Sick Red Blood Parrot

[Lairdc76]

I took down my daughters tank and moved it out of her underneath my other aquarium. About two days after I moved the tank and fish one of the Red Blood Parrots started developing these red bumps on his/her face. Then a few days after that these white things started to appear. The fish will still eat but I think has a hard time seeing the food because he will go to it and miss it. I'm been treating the fish with Melafix and these fungus tablets from petsmart. At this point I'm not sure what else to do. I will get the water readings when I get home, I just forgot to do it last night...

Thank you...

[imagirlgeek]

You might want to hit the tank with an antibiotic stronger than Melafix. In my opinion, Melafix is fine for when the fish has a mild infection that is mostly going to be healed by the immune system...kind of like treating a cold in a human with OTC meds...helps to keep you more comfortable while your body does most of the work. But this looks more serious than just a minor infection.

If I had to guess, whatever the red bumps were, they now appear to be ulcers. So, basically you'll want to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic until the white bits go away. Then use a liquid vitamin to support him while he heals. I had a giraffe catfish that got some large ulcers on his face. I tried treating the tank with antibiotics, but that didn't really help, although it's possible in hindsight that the antibiotics kept a secondary infection at bay. I finally contacted a fish vet, and she thought that it could be viral (think herpes for fish), and suggested adding vitamins to boost his immune system. I used Vita-Chem and it really helped! I added it to the tank water, and also soaked his food in it. It took about 7 weeks to fully heal, but it did heal. Here's the thread about it. http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforum...t-What-is-this

The other thing I noticed was the black on his back. Has that always been there? I see this a lot on blood parrots at the store, and it usually indicates Ammonia burn...which wouldn't surprise me since they are packed so tight during shipping. But it usually goes away after being at home in a cleaner environment.

So in a nutshell, what I would do....
1. Super clean tank water
2. Vita-chem in tank water, and in food if possible.
3. Broad spectrum antibiotic until the white has cleared up, and no noticeable redness around the area.

[Lairdc76]

You might want to hit the tank with an antibiotic stronger than Melafix. In my opinion, Melafix is fine for when the fish has a mild infection that is mostly going to be healed by the immune system...kind of like treating a cold in a human with OTC meds...helps to keep you more comfortable while your body does most of the work. But this looks more serious than just a minor infection.

If I had to guess, whatever the red bumps were, they now appear to be ulcers. So, basically you'll want to treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic until the white bits go away. Then use a liquid vitamin to support him while he heals. I had a giraffe catfish that got some large ulcers on his face. I tried treating the tank with antibiotics, but that didn't really help, although it's possible in hindsight that the antibiotics kept a secondary infection at bay. I finally contacted a fish vet, and she thought that it could be viral (think herpes for fish), and suggested adding vitamins to boost his immune system. I used Vita-Chem and it really helped! I added it to the tank water, and also soaked his food in it. It took about 7 weeks to fully heal, but it did heal. Here's the thread about it. http://www.houstonfishbox.com/vforum...t-What-is-this

The other thing I noticed was the black on his back. Has that always been there? I see this a lot on blood parrots at the store, and it usually indicates Ammonia burn...which wouldn't surprise me since they are packed so tight during shipping. But it usually goes away after being at home in a cleaner environment.

So in a nutshell, what I would do....
1. Super clean tank water
2. Vita-chem in tank water, and in food if possible.
3. Broad spectrum antibiotic until the white has cleared up, and no noticeable redness around the area.

Thank you for all the information. So to update, the day before I wrote this question. I did a water change on the tank 50%, added aquarium salt and used the Melafix. After about two, maybe three days the fish was all cleared up. So I actually don't exactly what happened and what worked. Then I went ahead and repeated this again with the water change, salt and melafix just to be safe. So far so good, nothing has came back and I went ahead and moved the fish back in with the other ones...

[fuse92]

Good to hear the salt and melafix able to heal her. Keep us posted.