disease? please help

[agpoel]

My swordtail is acting strange. For the last 5 days, he has been hiding behind all of my decorations but today he came out and was scratching himself on the decorations. He has no external signs of illness but will not eat and is acting very strange. All of tests on my water came back normal. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite (i think it is nitrite, i am not home right now) and the ph has been stable. The temp stays at 82 all of the time and has never been variable. Please help!!!

Andrea

 

[agpoel]

anyone??? should I quarentine????

 

[Slacker]

What other fish are in your tank? Any that might be bullying him?

 

[agpoel]

No bullies, just cories and platies. All of the fish get along.

 

[AmazonTankz]

It might be ich, symptoms are little white spots on the body and scratching. You can't always see the ich on the fish but just see them scratching, this is because the ich likes to infect the fishes gills and you can't see the white spots in there. Other diseases cause scratching but this is the most common one. I would get yourself some good ich medicine like aquari-sol or quick cure and treat it that way, also do lots of water changes and vacume your gravel every day.

 

[agpoel]

Well, I dont see any spots, but it wouldnt hurt to treat the symptoms. I just did a gravel vacuum and a water change today but I will make sure to do it often.

 

[AmazonTankz]

Why don't you check out the disease profiles on this site, it might be something else witht the same syptomes.

 

[tramca]

So......if a fish is itching as it were, and the ich is in the gills, does it mean a definate spread to the body?

Just curious for future reference.

 

[agpoel]

Well, he is still doing it. Is their a possibility it is lonely? I have had him for about 4 months and about 1 1/2 months ago his buddy died. But this has only been going on for 6 days or so. I treated for ich. I guess I will just wait and see... Still no signs of white spots or anything.

 

[AmazonTankz]

Well, I'm not sure about the definite spread. I think ich spreads ON the body nomatter where it is, I don't hink that ich acually goes inside the body anymore then the gills. When its on the body its in a different stage of its life cycle and it develps little cyses(sp?) which are the white spots. When they are big enough they drop into the substrate and goes into another stage of life. So even if you see no white spots the gravel and water in general still might have ich.

As for your fish, lonleiness can cause depresson-like syptoms like closed fins and hanging towards the top but if the fish is scratching are ever did then that means they have some sort of paresite

 

[agpoel]

Well, now he is hanging out at the top of the tank and is still not eating. It seems he is loosing his shininess. Any ideas guys???? I am getting frustrated and worried.

 

[agpoel]

I am worried that whatever this is will spread to my other fish. Should I quarentine and if I do, what can I do even though I dont know what is wrong?

 

[Paul]

Scratch on decor is usually a sing of a parasitic infection. Try adding Aquarium salt to your tank. 5mL for each 5 gal of water. Maybe even treating for 7 days with Melafix.

 

[agpoel]

Will all of the salt irritate my cories?

 

[agpoel]

Also, how do you measure 5ml?? I have a 29 gal tank.

 

[agpoel]

What is the best parasite medication? Has anyone out there ever tried coppersafe or Tank Buddies Parasite Clear from Jungle labs?

 

[AmazonTankz]

Aquri-sol or Quick Cure are the best, I've heard only good about Quick Cure and I use Aquari-Sol