I went on vacation 6/6 - 6/14, leaving my tanking in the care of my younger sister with strict feeding instructions (she housesat). Upon my return, my 100gal, housing a 12" chocolate cichlid (temporalis), and three 4-6" red severums, had krill rotting on the bottom and ammonia registering on the test (lost my API test kit color chart, but I KNOW yellow is good, and very green is really bad).
The chocolate cichlid had a tiny pinhead size, raised white spot behind one eye which almost looked like a little spider eggsac, and the severums fins looked beat to hell. Changed water, cleaned tank, raised temp from 78 to 83 and hoped they would heal on thier own. There has been no ammonia since. I cannot give you other parameters due to my lack of a color chart for my test kit, however, the ammonia I have back to bright yellow, which is 0, and I change my water religiously. My Ph is around 7.8.
The white spot remained for several days, then began to rapidly get larger, looking fuzzy, and I assumed fungal infection. Added melafix and pimafix. It got worse. Continued changing water, all fish in the tank have stopped eating. The edges of the severum's fins are black. I check the tank one morning and the fuzzy infection is not a ginormous crater in the chocolate's head. I go get kenaplex and begin treatment. The fuzzy goes away, but the crater continues to spread. Last night was the sixth day. My biggest severum dies. This morning, the crater on the chocolate is massive, with both eyes (even on the unaffected side) popping out. When I got home from work, the eye on the effected side is eaten around by this infection and the eye itself is now clouded over. I snap a pic, print it out, and take it to my lfs for advice (the owner is a discus breeder). He suggests Pond solutions Bio-Bandage, and Metro. I get home, change water, snatch Mr. Chocolate and apply bandage and add metro.
I'm hoping for the best, but this doesn't look good.
I've included a pic of the wound on the chocolate.
Hole in the head? Massive infection? Parasites? I don't know yet, because nothing I've done has worked yet.
I'm guessing I'm going to lose this whole tank of fish. None of them have eaten since I got back. Maybe before. They're all listless and the chocolate is in really bad shape.
Where I am really worried is about my 90 gallon with 11 mwimbe (sp?) frontosa and 12 discus juvies all ranging from .5"-1.5". This tank is not having problems with water quality and did not appear to when I got back. However, this tank was started just prior to my vacation using media from the tank that is now sick. I've been careful to avoid cross contamination, but I have a filthy kitten (no really, he's got a fluffy tail and is always picking things up in it) who I can not keep off the tanks (even with a squirt gun) who likes to drink from the filters. I've noticed some flahsing from some of the frontosa, but otherwise there are no symptoms in that tank. params are the same, save for the temp is 86 degrees.
To medicate or not to medicate the babies as a preventative if I don't exactly know what this is? If I only lose the severum and chocolate, this is already going to be a hugely expensive loss of fish even if the other tank isn't effected.
Sorry for the pic quality guys. He didn't want to cooperate and I didn't have time to clean glass.
Pop eyes:
The chocolate cichlid had a tiny pinhead size, raised white spot behind one eye which almost looked like a little spider eggsac, and the severums fins looked beat to hell. Changed water, cleaned tank, raised temp from 78 to 83 and hoped they would heal on thier own. There has been no ammonia since. I cannot give you other parameters due to my lack of a color chart for my test kit, however, the ammonia I have back to bright yellow, which is 0, and I change my water religiously. My Ph is around 7.8.
The white spot remained for several days, then began to rapidly get larger, looking fuzzy, and I assumed fungal infection. Added melafix and pimafix. It got worse. Continued changing water, all fish in the tank have stopped eating. The edges of the severum's fins are black. I check the tank one morning and the fuzzy infection is not a ginormous crater in the chocolate's head. I go get kenaplex and begin treatment. The fuzzy goes away, but the crater continues to spread. Last night was the sixth day. My biggest severum dies. This morning, the crater on the chocolate is massive, with both eyes (even on the unaffected side) popping out. When I got home from work, the eye on the effected side is eaten around by this infection and the eye itself is now clouded over. I snap a pic, print it out, and take it to my lfs for advice (the owner is a discus breeder). He suggests Pond solutions Bio-Bandage, and Metro. I get home, change water, snatch Mr. Chocolate and apply bandage and add metro.
I'm hoping for the best, but this doesn't look good.
I've included a pic of the wound on the chocolate.
Hole in the head? Massive infection? Parasites? I don't know yet, because nothing I've done has worked yet.
I'm guessing I'm going to lose this whole tank of fish. None of them have eaten since I got back. Maybe before. They're all listless and the chocolate is in really bad shape.
Where I am really worried is about my 90 gallon with 11 mwimbe (sp?) frontosa and 12 discus juvies all ranging from .5"-1.5". This tank is not having problems with water quality and did not appear to when I got back. However, this tank was started just prior to my vacation using media from the tank that is now sick. I've been careful to avoid cross contamination, but I have a filthy kitten (no really, he's got a fluffy tail and is always picking things up in it) who I can not keep off the tanks (even with a squirt gun) who likes to drink from the filters. I've noticed some flahsing from some of the frontosa, but otherwise there are no symptoms in that tank. params are the same, save for the temp is 86 degrees.
To medicate or not to medicate the babies as a preventative if I don't exactly know what this is? If I only lose the severum and chocolate, this is already going to be a hugely expensive loss of fish even if the other tank isn't effected.
Sorry for the pic quality guys. He didn't want to cooperate and I didn't have time to clean glass.
Pop eyes:
