Several Health Problems

A recent introduction into my cichlid tank appears to have brought with him some problems.

Some fish have had external parasites, fin rot and what I think is worms (stringy poo). Now the cichlid that I believe is the cause of the problem appears to be developing an eye fluke.

I dosed the tank last week with Flubenol to sort out the worms/external parasites. I treated the tank this week with some anti fungus/fin rot stuff and I have ordered more flubenol from ebay as although I couldn't see any more external parasites the day after the flubenol treatment I fear they are back again..

I'm going to dose the tank with flubenol again as soon as I get it.

Questions:

I'm going to start salt bathing any fish that are still flicking - will this do anything for those with fin rot (2 fish that I can see)?

How do I treat an eye fluke?

How long should it take for these conditions to remedy themselves with treatment?

Thanks in advance for any help or advise.

P.s. Water quality is good & I do 2 water changes of 10 - 20% per week so I am blaming this on the new fish - the shop I bought him from has a bad rep, I should have known better...

-Patrick.

The fact that you're seeing so many symptoms, I would reckon these symptoms are a sign of a more serious underlying bacterial/virus infection rather than multiple distinct diseases. What you're doing with the fluke/finrot medication is treating the symptom rather than the cause. When fish are stressed due to an underlying illness, they will succumb to flukes and bacteria that are normally present in the aquarium. These are things they can fight when healthy.

Sorry I can't be of more help, but it's very difficult in this type of case when you don't know what you're treating.

Using the medications and particularly the salt baths may pull them through.

It's always best to quarantine fish. I now do it religiously after having a similar problem when I introduced a new angel a few months ago. It ended up wiping out my existing four angels.

Cheers Ken. Thanks for the advise.

Hi 2poc

Which to treat first is pretty much a swings & roundabouts situation. Ext parasites such as the fluke etc leave wounds which can easily become infected. Therefore if you treat the underlying bacterial infection first (try ESHA 2000 as it's pretty universal), then the flukes it would be wise to dose prophilactically after the parasites are gone. The ESHA will also treat the finrot (can't comment first hand on how effective though as it's just the box claims it) so you could see how that works out.

If you're going to use the salt bath, it will (depending on dosage) treat the finrot bacteria (it's not a fungus), most commonly the flexibacter one too. I don't know how you're planning on doing your salt bath. I would recommend doing it in a seperate tank & never use salt on tetras, corys, otto's & most other catfish.

These bacteria are fairly opportinistic so there would have most likely been something out of whack (the internal bacterial infection)to cause the fish to be weakened enough for the beasts to take hold, same with the fluke. If there's a fish in there that doesn't appear to be infected, check the fins for any blood streaks as this is an early sign.

Change 50% of your water before adding any further meds, just so you can get off to a fresh start.

The anti fungus & fintrot treatment you used sounds like interpet, if so it's crap anyway. Despite what is often said about salt, you can use ordinary houshold salt, cooking or table. Sure there's cyanide in the anti-cakeing agents but you would need a humungous amount to do any damage.

If you're planning on a long term bath, up to 10g/L can be used. You should gradually build up to this level over a day or 2. Start with 1-2g/L & increase by 1g every 6 hours. Watch for signs of distress, if so, do an immediate water change. 20% change should do it.

Are you sure the fluke that's on the fishes eye is an eye fluke (Diplostomum)? If it is then there isn't a cure. It isn't contageous though. Even if the salt does get rid of the fluke at the same time, the eye will remain damaged permanantly.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Richard

I agree with Richard on this one. EsHA 2000 is mighty stuff and I couldn't praise it high enough.
I also agree on the water change but I'd go for an even bigger one, say 70% and filter through activated carbon for a day or two then add the EsHA 2000.

Flubenol is good, but it will not kill the fluke eggs. Their development depends on light and temperature. The more of both the faster their development. After the initial dose you will have to treat the whole tank again after abot 7 days.

Personally I would use Gyrodol from JBL. It kills all know gill and body flukes and also tapeworm.

Holger

What are your water parameters.
It could also be water quality causing the problem.
A large pH drop caused by high nitrates will cause Fluke like symptoms plus the flicking.
The flicking in turn will cause damage too the fins and fin rot.
Its always easy to blame new fish but always check your water too. Can you post you parameters too.

pH drop causes fluke like symptons.

High nitrates causes flicking.

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses - only seeing them this morning.

Last night when I got home I decided to do a major water change anyway as the flubenol had arrived.

I don't have the exact stats for my water params but I test nitrate, nitrite and PH every 2 weeks. PH is 8ish and the nitrite/nitrate are always fine compared to the charts supplied with the test kit.

Upon taking the rocks out of the tank I discovered a huge amount of crap that had been going unnoticed during the past few water changes. (Seriously a lot!).
Since I started feeding new life pellets I have noticed a lot more crap in the tank generally but whenever it builds up I vacuum the sand (twice weekly).
It was in clumps which were probably too heavy to be picked up by the filters.

I think my test kit might be dodgy as this surely should have shown up..

I did a major water change (60/70%), got rid of all of the crap & took out a lot of the rocks so I can watch the tank & fish much more closely.

I salt bathed the affected fish in a bucket with 5 litres of water & 2 teaspoons of sea salt.

Then I dosed the tank with flubenol & have left the lights off.

I'm going to stop feeding the new life stuff for a while so theyre going on a flake diet for the moment.

Do you guys think I should go with any of the other recommendations suggested as well as this?

Still not sure what the eye thing is, I will try & get a picture next week & do some more research myself. Basically the bottom half of the eye is going cloudy yellow colour.

The tank is overstocked but I thought that the two externals and the internal juwel filter would take care of it. I am going to get rid of some fish anyway as soon as these problems clear up so I don't pass them onto someone else..

Thanks again for all of the advise.
Patrick

The eye might be caused by stress.
You should feed less when using the newlife. Its perfectly balanced and you don`t need as much as other foods.
Your filters should have no problem with clumps of uneaten like that but you could have got a small Ammonia spike unknowing
to yourself.

Watch your fish for a few days and see do they improve by themselves.If not then add the meds.
Keep us posted the updates.

Anthony wrote:

The eye might be caused by stress.
You should feed less when using the newlife. Its perfectly balanced and you don`t need as much as other foods.
Your filters should have no problem with clumps of uneaten like that but you could have got a small Ammonia spike unknowing
to yourself.

Watch your fish for a few days and see do they improve by themselves.If not then add the meds.
Keep us posted the updates.

Cheers Anthony, will do.

Re: feeding less of the new life food - I did feed less than I would feed normal food but found that a lot of the bigger fish were getting it before it got down to the ones further down the pecking order so ended up feeding more so everyone got a share....

Hopefully the changes to the tank & the Flubenol will take care of business & I'll dose the tank with the remainder of the Flubenol in a week anyway.

Thanks again,
Patrick.