Only cichlids with mysterious parasite?

[Lauren Deadly]

So I'm stumped with what's going on with my tank right now. After our rearrange I noticed some itching happening, particularly the newer fish we added. I assumed by process of elimination, the new thing added was some rocks I stuck around some plants. Most likely a rock or two may have scooted by my examinations so I removed all the new ones. Tested the water

Ph: 7.5ish (which was higher than it normally has been at 7.2)
Nitrate: .20ppm if not lower
Nitrite: 0ppm
Alkinity was highish and Hardness were both hard but we're in california where it is always reading like this
Ammonia: so close to 0 it was unreadable if there was anything

Itching went down drastically and the fin clamping from one of the severum went away. I assumed the problem had been resolved, but looked into maybe getting a filter hookup to my sink in case maybe the new fish weren't used to tap (treated with prime though.) my friend told me it's unnecessary since I'm not keeping discus, so first question what do you think?


The itching came back with some mild fin clamping in one severum and I'm absolutely stumped. Haven't seen anything with the flashlight test, appetites are healthy, everyone is active, no rapid gills or swelling.

But THEN last night after a good feeding a lot of my cichlids had these little nub/worm looking things sticking out of their anal area. I can't find any info on this anywhere. It's white, not poop, and only just barely popping out. I have a picture, but you can't really see anything. It looks like its only on my cichlid species (weird) and it looks like they have little white fish manjunk.

I don't like treating fish without knowing what's going on, nor do I like treating unless necessary. Has anyone heard of this? I can't find a thing on it and none of my fish friends have either. I prime it with every water change, occasionally stressguard (to help out when the new fish came in with some tears) and have used prazipro when things felt off in my tank. And before anyone says anything about qt, I had been but decided after it was taking months to add new fish one by one I decided I would just grab a large batch (since most were new) and start a qt again once I'm done with my quarantine of all of these guys.

 

[burbon44s]

First I'd quarantine the problemed fish.
Preferably in a smaller tank.
Then raise temp and add salt.
Parasites and their eggs can't stand warm temp and salt.
Give that a try. After a couple days you'll know..
Good luck. I hate parasites
Sent from my DROID4 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[BastardFish]

Sounds like standard ick but because of the white poop stringy issue I would say more likely an internal parasite rather than ick which is an external parasite. Yeah raise the temp to at least 85 degrees, salt it up, and get an internal parasitic remedy for them. water change as directed on product you choose. Full cleaning of the filter unit is a must now and after treatment and remove carbon is using it but not sponge or bio media.

 

[koltsixx]

My first guess would've been ich or velvet but would've been leaning more toward velvet due to it being harder to visually detect then ich. The white stuff at their anal region sounds like it might be their(the fishes) intestinal lining, which means internal parasites. Though I will admit I haven't really seen fin clamping and itching in my fish when they had internal parasites so you might have a two fold problem. Can I ask have you added any new fish recently? If you have where they imported? Where did you get them? I turn off all the lights and then use a flashlight to look for gold dust/flecks on the fish to see if they have velvet, is that the flashlight test you're referring to? Can you provide some pics of the white stuff and the fish?

Hopefully Aquanero chimes in here as well as he's a lot more knowledgeable than I when it comes to this stuff.

 

[Lauren Deadly]

it's not white stringy actually. it like a millimeter long and just sticking out slightly. I was thinking it was more flukes sounding since ich never showedup when the itching occured (though I realize it doesn't always show at first) I'd treat for flukes, but not even my friend said he's heard of it and I'd prefer not to treat blindly. can't really seperate the itchy fish since it's pretty much all the cichlid, meaning 75% it'd be wiser just to remove my snails and treat the entire tank, but I'm concerned for staining. I don't want to overreact and medicate if it ends up being minor which it so far seems to be since everyone is acting hunky dory.

 

[Lauren Deadly]

My first guess would've been ich or velvet but would've been leaning more toward velvet due to it being harder to visually detect then ich. The white stuff at their anal region sounds like it might be their(the fishes) intestinal lining, which means internal parasites. Though I will admit I haven't really seen fin clamping and itching in my fish when they had internal parasites so you might have a two fold problem. Can I ask have you added any new fish recently? If you have where they imported? Where did you get them? I turn off all the lights and then use a flashlight to look for gold dust/flecks on the fish to see if they have velvet, is that the flashlight test you're referring to? Can you provide some pics of the white stuff and the fish?

Hopefully Aquanero chimes in here as well as he's a lot more knowledgeable than I when it comes to this stuff.

Yes that's the flashlight test I was speaking of. I'm a bit of a micromanager so I'm constantly doing a check on each fish during feeding time and making mental notes on a fish when I notice something. With this method, you're always bound to find something; hence my hesitation to medicate at the first fin flick or itch. I've been doing a lot of adjusting the past couple months trying to set my solid group down while they are juvies before things get large and harder to change fish around. I was doing 4 week quarantines until I realized it would take me over a year before I had everyone down, so I've treated both my tanks (125 for larger, 37 grow out for snack size fish) like quarantine until everything has been a little more established. I'm a firm believer in quarantine though so I'm aware of the the cons. As far as my new fish, they are all from the wholesaler and I take them home before they've even touched my LFS tank so I'm assuming that they could be exposed to just about anything. I just recently dosed the tank with prazipro for 4 weeks after my weekly w/c since it's pretty mild and as a precautionary since I am treating everyone like they are dirty and in quarantine, and because you never know what can end up in market shrimp and bloodworms. I did my last dose of it 2 weeks ago, but there were no symptoms when started.

I've seen the clear stringy poop in the past, but I assumed it was due to constipation since I was feeding some pretty rich food while I was trying to fatten up my arowana. I saw this when I was still following strict quarantine process with not even mixing the same equipment or touching my larger tank if I was in the smaller. If what I saw was irritation, could that be caused by feeding as well?

 

[Lauren Deadly]

I feel bad even showing this as my photo since you can hardly see a thing, but this was the only shot (after the hundreds I took) where you can even slightly see the small nub I was talking about. I'm telling you, it's barely anything at all but only alarmed me due to the itching I've seen (really only one severum and one vieja itch) and then suddenly the majority of my cichlid had that little nub after feeding.

 

[fug202]

View attachment 959468
I feel bad even showing this as my photo since you can hardly see a thing, but this was the only shot (after the hundreds I took) where you can even slightly see the small nub I was talking about. I'm telling you, it's barely anything at all but only alarmed me due to the itching I've seen (really only one severum and one vieja itch) and then suddenly the majority of my cichlid had that little nub after feeding.

That's just the genital tube of your fish, not a worm. It protrudes slightly in cichlids, whether they are male or female. Here are two examples:





Fish scratching can be difficult to diagnose. Obvious possibilities include ich and flukes, but it sounds like you are at least keeping an eye out for those. I had a problem a month or so ago with fish scratching in a tank that was cycled but still relatively new. Some of the fish, mostly newer individuals, would scratch intermittently, but in between bouts they seemed perfectly normal (eating well, colors fine, breathing normal, fins out, interacting with others, etc). I never figured out the cause, but it went away after a couple of weeks. When the scratching was at its worst I noticed there was a buildup of diatoms (red algae) in the water, covering rocks and causing the water to be slightly cloudy - perhaps that was an irritant to some. The scratching also seemed to be more prevalent in newer fish, so maybe the change in water chemistry took some getting used to. Fish will rub when the water parameters irritate them.

Anyway, I know I'm not providing any specific answers, but I'd recommend keeping an eye on the scratching without going overboard with heavy duty treatments, at least until you have a sense as to whether things are getting worse. If you start seeing clamped fins or other signs of stress, it is likely something that requires treatment. In the meantime, it wouldn't hurt to raise the temperature and to add some salt.

 

[BastardFish]

Hahah yeah those are just the fishs anal tube. You also made a comment about uSing tap water and your friend saying not to worry about using a conditioner because your not keeping discuse anymore. Tap is fine for cichlid like you have but you should always still use a conditioner. Also little trick or tip, water sits still or stagnant in sink pipes just like in hoses. Always run water for a minute or so before water changes. This runs out the crap water which parasites like ick live in and will really cut down on issues for you in the future.

 

[Lauren Deadly]

haha so I went into my lfs and the owner called it the pink sock version (gross!) for fish. its from them overeating which makes sense because the ones affected were the fish that were snatching the hikari sticks I was tossing to my arowana. told me I could add prazipro again to be safe since it's just flagyll butsaid the rtank was likely fine but to keep an eye on it. said not to medicate it heavily since nothing serious is happening. I'll just watch it longer, I wasjust ttrying to be extra careful. I do weekly 25-40% wc and vacuuming with a monthly removal of all decorations with thorough vacuuming +cleaning up all the tubes for the canisters. obviously, fish are a bit of a hobby. my lfs is giving us 800g worth of filtration and a 240 so I'm being enabled to get more obsessed. thanks guys, keep you posted