Really sick fish!

[ctenopoma]

I need suggestions from people my jack dempsey has been sick since I got him and I've spent probably 5x how much he is worth (not that I could put a price on him) trying to save him. I wondered why his tank mate a green terror was never sick but today I noticed my green terror flashing, upon closer examination he has pink openings on his side near his dorsal fin kinda with a black edge, and also A gold/ rust colour on his dorsal fin which I think is velvet. but he's not showing any other signs like lethargy/ lislessness. If it is velvet how long would he have to live because I really can't spend more money trying to treat this, but I'm not sure then if I should put them down every time I tried to post an add people said they need to see a picture but I really don't have a camera to include one.

the reason this is a big problem is because soon I will be purchasing 125gallon aquarium which I hope to make into a community tank but due my oscar I was going to add one fish at a time to not tip the bioload , but I don't want to add infected fish into my main tank I need to find a solution soon.

thanks to who ever replys
-ctenopoma

 

[TwistedPenguin]

Velvet shows up normally as gold dust on their heads (mainly). Not to mention Velvet kills pretty quick. If the GT is flashing it's possible he's got gill flukes. Not uncommon if he came from PetsMart or one of those places. I'd dose with General Cure or Jungle Parasite Clear-both have Praziquantel in them which will also take care of some of the other most common parasites. Black edges usually mean healing so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. You didn't mention water quality tests (ammon/nitrite/nitrates) but that would be helpful, too. You also didn't mention what you treated the JD for so I'm unclear as to what you've tried.

 

[ctenopoma]

Velvet shows up normally as gold dust on their heads (mainly). Not to mention Velvet kills pretty quick. If the GT is flashing it's possible he's got gill flukes. Not uncommon if he came from PetsMart or one of those places. I'd dose with General Cure or Jungle Parasite Clear-both have Praziquantel in them which will also take care of some of the other most common parasites. Black edges usually mean healing so I wouldn't be too concerned about that. You didn't mention water quality tests (ammon/nitrite/nitrates) but that would be helpful, too. You also didn't mention what you treated the JD for so I'm unclear as to what you've tried.

Well my JD was fin clamping when I got him so I did use general cure while the green terror was in the tank. and that seemed to help a bit then it didn't go away so I used ich-x and the jack stoped fin clamping but he still flashes a bit. the gt did come from petsmart and had torn fins that where receading that healed up after I added some melafix. also ( not to sound crazy) but I don't know if cichlids are only supposed to have two nostril holes like my oscar and gold saum does but my jack dempsey has like 4 with black edges around them it kinda looks like the nostrils of a piranha but I don't know if it's supposed to be like that.

 

[ctenopoma]

also about water tests people might flame me but my test kit vanished and I didn't want to spend 40$ to replace it but I will eventually ( I'm kinda just making my problems a little bit worse lol)

 

[TwistedPenguin]

No, no flaming. I get tired of having to walk on eggshells for fear SOMEone is going to want to argue or flame, so I try my best not to do that to others. You can print out the test kit ad on DrFosterSmith.com (it's like $15 there) and take it to PetsMart and they'll price match it. Otherwise you can just do a 40-50% water change every day over the next few days to make sure and call it good until you can get ahold of a test kit. In a pinch even the test strips at WalMart will give you an idea.
If they were my fish.....I'd do another round of General Cure or Jungle Parasite Clear (same thing except it's $3 instead of $15 a box). I always put new quarrantined fish through 2 rounds of it ever since I fought a battle with gill flukes from a PetsMart fish a year ago. I don't use MelaFix and never will, I don't like it and it can't 'fix' anything that fresh water can't. Gill flukes cause major flashing. When I went through it I thought it was ich also. But the fish still kept flashing after ich meds. I ended up doing a bunch of research online and came to the conclusion it was gill flukes. Which it obviously was because they quit flashing a day after I put General Cure in. Some of them had scratched hard enough that their little gills looked raw. It's very possible that's the reddened areas you're seeing if it's gill flukes you're dealing with. It's hard to know who to trust or believe, I understand that. I hope your fish pull through, you obviously care a lot about them.

 

[ctenopoma]

thanks for all your help , I have been doing large water changes starting today and will for the next two. I was also considering it could be an external bacterial infection due to the flashing but I will research gill flukes

thanks again -ctenopoma