Sick fish - barely eating, a little dark, acting "depressed".

[stone]

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE

I'm trying to decide on the next course of action. Maybe salt dips?
Thank you for any help.


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish/when and how they started
This fish has been acting odd for over a month. It's been a very gradual and non-linear decline. As soon as I commit to treatment the next day he seems fine. Then a week later he's relapsed. If I didn't know better I'd say he was acting depressed. I've had this fish for close to a year and he had a very traumatic shipping experience. He got very sick the week after he arrived with fungus, fin rot and was in generally horrible shape. One week in a nice warm salty hospital tank and he snapped right back. I really don't want to lose this guy he is the fish that comes and eats out of your hand, investigates while i'm working in the tank, and the fish I have to physically move out of the way while I'm cleaning the tank. And now he's super spooky.




2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/ white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds)
A. slightly darker than usual
B. barely eating (but no noticeable change in weight)
C. He spends a lot of time off in the corner by himself facing away from the other fish.
D. Regularly seems to be shedding his slime coat a little. It looks like a stringy, slimy discharge that usually appears to be coming off of the fins. (I have only kept discus for about a year so I may be wrong about this diagnosis/observation). It looks kind of like slime coming off in strings, mainly on his fins. It's not fuzzy like some fungus i've seen, and it comes and goes.

He does not seem to be in immediate distress, fins aren't clamped, breathing is normal, and poop is fine.


3. What medications/ treatments that you have already tried and results. Include dosages and duration of treatment.
He spent last week in a hospital tank 1tbsp salt per 5 gallons and a couple large indian almond leaves. I did 25% water change every day with RO water + salt. I increased the temperature to 95F for 4 days then slowly dropped it back down to 85F before returning him to the main tank. Back in the main tank he seemed great, he ate better and color was lighter and he was much more social but that lasted 3 days and now he's worse if anything.

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and age, number and size of fish
125 gallon barely planted (some frogsbit, and a little javafern on some of the manzanita)
7 full size wild tefe greens
1 Cuepia red (sick fish)
6 juvenile Geophagus Tapajos



5. Water change regime/ how long has tank been running/ bare bottom or gravel/ do you age your water?
~70% 2x a week
Tank has been running for 5 months
Pool Filter sand substrate
55 gallons is aged, circulated, aerated and heated for 3 days before being used. (the remainder of the new water is straight from hose)
Water is treated with prime


6 Parameters and water source;

- temp _85-86____

- ph __7.4___

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading _0___

- nitrate reading __1-2__

- well water ____

- municipal water _X__

7. Any new fish/plants added recently
No

[Eddie]

Hmm, tough call. Certainly seems like something is going on in the main tank. Maybe something that the other fish are able to deal with so its only presenting itself to this odd fish out. Its tough to treat a main/community tank without disrupting the balance. If everything else is fine aside from that one fish, might need to keep that fish out. Isolate that fish again and go with a more aggressive treatment like a full clean up, treating for external parasites and follow up with antibiotics. Then after a good period of time, introduce the fish back to the main tank. If it falls ill again, then you'll have to decide if you want to keep that fish or treat the main tank. Sometimes the benefits do not outweigh the cost.

[jimg]

I would do salt dips 2% for now 1x a day for 3 days and keep separate for a couple weeks and see. using the indian almond leaves is fine but remember they will lower the ph and when you do a wc the new water will be higher so bouncing in ph don't help a weak fish. if you add ro water to match the ph then you may be having swings in gh which can be worse.
How old do you think this fish is?
what problems did it have in the past?, how was feces when sick?
my first thought would be gill flukes or protists getting hold on a weaker fish, if all the others seem fine that may rule out a irritant do to/in the water.
if you have a scope it would help to do a scrape under the pectoral fin heading back to look for baby flukes or protists.
lower water temp to 82-84 higher temps can do more harm than good
see if you can tell whether the gills are very dark or pale
one more thing, i try to never let the storage water sit for more than 2 days.