[Digs]

Hi all,

two months ago I purchased a small colony (4 pairs and a handful of fry few extra adult females) of endlers type N. I put them into my heavily planted 28g bowfront with featherfin rainbows and 1 scarlet badis. Everything seemed to be fine until I noticed the males slowly dying off until there are only two left and now I notice a female with the same symptoms. The fins look torn up and clamped. It only seems to affect one fish at a time and im losing one about once every other week or two and all the non-effected fish seem 100% fine . I am using pure reconstituted ro water using equilibrium and alkaline buffer to get about 200tds and I have a large canister filter running so my water quality shouldn't be an issue for them temp is 78-80. What is the best course of treatment for this. Please HELP!!

Sry for the poor picture quality was taken off my iphone.. but you can see the fish in the middle has the torn up looking fins. It gets worse everyday

 

[Digs]

Anyone have any ideas for a low stress treatment? Its a very heavily planted tank and i dont want to harm my plants

 

[treetom]

Do you have a different tank you could move them to to treat them? What is the temp in the tank? Do you does EI or PPS or anything at all? You can do individual salt baths by making a solution of your tank water in a bowl with as much as 1tbsp of aquarium salt or kosher salt per gallon and put one fish in at a time for a minute or two. Bacteria don't handle a big changes in salinity very well and this is a reliable method. Also get some quick cure from pet store or Walmart and do a half dose in your salt bath. Raising the temp 4 degrees over a two day period also helps kill unwanted bacteria, this is why the body runs a fever when you get sick. Higher organisms can take a sudden change better than laser organisms. Try these out and hopefully you have some success in curing them. Oh, what do you feed them, what brand?

Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[Digs]

Thanks for the response! I am currently dosing small amounts of excel and flourish micro along with small amounts of dry KNO3 and KH2PO4 once every week or two. I don't have another tank I could move them to, the only thing I could think of would be a 5gal bucket. Treating the fish individually is an option, however wont there still be bacteria in the tank that could just reinfect the fish especially after being stressed by the treatment? I went to walmart the other day and saw that they had jungle fungus clear and parasite clear. They came in the form of fizz tabs. Do you have any experience with these treatments? Usually my temp hovers around 80 I could easily raise the temp 4 degrees or so to 84-85 if that would help I wonder how my plants would react to this though. I have been feeding my fish tetra tropical flakes along with some microworms that I am culturing and sometimes the fluval shrimp food that comes with an ebi crushed up finely.

 

[treetom]

Raising the temperature and doing 20% water changes daily for a few days will help. Doing individual salt baths will also help. When you breath in there are thousands of bacteria going into your body but only when the conditions are right will you get sick. Same goes for fish. Water changes, salt baths, temperature changes will all help. And the sooner the better.

Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[treetom]

Oh, and as far as the fizzy tabs go... Not good for plants or inverts (shrimp, snails, etc...).

Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[Digs]

thanks a bunch I will definitely get started. Have you ever used melafix/pimafix? If possible I would like to be able to dose something directly in the tank to help clear up any reminiscence without harming my plants

 

[Axelrodi202]

Those two work well in planted tanks. I've had a fish with a broken fin recover completely using those two meds. But if I remember correctly I only used a half dose of each I think.

 

[Digs]

I think I will go ahead and order some mela/primafix and see if that solves my problem.

Thanks!

 

[trixella]

Maracyn Plus (not Maracyn Two) is also for fin rot and will not kill your beneficial bacteria/cycle or your plants.

 

[treetom]

Order! You may try the temperature salt bath in the mean time. Remember the bacteria in your tank are easy to kill with simple salt and temp increase. And it's fast and easy. The longer they go the worse it can be. Action is the ultimate solution. Also, how often do you change the water? Daily changes will decrease the amount of bad bacteria quickly.

Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[Coursair]

Could you have a Bully in your tank ? One of the larger female Endlers ?

Test your water as well. I'm sure it's fine, but always good to check.

 

[wendyjo]

Don't raise the temp unless you are 1) treating for parasites or 2) using an antibiotic if you suspect a bacterial issue. Bacteria thrive in warm water and raising the temp without using a true antibiotic will only cause the bacteria to multiply.

Both the Jungle products you mentioned are good products. Melafix, Pimafix and other such products are not all that great - they are more along the lines of an antiseptic rather than an actual med.

If only one fish is showing signs of illness, and you believe it to be fin rot, then I suggest removing it and treating it with Jungle Fungus in a separate container. The Jungle tabs treat 10 gallons so if you use a 2.5g or 5g container you can simply split the tablets into halves or quarters for dosing.

 

[Digs]

One of my female threadfin rainbows has started acting sluggish and is refusing food (microworms/flakes) while the other ones are eating as normal. There are no other outward symptoms. I have also realized that the other endlers that died did not show outward symptoms either (other than being sluggish). Does anyone have any idea what this could be? I have prima/melafix coming in the mail and will dose with those immediatly once I get them. I will do a large water change tomorrow and try filling a bucket with some water and doing heat/salt treatment to individual fish. Is it possible that I have internal parasites going around? It seems weird to me that no more than one fish seems to be affected at a time. This is so frustrating!!!

 

[treetom]

You need to be doing daily water changes at the least. If you haven't done anything at this point you are only making the situation worse. I hope for the sake of your fish that you have done at least daily water changes and increased the temperature.

Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[JoraaÑ]

I have seen that exact symptoms in my tank also about 2 week or so ago. I over doses Mg(Epsom salt)which is good for planted tank as well... and used few drops of Ick clear...now all gone .

 

[wendyjo]

Again, don't raise the temp unless you believe it to be parasites. If you think it's bacterial don't raise the temp unless you have an actual antibiotic (NOT pimafix or melafix) in there or the bacteria will get much worse.

 

[treetom]

Not to argue with you but why not raise the temperature? You do realize that your own body does this as a way of tipping the balance in the favor of your white blood cells. Fish however don't have the luxury of a self regulating body temperature. They are at the mercy of mother nature. And besides, not all bacteria respond positively to an increase in temperature. For instance the common cold is more prevalent in cold dry weather, not hot dry or hot and humid. Why, this type of bacteria thrives in cool dry conditions. So believing that all bacteria will increase there numbers in warmer water temperatures is a gross blanketing of all bacteria. And I must say in my own experiences with ill fish, overmedicating is not the way to go. Simply changing the habitat that the offending bacteria are currently thriving in can give very good results without the use of antibiotics or other harsh medications.

Here is some info about treating sick fish.
www.aquariumfish.net/information/recommended_treatment.htm#top2
Sent from my EVO 3D.

 

[Digs]

Ok so I took action tonight. I did a 30% water change, cranked up the temp to 85, added 5 table spoons of API aquarium salt, and did a half dose of quick cure (14 dropps since its a 28g). I plan on letting this sit for 48 hours and then doing another water change. I also plan on adding melafix/primafix when they arrive in the mail on monday. Do I have to take any special precautions putting my hands in the tank with quick cure in there. It contains formalin and malachite green. I will update as the situation unfolds

Thoughts/comments?

 

[JSA]

Ok so I took action tonight. I did a 30% water change, cranked up the temp to 85, added 5 table spoons of API aquarium salt, and did a half dose of quick cure (14 dropps since its a 28g). I plan on letting this sit for 48 hours and then doing another water change. ....

Thoughts/comments?

Salt will kill your plants. That's why an earlier poster suggested removing the fish for a salt bath in a separate container.

Salt and increased temp are an effective treatment for ich, but the symptoms you describe don't sound like ich.

Julia