes don't see to be getting worse but I could swear they weren't there before. Been two weeks since this guy ate. Trying to get him to take either NLS Hex or NLS Thera A.

He's definitely hungry. Came up to my fingers while doing maintenance and spending time hovering at the top.

 

[moe214]

That's great that he does that, enjoyable