Not overly concerned with the type of fish at this point, but lab was pretty apparent in the dead one. I was interested in seeing the lesions. They look fungal but tough to tell without clear picture.
African cichlid
- Thread starter Colek1991
- Start date
Guess I misunderstood the reasoning behind it. Kinda looks fungal to me too. But the tattered fins on the dead one looks like fighting and no fuzz on the fins. I think even with a clearer pic without knowing the history it'll be hard to tell. That's one reason I said use kanaplex as it will treat both.
Curious as to why you would say fungal and not bacterial? Not trying to be adversarial, just trying to learn as well. I have some Yellow Labs that had been flashing for quite some time (months really) and I believe they have Trichodina. Never saw any white spots or any other type of parasite present and haven't lost any fish which wouldn't be the case with Ich or Costia. Apparently, fish can live with Trichodina but they become more irritated causing them to flash. Some of the less dominant fish have that whitish pattern on their sides which i believe is a result of bacteria infecting very small wounds caused by the flashing against the sand. In my particular case, I think the Trichodina outbreak was caused by poor water quality and stress from some dominant males. Water quality has been remedied and have been treating the tank with Rid Ich plus for 5 days. The fish with white on their sides look the same and there is flashing from some of the weaker fish still. I'm setting up another tank to move the fish that have what I think is a bacterial infection and treat them there separately.
For the OP, have you seen a lot of aggression and have your fish been flashing at all?
Hey I will get a better picture later today when I get home from work and explain more about the tank.
I have more pictures of the fish that I think may be the cause of the dead one. I will also post a picture of the largest cichlid in the tank that does seem to be a bit of a bully and does some fun nipping.
The top picture is the one that sometimes chases the others around and the other three pictures are all the same one. The one that seems to never get better although it spent a lot of time by itself in another tank. At least a few weeks.
That looks more like aggression to me. The earlier pic made the wound look “fuzzy”.
Yes my thoughts too. Could be a secondary bacterial infection or fungal but I'd also say aggression is the root cause.
Agreed on aggression as the main factor. So going back to your original post I wouldn't treat the main tank because its not a disease that will spread. The injured fish could get secondary bacterial or fungal infections so keep up your regimen of water changes to keep water quality good. You're obviously going to lose this fish unless you move him and even if he recovers elsewhere when you put him back he will be the weak link and attacked again so have to come up with another plan. How many yellow labs do you have? And how many cichlids overall? Have to try and minimize aggression the best you can. Can lower the temp as well, maybe down to 75- 76.
