Fin base redness of my jaguar cichlid

[Denis Dorokhov]

Hi to all monster fish keepers! I have a problem with my jaguar cichlid (parachromis managuensis): he has a strange redness at the base of his left pectoral fin. He got this approximately a month ago. After I've noticed it, I immediately checked the water params and it was absolutely OK: ammonia and nitrite are zero, nitrate is 15 (tested with API kit). All my fishes look absolutely OK, the jaguar is hungry as always and behaves as usual. I changed the carbon in my filter, increased water changes (40% wc 2 times a week instead of 1 time a week). Still no change in testable water params, for a moment it seemed like the redness decreased, but basically nothing changed. So 2 weeks I kept these often water changes (I use tap water, in my place it's without chlorine) plus changing carbon once a week thinking that something could be bad with my tap water, but the redness didn't change. After that I tried API Melafix for a week, again nothing changed. Another week I was just watching and nothing changed, the redness doesn't distribute, it just constantly exists. My aquarium is 450 liters 1 year old, filtration is Eheim 2180 (bio load), Fluval FX6 (mechanical / bio), internal filter 2000 l/h with apprx. 400 ml of activated carbon (normally I change it every 2 weeks). There is also a 11 watts UV sterilizer and an air pump. PH is 7.8, temperature is 26.5 degrees celsius. My jaguar is apprx. 25 cm, his neighbours are: two oscars 15-20 cm, petenia splendida 25 cm and L-catfish 20 cm. All the fishes are 1 year old. Feed them with Hikari dry foods: Cichlid Gold and Bio-Gold+ twice a day. I've attached a photo of my poor guy. My question is what could it be? What can I do with this redness, how can I treat it? How dangerous is it? Does it make sense to use a medicine (I always want to avoid it)? Thank you in advance for your answers.

 

[Hendre]

Hopefully Charney can help you out

Might be some inflammation or infection. Im not entirely sure

Welcome to MFK and beautiful fish!

 

[Pomatomus]

If only you had a microscope and a slide to do a scrape of the area.

One cause of this can be a Trichodina infection. If you look them up you will see that they are easily identifiable under a microscope. They often infect near the pectoral fin base. However, they are facultative pathogens, meaning that they typically feed on microbes and don't infect fish. However, they can when their numbers are large or when other food sources are low. This is more common in nutrient-rich water. What are your nitrates like? Carbon is a good idea to strip some of the organics. Salt should help too, as it will promote slime production and shed some of the parasites. I'd lay off feeding for a couple of days too.

Or it could be something else. My next thought would be a bacterial infection.

 

[Hendre]

His nitrate was 15. Your suggestion on the infection might be the issue

 

[Pomatomus]

That isn't terribly high, I wouldn't worry about nitrate. Again, I think your organics could be a contributor and I would add salt up to 3ppt. Even if it isn't trich, salt will probably help. Just don't kill your biofilter by adding too much!

Trich is totally treatable and rarely causes problems outside of aquaculture. Your fish still seems to be in good health and I expect a full recovery.

 

[Charney]

is he acting ill?

 

[Denis Dorokhov]

That isn't terribly high, I wouldn't worry about nitrate. Again, I think your organics could be a contributor and I would add salt up to 3ppt. Even if it isn't trich, salt will probably help. Just don't kill your biofilter by adding too much!

Trich is totally treatable and rarely causes problems outside of aquaculture. Your fish still seems to be in good health and I expect a full recovery.

Thanks a lot for your answer! I already tried not to feed the guy for two days and overall decrease feeding, was no effect on the redness, just more hungry fish. I could try the salt, and since I could overdose or something, I just don't want to do it the common tank. I have another 55 liter tank, could it be an option for a salt week for this guy or it's too small for a quarantine tank? Also I heard that salt can harm L-catfish, is that true?

 

[Denis Dorokhov]

is he acting ill?

Not at all: hungry as always, chasing oscars as always, moving the wood and digging the sand... Just the fin base redness :-(

 

[Pomatomus]

Thanks a lot for your answer! I already tried not to feed the guy for two days and overall decrease feeding, was no effect on the redness, just more hungry fish. I could try the salt, and since I could overdose or something, I just don't want to do it the common tank. I have another 55 liter tank, could it be an option for a salt week for this guy or it's too small for a quarantine tank? Also I heard that salt can harm L-catfish, is that true?

Any time! That tank is probably a bit too small for him, but you could try a bath in it. I would go with full-strength seawater and put the fish in for about 2 or 3 minutes. If he rolls over then definitely put him back immediately. It can be done in a bucket and 2-3 treatments spaced out every other day should help. A bucket might be better because he may splash and jump.

As for the tank dosing, IME plecos do fine with a little salt, but scaleless catfish are more delicate. I suppose it also depends on where your pleco came from. A Florida-bred one will be much better off than a wild pleco. If you want you could do a lighter dose on the tank like 1ppt. Might help, but I can't be sure.

Or, again, it could be bacterial. Salt should help that if it's external, but an internal infection will require antibiotics. I like to avoid antibiotics as much as possible so salt is a good first step.