Fish illness'

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kamikaziechameleon

kamikaziechameleon

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2010
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So I had this issue where I'd do a water change and a fish would die, the water is tank temp and dechlorinated. I did no test the water, but if it was a water condition the deaths would be more wide spread and frequent. Right now a fish dies every 3 or so weeks. I previously had treated these fish for this:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/fo...eus&highlight=

I have not had any further introductions into the population and its spread across 6 different tanks on different filters. The fish show lots of physical wear on them that is not apparent 1 or 2 days prior to dieing I've actually lost my 2 best specimens I had. The thing is that the fish that are dieing are often alpha in their tanks and a the largest fish by a sizable margin so I've ruled out aggression.

here are some pictures of the last two that died last.

Today:
P1020871.jpg


Early this month:

P1020864.jpg


P1020866.jpg


P1020868.jpg


P1020869.jpg


I'm thinking it could be some sort of internal parasite, the shredded fins don't make much sense. My hypothesis going forward is that the fish fall ill from whatever then are picked on while they die. But I would also point out that the fish are not being picked at when I view the tank, noor are their eyes or guts attacked. Beyond the apparent fin damage I don't believe there to be fin rot or any fungus that I can see causing this. The anus of the fish is agitated and their stomach show discoloration. The day prior to dying all the fish ate well and appeared in good health.

Please help I'm at my wits end and I keep loosing valued specimen. This week we ran another 7 day regimen of epsom salt in the food to see if it would help and then that brown female benga died.

These fish were all specimens I bought from a guy who basically ripped me off selling me 200 dollars of sick fish, I got over 50 fish from the guy but now I'm more in the range of 25. All my fish eat regularly and have good color and have for weeks since I got past what I perceived was an initial outbreak of intestinal worms. They are separate and quarantined from my main population that I've posted about in the past.

Next week barring any ideas from you guys I'm going to start a compound treatment regimen involving solar salt, with a medicated food diet I'll make myself.

I will be thankful for any help you can provide.
 
There are now 4 20 gallon tanks on Hydro V sponge filters with (4) 2-3 inch peacock/hap or yellow lab cichlids per tank and a 40 gallon breeder with a 55 gallon OTB filter on it. with
(4) 2 inche yellow benga, (2) 2 inch frontosa, (1) 1.5 inch calvus.

Used to be 6 20 gallon tanks but the other fish passed and we consolidated and started up a 55 with those 2 sponge filters to quarantine other fish. I had the same notion water quality might be a culprit except that we loose the fish 24 hrs after a water change, and that is weird!
 
Most of the tanks where originally a breeding colony of 3-4 female peacocks and one male then maybe a miscellaneous fish like a calvus or something but we've lost most of the males and most of the miscellaneous fish.
 
Hard to tell, could be internal parasites or columnaris or TB. If you are at the point where you have nothing to lose do a super antibiotic treatment with kanamyacin, nitrofurazone and metro for 7 days then worm them with prazi or levomisole or vice ersa
 
20 gallon tanks are a bit too small for african cichlids. The tank size is fine for grow outs but not for adults. Don't know what disease you were treating for as your link doesn't tell me anything. As far as losing fish right after a water change, it could be pH shock or possibly bad water. Do you use hot water from your water heater when doing water changes? Sometimes old hot water heaters can cause problems. I don't know the pH of your tank water or the water you use to do water changes. Also don't know the buffering capacity of your water.
 
Ok, so what I'm thinking of doing is combining all affected tanks into a 75 gallon for 7 days of blanket treatments. All I need to do now is sort out what I'm gonna treat them with. I was thinking maracyn 1 & 2 maybe with solar salt and medicating the food with metro+ What do you guys think? I've done the maracyn 1&2 blanket treatement with solar salt in a prior instance on a different population. Would I want to try mixing it up and medding the food with tetracycline, or comboing that with metro+? I'm at a loss for ID'ing this disease and this is all I can think to do. I agree the 20's are probably part of the problem and I want to treat these animals and get them into general population soon as I can to resolve this issue.
 
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