Sick JD, need advice

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datsunfreak71

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 2, 2016
18
2
3
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As per title, I'm in need if some help deciding on an appropriate treatment for my daughters beloved "Nassa". He's about a year and a half old and around 6", 55g tank way over filtered with a corner mattenfilter setup, only tankmate is 4" albino bristle nose, 0 ammo 0 nitrite and less than 20 nitrate, temp 76-78f. The issue: he's just not been himself for a while, although still eating robustly. Right flank is slightly larger than left side, barely noticeable. He looses and gains color rapidly throughout the day. The main worry is a black splotch on right side that appeared over night two weeksago and he's been rubbing on the sandsubstrate here and there. After a waterchange(20-30%) the spot will nearlydisappear for a few hours, water changesare once per week usually but morefrequent lately. He seems to swim normally but has been sitting on the bottom in acorner occasionally but perks up aroundfeeding time. Been feeding peas for acouple days, effect has been minor. Normal food is hikari cichlid gold and hikari sinkingwafers, earth worms or frozen foodsoccasionally. Sorry for wall of text and repost(put it in wrong section), any help would be greatly appreciated.IMG_2136.JPG
 
Is there an overall loss of purple color/more pale? Have you been feeding live food like feeder fish or introduced any plants to the tank recently? Does the JD's waste look like normal?
 
His color changes from deep blue and purple to a really light tanish color. The only live food are occasional earth worms from my pesticide free garden. No new plants but I removed a large piece of driftwood that started growing some white fuzz. The waste looks predominantly normal but when cleaning two days ago there was one clearish stringy poo.
 
Hes a bit less active but still swims around well and still goes nuts at feeding. No hiding or spooking(no more than normal), he's pretty confident. He's been slightly off for a few weeks.
 
These EBJD's seem prone to anomaly infections. If he responds with water changes, try to really increase water change schedule temporarily. If you are not seeing an improvement, IDK...Some things are out of your hands.
 
Plecos can harass some cichlids once lights are out but at 4 inches probably not your issue. May sure your pleco is well fed.
 
It's just a run of the mill JD. He runs the pleco around for fun so I'm pretty sure it's not that.
 
I'd go with the advice from Wailua Boy Wailua Boy for now. It's difficult to treat something unless you know exactly what you're treating.

There is the shotgun approach. If you wanted to go that route then you would treat with (1) seachem metroplex and (2) seachem sulfaplex or kanaplex. The metroplex can and should be added to food/pellets per the instructions.
 
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