Unknown disease...your 2 cents greatly appreciated

fishysmell

fishysmell

Large Fish
#1
Oct 22, 2002
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Hey all, I have some kind of disease in my tank (60 gallon heavily planted community) that is systematically knocking fish off in pairs and trios for the last few months. No real signs, fish just stop eating and keel over. Thought it might be parasites, treated w/ jungle tabs, nothing has been cured or killed so not sure if it is a success. I currently have one neon dwarf rainbow in a qt tank that I noticed wasn't eating early so he has managed to survive for about 5 days now. Still treating with jungle tabs but they don't have much affect. He is emaciated, won't eat, but he doesn't have any sores or listless swimming like TB (had that before too). Only real specific sign I see is a swollen region around the anus. This is another reason I suspect parasites. Anyone want to confirm/disagree w/ this? Any ideas on other treatments? BTW, I did read the sticky and other posts about internal parasites but I might have missed something. Thanks for the help.

As for water conditions:
0 nitrates
pH: 7
ammonia: 0
hardness: very soft (barely registers on my test kits)
 

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A

ashleigh

Superstar Fish
#3
Jan 8, 2004
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#3
I am not positive about this- but if it is parasites, which you are right it does sound like- I think sometimes you have to dose twice, they could be incubating at different speeds. I persomnally like the meds manufactured by the people who make Kanacyn- I don't know the name of the company but they come in caplets and I have had good luck with them.
 

Purple

Purple

Superstar Fish
#4
Oct 31, 2003
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#4
Yeah - I'd go the internal parasite route.........but sometimes it's best to hedge your bets.

There's a med called Hexamita by a company called eSHa (you may have heard of them, they make crap test strips, fortunately their med are ok).

Anyway - this can be found under the heading "discus treatment - also for Cichlids". It treats for the following........fungus - finrot - dropsy - hole in the head - gill flukes - it's a pretty wide ranging anti internal parasite, anti fungal, anti bacterial ..... the list goes on.

One good dose of that and whatever your fish have will be a past tense experience. (Beats the hell out of using a Q tank too).
 

W

wayne

Elite Fish
#6
Oct 22, 2002
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#6
I have been in a situation like this where I was losing dwarf cichlids at a rate of 1 or 2 a week. I eventally decided it was bacterial, and even thoguh my water was in good shape it was due to detritus accumulation in my substrate. I thinned out the substrate and did a lot of water changing and all was well.
How big a tank, what fish. Substrate, what is it , how thick. Water changes , live plants? What fish? I wouldn't medicate for anything before I thought about all of this. Don't guess medicate.
 

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