Long long story here so bear with me - About 2 weeks ago I had six Geophagus sp Redhead Tapajos, today I have three and fear I may lose two of those three soon. The illness first showed itself a little over two weeks ago in my 125g tank (6 geos, 2 Keyholes, 2 K. xinguensis, 3 L. dorsigera, tetras). The alpha male of the tank one afternoon looked as though he had his butt handed to him in a fight. His left side in particular had open wounds, scales erupted, some visible redness... Which I thought was extremely weird. He is the largest fish in the tank after all. But he had been lip locking and flaring with several of the other geo males - anyway the next day he was dead. I thought he maybe poked the bear one too many times and the bear finished him off. I netted him out and watched closely for the next few days for any signs of aggression. Nothing. No changes at all. About a week later I noticed another geo showing the same we'll call them symptoms - tail a bit beaten, side scraped up and red. Again the next day dead.
Now I was a bit paranoid. No way was this aggression. I would have noticed something going on in the tank for it to happen twice. So looked for signs of illness but wasn't able to see anything and had nothing to go on. I looked all of the fish over closely - no redness, no bloat, no ich, nothing. Then 2 days later another came down with the same symptoms - again a Geo. I looked closely at his wounds and noticed that his wounds were preceded by small lumps... or bumps beneath the scales which then erupt causing the open sores. I netted all of the geos out of the tank for quarantine and dosed with salt and Paragard - thinking maybe it was a parasite that is specific to geos? but the afflicted fish was dead the next morning.
Fast forward to today. I have three geos left. Two have open sores in multiple areas on their bodies, but are still alive after 3 days of Paragard and Salt at 3TBSP per 5 gallons. The wounds almost seem to have 'hatched'? and or just voids on one of the fish, but both still have many lesions left which are clearly causing them stress. The largest in the tank doesn't appear to have any open sores yet... hopefully the paragard prevents any further infection or spread.
Anyone have any idea what I'm dealing with? Any suggestions as to what I should be dosing next? Just continue with the Paragard? I'm thinking of ordering some Polygard next...
Pics here ---
Pics from this morning.
Big guy - so far free of lesions.
Call this fish A
And this fish B
Now I was a bit paranoid. No way was this aggression. I would have noticed something going on in the tank for it to happen twice. So looked for signs of illness but wasn't able to see anything and had nothing to go on. I looked all of the fish over closely - no redness, no bloat, no ich, nothing. Then 2 days later another came down with the same symptoms - again a Geo. I looked closely at his wounds and noticed that his wounds were preceded by small lumps... or bumps beneath the scales which then erupt causing the open sores. I netted all of the geos out of the tank for quarantine and dosed with salt and Paragard - thinking maybe it was a parasite that is specific to geos? but the afflicted fish was dead the next morning.
Fast forward to today. I have three geos left. Two have open sores in multiple areas on their bodies, but are still alive after 3 days of Paragard and Salt at 3TBSP per 5 gallons. The wounds almost seem to have 'hatched'? and or just voids on one of the fish, but both still have many lesions left which are clearly causing them stress. The largest in the tank doesn't appear to have any open sores yet... hopefully the paragard prevents any further infection or spread.
Anyone have any idea what I'm dealing with? Any suggestions as to what I should be dosing next? Just continue with the Paragard? I'm thinking of ordering some Polygard next...
Pics here ---
Pics from this morning.
Big guy - so far free of lesions.
Call this fish A
And this fish B
