sick blue diamond

[boxters]

can anyone confirm what this is. It looks like the fish has been rolled in flour. No new fish have been added to this tank for at least 2 years. No fish has been sick in this tank for at least 4 years. Ph 6.4. Amonia=0 nitrites=0 dgh=4dkh=2.

it looks like chilodonella, but im not 100% sure. I have added 700 grams of aquarium salt and treated with cupramine. I have also added some metro to beefheart. There are 13 adult discus in this tank and only 2 have this. also temp is 29.5 degrees celsius. Planted amano tank.

Any thoughts from anyone?

[Eddie]

Definitely looks like Chilodonella but difficult to say for sure. Treating them in a planted/main tank will be difficult. I'd skip the metro feed as this is an external issue. Are there any other symptoms? Does the fish still feed and behave properly?

[boxters]

It's still eating, breathing hard and lots of flashing. How long does it take to clear up?

[Eddie]

It's still eating, breathing hard and lots of flashing. How long does it take to clear up?


Hard to say, I've never used cupramine but it suggests 14 days treatment. That seems a bit excessive to me for a parasite outbreak. Maybe the high concentration of salt you added will help speed up the process.

[boxters]

Maybe I should change to a gram negative antibiotic

[Eddie]

Maybe I should change to a gram negative antibiotic


Its definitely something you may need to follow up with but you'll want kick back as much of the parasite as possible. The salt should help too. I'd give it a day and see how the fish look tomorrow. Again, its gonna be tough to handle this problem in the main tank. Keep a good amount of air going into the tank and keep the temperature around 82F.

Eddie

[boxters]

What do you think about treating the whole tank with pp?

[Eddie]

What do you think about treating the whole tank with pp?


Definitely not now, you've got cupramine and salt in the tank. Also, hitting the main tank with PP probably wouldn't be too effective either. Its something that would be better used in a hospital tank, less variables working against the PP. I'm assuming you have substrate in the main tank, since its planted.

[jimg]

Hard to tell from pics but looks same as what I had a few years ago when I added fish from a dealer in nj. treated with furanase. it quickly spread to other tanks too.

[Eddie]

What's the status box?

[boxters]

Eddie this morning they were not really any better so I did 60% water change and treated with formalin and malachite green. A few hours later and they seem a little better. I'm going to see how they look in 24 hours. If they have not progressed I'm going to do salt bath for 60 seconds with 500grams salt in 15 litter bucket.

[Eddie]

Eddie this morning they were not really any better so I did 60% water change and treated with formalin and malachite green. A few hours later and they seem a little better. I'm going to see how they look in 24 hours. If they have not progressed I'm going to do salt bath for 60 seconds with 500grams salt in 15 litter bucket.

If you only did a 60% water change, then there must have been some cupramine left. With chemotherapeutic agents, its very easy to intoxicate the fish. I'd stick to one, with Formalin and Malachite Green being the preferred in this case. Never seen cupramine used much with discus but thats not to say its not effective. Also, I don't like mixing salt with F&MG. You can skip the salt until the F&MG treatment is finished. Then add salt and possibly an antibiotic if the fish appear too damaged.

Eddie

[boxters]

I'm trying to avoid antibiotics as this is my show tank. I don't want to disrupt my filtration. Normally for infection like this I would use an antibiotic from the start

[jimg]

I'm trying to avoid antibiotics as this is my show tank. I don't want to disrupt my filtration. Normally for infection like this I would use an antibiotic from the start

but f&mg is for parasites, antibiotics for bacteria. just because it's a planted show tank why would you treat for different things?

[Eddie]

I'm trying to avoid antibiotics as this is my show tank. I don't want to disrupt my filtration. Normally for infection like this I would use an antibiotic from the start


Yeah, this is why I said in my first post that its going to be difficult to treat in that tank. Also, antibiotics generally aren't a good first step as bacteria develops secondary.

[boxters]

Eddie all seems to be going well. Fungus is almost all clear, fish are happy and eating again. I'm going to treat again in 72 hours to make sure I get all of it

[Eddie]

Eddie all seems to be going well. Fungus is almost all clear, fish are happy and eating again. I'm going to treat again in 72 hours to make sure I get all of it


Sounds great! F&MG is very good treatment for parasite outbreaks. I generally treat 3 days in a row with a 50% water change between each re-dose. ;)

Eddie