Green Terror showing whirling behavior

[Tphil32]

Hi all,
New to the forum, but have always used it as a reference while keeping south and central American cichlids. Any way I'll get to the point. I have a male GT who I've had for a little over a year. He's housed as a lone fish in a 55g. Originally intended to go in my 110g, but he did not tolerate any other cichlids and almost killed my JD. He's been in the 55 his entire life, except the week I tried him in the 110g. Recently after a WC he began acting odd. He would twitch his operculum, dip his tail down, then violently whirl in a circle for a few seconds. He has been doing this for about 3 days every 5-10 minutes. He has also began to show his "stripes" constantly, instead of his usual green. I wouldn't really call it a loss of color though. Besides this he shows no signs of swollen abdomen, or sunk in stomach, and he also still eats very vigorously. The closest thing I can compare it to is whirling disease in trout, but I work in fisheries and know it only affects Salmonids. Tank parameters are as they always have been (pH-7.6, Amm-0, nitrites-0, nitrates-20), I do weekly WC of 33%. I'm really at a loss of an explanation. I've thought of everything from stray voltage to parasites to nerve damage. Could it be behavioral or stress related? I can't post a link to a video yet as this is my first post, but I posted on another cichlid forum and several people that kept GT believed it was displaying breeding behavior. I've never bred GT so I don't know. It seems very unnatural to me though. Anyway I appreciate anyone who can give me their opinion and will take any help I can get, thanks.
-I will post videos once I have enough posts.

 

[Randles]

That sounds very strange. I'll be honest and say I've never come across what you've described. Whirling disease is well grim but as you say wouldn't affect a GT. I know GTs can be nutters so may be he's just amusing himself because he's on his own. Its really hard to say. I think we'll need to see a video to be sure.

 

[neutrino]

I've read of two possible infection types, one basically the same as salmonids, not as common in cichlids but it can happen and the parasite can come from Tubifex worms; the other is bacterial. I've also seen people report it after their fish slammed into the glass, a rock, etc. On the rare occasions I've had it in one of my fish it's a bad sign and not much to do for it-- in my case it wouldn't have come from tubifex because I never feed them, also only one fish ever had it, not others in the tank, so whatever it was didn't infect the tank. That said, I may not have tried the right meds. A couple of articles with treatment:

Parasite from tubifex

Bacterial

 

[duanes]

When I first started keeping fish as a kid, I fed lots of tubifex, because they were free and available in swamps near my house.
My fish loved them, but quickly showed symptoms of whirling, and some would start to turn black starting at the caudal with the infection (or atrophy) working its way toward the head area..
The fish usually died by the time the atrophy was half way thru the body.
I finally learned that tubifex was an intermediate host for the disease causing protozoa (the anaerobic parasite Myoxobolus cerebralis) that tubifex eat.
Once i stopped feeding tubifex, and sanitized the tank (after all fish died, mostly cichlids), the disease never returned

 

[ryansmith83]

There is a whirling disease of some sort that affects cichlids, especially wild caught discus. The cause has never been isolated but people in the discus hobby have speculated it’s some sort of bacterial or parasitic issue. I’ve never known any wild discus to recover from it and most either die on their own or get culled.

 

[FINWIN]

I saw a JD whirling in a tank at my LFS. There were parrots in the tank also but they were unaffected. JD was later removed .

 

[Tphil32]

When I first started keeping fish as a kid, I fed lots of tubifex, because they were free and available in swamps near my house.
My fish loved them, but quickly showed symptoms of whirling, and some would start to turn black starting at the caudal with the infection (or atrophy) working its way toward the head area..
The fish usually died by the time the atrophy was half way thru the body.
I finally learned that tubifex was an intermediate host for the disease causing protozoa (the anaerobic parasite Myoxobolus cerebralis) that tubifex eat.
Once i stopped feeding tubifex, and sanitized the tank (after all fish died, mostly cichlids), the disease never returned

I've never fed tubifex only omega one cichlid pellets and frozen bloodworms. He also doesn't show the blackening in the caudal area common with whirling disease.

 

[Tphil32]

I've read of two possible infection types, one basically the same as salmonids, not as common in cichlids but it can happen and the parasite can come from Tubifex worms; the other is bacterial. I've also seen people report it after their fish slammed into the glass, a rock, etc. On the rare occasions I've had it in one of my fish it's a bad sign and not much to do for it-- in my case it wouldn't have come from tubifex because I never feed them, also only one fish ever had it, not others in the tank, so whatever it was didn't infect the tank. That said, I may not have tried the right meds. A couple of articles with treatment:

Parasite from tubifex

Bacterial

Thanks for the info. I read the aquarium answers article before and find it interesting the author has seen confirmed cases in cichlids. I read another article that states it has never been confirmed in tropical fish. Interesting to see the difference in opinions. I also have never fed tubifex only omega one cichlid pellets and frozen bloodworms. However, around 5 days prior to the symptoms my GT did bang his head of something because he had a small nick on his head. I added some pimafix to help the healing process and it completely healed within 3 days. He didn't show signs of whirling until after it healed though.

 

[Tphil32]

Interesting update on the situation. So I started a prazipro treatment because it was all I had on hand and I felt bad doing nothing. If it doesn't help my next attempt would be maracyn. I've been keeping the lights off on the tank and I noticed he doesn't display the behavior nearly as often. Watched the tank for around an hour and only whirled once. Flipped the lights on later and it was back to every 10 minutes or so. Very strange.

 

[Tphil32]

That sounds very strange. I'll be honest and say I've never come across what you've described. Whirling disease is well grim but as you say wouldn't affect a GT. I know GTs can be nutters so may be he's just amusing himself because he's on his own. Its really hard to say. I think we'll need to see a video to be sure.

It is definitely strange. I'm not totally ruling out that it is behavioral because he does have quite the strange personality. Very skittish, but also very aggressive. Definitely the most aggressive cichlid I've kept. I've had many JD, GT, Salvini (nothing like a dovii or jag though) and he's the only one who will attack me while cleaning the tank. I've had him latch on to my hand several times.