911 Jack dempseys, maybe sick, not eating

[love-my-fish]

hello everyone,,,, Hope you can help out.... For some reason or other my jack Dempsey's have stopped eating.. almost 4 days now,, especially the little female. Even the large male (9.5 inches) is not even eating krill or silversides nor pellets????
Noticed that they have been scratching up against the sides of rocks and the pots in the tank, mostly the female and on her face. THE Female is also doing a ton of twitching, Not really territorial twitching......
My Aquaclear 50 HOB filter gave out which contains charcoal about 3 days ago, so i was thinking it was lack of oxygen due to not much surface agitation. So i went and bought the Hydor Koralia 1 and put it in the tank, along with a foot long air stone on full... been running like this for 36 hours.. no real change..(except that they are not breathing hard).
NO visible signs indicating ICH...

I have not tested the water parameters as i have stated in another post, i have not been doing that being a newbie..

will be doing that tonight......
I just slapped myself for that one.
Any suggestions? Sorry for the long post but I'm worried about losing these fish here.....

Background: 75 gallon tank, HOB aquaclear 50 (down at moment) Rena xp3 and 2215 running on tank. Water changes every saturday 25%
cheers!!!!
sheldon

 

[TangoWRX]

When a fish stops eating and also flicks then it is a sign of internal paracites.

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

I would think possibly even gill flukes considering the twitching.

 

[love-my-fish]

When a fish stops eating and also flicks then it is a sign of internal paracites.

well it's been over 10 days now... the little one is eating a bit off the bottom. I had a huge problem with nitrates... cleaned the filters and did a 50% water change twice... still over 100ppm.... I cleaned all the filters last night in tank water and i'm going to test the nitrates again tonight. Also added some hornwort to the tank to see if that helps... Using Prime when i do water changes......
SOOO what do you recommend for the internal parasites then? just wondering what the best thing would be...
Thanks for your response tango...
cheers!!!!
sheldon

 

[love-my-fish]

I would think possibly even gill flukes considering the twitching.

Thanks for responding cichlaholics..... Could you describe what you mean a bit more for me? Any solutions?
I noticed that the male jackdemsey it taking a crap basically but it's like a long white knobby tube like a worm,, not the regular color of his crap to be blunt... I'm assuming it's because he's not eating....
tks
sheldon

 

[Cichlaholics Anonymous]

Thanks for responding cichlaholics..... Could you describe what you mean a bit more for me? Any solutions?
I noticed that the male jackdemsey it taking a crap basically but it's like a long white knobby tube like a worm,, not the regular color of his crap to be blunt... I'm assuming it's because he's not eating....
tks
sheldon

if the issues with the feces are like you describe, then I wouldn't consider gill flukes and really start trying to treat for internal parasites.

 

[SpeshulEd]

I had a huge problem with nitrates... cleaned the filters and did a 50% water change twice... still over 100ppm.... I cleaned all the filters last night in tank water and i'm going to test the nitrates again tonight.

If, after water changes you were still over 100ppm, cleaning filters won't get rid of them. Keep doing large water changes. I'd seriously do 75% or bigger until your nitrates are at or below 40ppm.

Fish can twitch and itch just from high nitrates. It irritates them so they itch/scratch/rub the same as we do when we have an irritation.

If you're now seeing white stringy poo, its very probable there might be an infection. However, before dumping a bunch of meds in the tank, I think its best to get your water parameters back in check.

 

[Lupin]

Sheldon, if a fish is not eating at all along with stringy poop, then you need anthelmintics such as antiparasite foods by Jungle to resolve this issue. In the meantime, I'd also add praziquantel to deal with flukes. You mentioned scratching. It's likely flukes are also one of those problems that you need to deal with. Only microscopes can confirm it accurately but judging from the situation, a praziquantel will not hurt in this case and it also eliminates possible tapeworms in this case despite the limited number of intestinal worms it can eradicate. Adding two teaspoons per gallon of sodium chloride will not hurt either to keep the flukes at bay (not totally eradicate them which prazi can).

You can buy prazi as Prazipro in petstores or online sites, or as Droncit in veterinary clinics. A good schedule is this.

• Remove carbon.
• Add 2.5 milligrams per liter of water.
• If you are using the powdered version, it is difficult to dissolve. Predissolve in tank water by shaking it up in a small container.
• Dosing
  Day 1 -- remove carbon, perform water change with vacuuming, and add Prazi to tank
  Day 2 -- add Prazi
  Day 3 -- do nothing
  Day 4 -- do nothing
  Day 5 -- do nothing
  Day 6 -- add Prazi
  Day 7 -- add Prazi
  Day 8 -- normal partial water change with vacuuming
  Day 14 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
  Day 21 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
  Day 28 - normal partial water change, then add prazi
  Day 35 - normal partial water change, add carbon, treatment is complete

Remember that when you do water changes, you must also redose the meds especially salt per the water volume replaced.

 

[love-my-fish]

Cichlaholics, SpeshulEd, Lupin: Thanks for all your advice everyone... Really and truly appreciated.

Cichlaholics: Will definitely consider treating for parasites as that seems to be mostly the norm of what people think.

SpeshulEd: Thanks special ed...Since i have made this post,, i have done 50% water changes two night in a row and hardly made any difference. So 2 nights ago i cleaned the two canister filters.. they were not very dirty considering that the floss was still pretty clean... But i cleaned them out with tank water anyways, especially the foam and bio-matter. My temperature is consistent at 75.6. 2 days ago i also added some hornwort to help with the nitrates as another suggestion from someone else... Will be testing again tonight on the nitrates to see if any of this has made any change.. Small female does seem a bit more interested in eating.. large male not.....

Lupin: Thanks very much for all the details.. and i will totally look at that as well.. appreciate all the detail... But i'm not quite sure by what you mean in regards to salt.. have never heard of adding that to a tank... can you enlighten me on that one... would appreciate it.....

tks everyone..... PS: i do use Prime when i do water changes as well........
Hoping something is going to work here soon and will be doing another big water change tomorrow based on my test kit results tonight (friday).......

Cheers!!!!
sheldon

 

[SpeshulEd]

Don't feel bad, I'm doing huge water changes on my 450g to try to keep my nitrates in check. Changing out 225+ gallons is starting to be a pain.