plz identify random disease

[cichlidchic]

IMG_1562.jpg


any idea? and if so, how do i treat it? hes quarantined right now. lil booger took 35 minutes just to catch him!

[Zulaab]

Can you get more up close pictures of the guy ?
I really need to see a magnified picture of the lesions.
Right now it looks like anchorworms, which if you look closely, tell me if you see this.
"Fish has pimples covering the fish, and there is a small piece of foreign body sticking out of the pimple." If this is true then you have anchorworms. If you do show this to be correct, then you need to treat not only the tank where he is at, but also the tank where he was.


Working on finding you a cure for the fish if you can tell me if I am correct.. I need pictures asap if possible.. This is important, because we need to be quick to make sure that the tank that the fish came from are not infected.

[specialone0812]

we use external parasite clear for anchororm right? my german blue got that worms on its body, and i'm treating my 55g planted tank with parasite clear. is this medication harmful to the live plants?

[Zulaab]

From what I am reading parasite clear is okie. There are better stuff out there, but the main thing in regards to rid parasites like anchor worm from your tank is to do a 100% water replacement.

1. Get a blank tank readied (or what I do which is big totes from walmart, with a plastic lid) Fill this tote with 20g of treated fresh water, add a heater, a good filter (internal) and lots of air to this tote.
2. Get 100% of all the fish out of the tank the sick fish was living into the tote
3. Add medication (still working on what works best and where to get it)
4. All fish lives there for the next 3-5 days while being medicated.
5. If you have a planted tank, pull all of your plants and wash them, and do a complete rinse of the tank.
5a. If no plants pull all rocks, and clean it, including the substrate (got to get rid of the eggs which is what causes the "pimples" on the fish as the worm is leaving the host fish and are about to die out. The eggs get into the water, they will hatch in the water, and then swim around and find another host and bore into the fish and the cycle starts over.

A 100% water change is the most important thing to do to get rid of the eggs/larve that is swimming around in the tank.

[Zulaab]

I would recommend Clout as the killer for the tank, but like many will tell you, do this in a separate tank from your main tank. Reason is that it does contain medications that potentially can stain your silicone in the tank.

Will not damage plants or algae. Does not affect pH and is safe for biological systems. Not for use with scaleless fish, aquariums with ornamental invertebrates, or marine systems with live rock.

The other medication I am finding is Parasite Clear by Jungle labs..

Both medications seems to work.. Now do not put this in a tank that has shrimp or inverts you wish not to kill off. Anchor worms is actually a small crustacean which burrows into the fishes skin. This is why a this stuff is not good for any scale less fish (like a loach or Synadontis family of cat fish)

I hope this helps :)
Jesper

[cichlidchic]

ok, i have look at several websites and pictures, and the fish has absolutely nothing coming out of these pimples. none of the pimples are open, they look almost like tiny little whiteheads, but again, nothing coming out of them. For the longest, they simply looked like a few loose scales on his body about half an inch below his dorsal fin. It literally looks like someone tried to roll him in aquarium salt. the protrusions are few if you are familiar with it, it looks like peppered beef jerkey, where they are merely attached to the outside, relatively spread out, and not on any fins. i'll try to get a better pic.

[Mzungu]

When you say it looks as though someone tried to roll him around in aquarium salt, that's kind of a popular description for ich. It doesn't look as though that's what you have, though. Could you give a little history of the tank he is/was in and the fish? Where and when you got him, the tank's history, if anything was added recently and a timeline, if so...etc. That could really help also, maybe more than a picture could right now.

[imagirlgeek]

Do you have any aggression in the tank he was in? They could be spots where he's been knocked around by another fish. We have this with our fish occasionally. I use Erythromycin to treat external problems and it works really well for me.

[cichlidchic]

ok, mild aggreassion in the tank, but this is a 3.5 inch fish, so noone really jacks with him much, unless it's my johnstoni solo, and they just exchange blows and nothing's wrong with him (JS). in regards to the salt questions, the descriptions of ich match, however, it doesn't look like typical sugar grained ich, these are bigger (like epsom salt, or aquarium salt).

as far as changes, i added 2 rocks on Monday, and hubby did a water change yesterday. 50%. added a double dose of Prime, because of rain threats (taking no chances on undertreating for chlorine). other than that, nothing out of the ordinaty. Oh, last Saturday (6 days ago) i added 9 vic cichlids from Daves Rare fish in San antonio (very reputable if you haven't heard of them, he came highly recommended, and i looked at the other fish in the tank, as well as the ones i bought, absolutely no indications of anything sick) (infact i never saw a dead or sick fish at daves come to think of it)

tank mates are a variety from all 3 african lakes, as well as a syn catfish. He's in a planted rockwork tank that is 140 gallons and 7'x16"x24"

I have had him about 2 months or so, possibly 3, it's all running together now...Bought him from T&T fish in Sugar Land off HW 6 and Bellaire. Same day as I bought the Johnstoni solo. the only truly aggressive fish in the tank is a 5 inch red zebra, that i'm getting rid of tomorrow, and 2 mating pairs of jewel cichlids, who beat the tar out of anyone coming near their breeding grounds.

[Mzungu]

How long have you had this particular fish?

I have not heard of any incidents with Dave's fish, in fact, I've recommended his store before. However, there's just no telling. There are so many things that are living on fish constantly, and some are even present in most bodies of water, it's just that fish aren't normally affected unless stressed or otherwise sick, their immune systems not up to par. So, the 9 fish could be perfectly healthy in their own right, carrying something that doesn't affect them enough to show up as something to worry about. Kind of a doomsday scenario, I know. :) But I've witnessed it almost weekly. You don't happen to have a microscope handy, do you? Lol.

Without being able to fully I'd it, I would do just what you're doing. How big is the QT?

Like girlgeek said, it could be aggression. It could also be that aggression caused stress, which invited other nasties in. A closer picture could help in that sense, like Z said, to determine if it's an infection at the site of trauma, or fungus growing on an external wound, or something else that took advantage of an exposed area.

If nothing else, keep him in QT, do lots of water changes, add some salt, and hopefully it will go away on its own. :)

[Mzungu]

Lol, just saw you added an answer to a question I asked again in my last post. Sorry for the redundancy! Laughing also at the breeding jewels - they sure can be mean!! I would bet on it that this guy got in their way a time or two. As pretty much anything else in the tank does if jewels are breeding. :) The zebra's a likely culprit, too.

Hope he starts getting better soon.

[cichlidchic]

QT tank is a 10 gallon, so he has some decent room. i'll net him tonight and take closer pix of the affected areas. it's just really bizzarre, because like i said, nothing is protruding through the dots, and before he looked like he had loose scales in these spots, (ie: scale was cloudy, but still attached in one spot) but it's not clumping like Ich tends to do, they are all independent dots...

[cichlidchic]

just thought about something, hubby did the water change and didnt add salt, could this be a Culprit?

[Mzungu]

Do you usually add salt? I'm not sure if it could happen that quickly - you said he did the water change yesterday?

I would definitely add salt to the QT, though, if you haven't.

If it were me, I'd probably just try to get a picture of him closer-up but still in the tank, since he's most likely a bit stressed from the initial capture to the QT. If you can't, that's perfectly all right, I think. But if it doesn't start looking better within a few days, I would try it.

[cichlidchic]

will do on the pic, i'll be home about 8. and as far as the salt, there is no salt in the tank he's in now, and i always add salt to the tank after a water change.