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Medical advice needed, please.

I just received a group of nine adult . These are recent imports of wild fish. Some look really healthy, a couple are tattered, but two or three have a white crud on their skin. This fish is the worst. It has sunken eyes and belly, so obviously malnourished. It has a white crud on its face and skin, and it has signs of bacterial infection on the midbody/ flank.

Their QT tank is a mature cycled tank with matten filter. 75% water change yesterday when fish arrived. I will do a 50% wc today.

Not knowing how to treat, I started them on Proform C.

Any better advice for how to treat?

Thanks.
Eric

Okay, here's what I did tonight: The fish are at work. Before leaving for home tonight, I did an 80%WC and raised heater to 85F/29C. Then I dosed the tank again with Proform C AND I dosed it with Kanaplex and with Metroplex. The tank has strong aeration (two sources) and extra water current (a third motor). I'll go back to work tomorrow and check them. Fingers crossed, hands clasped praying for good care and their recovery. On an upbeat note, the sickest fish sat motionless (except for breathing) from 8am-7pm today. But as soon as the lights went off this evening, it began exploring the tank. I didn't think it had the energy. Glad to see it does.

Hoping for survival,
Eric

I don’t have experience with the meds but the environment sounds good.

Jools

Keep the tank dark and add extra aeration

Linus_Cello wrote: ↑29 Feb 2020, 18:21Keep the tank dark and add extra aeration

Tank isn't dark, but aeration is strong. Why darken the tank? To reduce stress? Or are there additional benefits?

Thanks, Eric

Yes to reduce stress.

Okay thanks. I'll be into work in about an hour and will see them then.

UPDATE on sick Peckoltia lineola: one fish died overnight (I hope it was the sickest fish from yesterday's FB video, but I'm not 100% sure - haven't yet compared markings). The rest of the fish alive. Some signs of same white crust on other fish, although not as severe. Treatment today is a 50% WC and redose the same meds.

Photo of dead fish added. Markings look consistent with sick fish yesterday.

UPDATE: After the first death, no one else has died. They are eating... or at least some of them are... because there is poop all over the tank.

They still have signs of white stuff on their bodies, so they aren't well yet. This individual was sitting in the open (bad sign?) and you can see what looks like hydras whipping around on its upper lip and near its opercular opening. These are branched, so I suspect anchor worms or something similar. I'm not familiar with examples of actual hydra growing on fish.

I started treatment today with the goat wormer fenbendazole (liquid Safeguard) by adding 1 ml per 10 gal aquarium waterx for an effective dose of 10mg fenbendazole per gallon. I'll leave them for 3 days, then do a water change and redose if they still have signs.

Any suggestions, affirmations or warnings?

Thanks,
Eric

P.S., as an aside, I see the medications are killing the blackbeard algae, which you can see has turned purple-red.

@bekateen

Eric- I cannot help but I would suggest you check out the parasite info here http://sfrc.ufl.edu/fish/outreach/extpubs/ Here is the list for parasites so you can see what they have (the links don't post from a copy paste). Note there are publications with pictures. I cannot say for sure all the links are still live. They also have publications for a whole host of other diseases- bacterial, viral and fungal.

Fish Diseases – Parasites

Introduction to Freshwater Fish Parasites (UF Circular 716) (765KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Sessile Ciliates (UF Fact Sheet FA-107) (408KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Motile Ciliates (UF Fact Sheet FA-108) (330KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Flagellates (UF Fact Sheet FA-109) (244KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Dinoflagellates, Coccidia, Microsporidians, & Myxozoans (UF Fact Sheet FA-110) (338KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Monogeneans (UF Fact Sheet FA-111) (236KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Digenean Trematodes (UF Fact Sheet FA-112) (283KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Nematodes (UF Fact Sheet FA-113) (323KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Acanthocephalans, Cestodes, Leeches, & Pentastomes (UF Fact Sheet FA-114) (304KB pdf)
Common Freshwater Fish Parasites Pictorial Guide: Crustaceans (UF Fact Sheet FA-115) (297KB pdf)
Protozoan Parasites (SRAC 4701) (645KB pdf)
Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (White Spot) Infections in Fish (UF Circular 920)
Ich (White Spot Disease) (SRAC 476) (343KB pdf)
Cryptocaryon irritans Infections (Marine White Spot Disease) in Fish (UF Fact Sheet FA-164) (867KB pdf)
“Red Sore Disease” in Game Fish (UF Fact Sheet VM-85) (33KB pdf)
Amyloodinium Infections of Marine Fish (UF Fact Sheet VM-90) (100KB pdf)
Management of Hexamita in Ornamental Cichlids (UF Fact Sheet VM-67)
Cryptobia iubilans in Cichlids (UF Fact Sheet VM-104) (67KB pdf)
Monogenean Parasites of Fish (UF Fact Sheet FA-28) (352KB pdf)
Nematode (Roundworm) Infections in Fish (UF Circular 91) (357KB pdf)
Pentastomid Infections in Fish (UF Fact Sheet FA-90) (326KB pdf)

I am not super good with the diseases etc. since I have not had a lot of problems in this area. For experienced fish keepers not being good with this side of things is usually for this reason. I hope the links will point you to the diagnosis and a solution.

Thanks TTA!

UPDATE: Within a week or two of my last post on these fish, I lost two more, each from the same disease, whatever it was. Although some fish in the tank were definitely eating well based on the amount of poop I was removing, these two that died always had hollow stomachs. So maybe they had bigger issues than just the external disease.

Now I'm down to six fish, 4M/2F. They seem to be healthy. In the last week, two times I've found a female inside a male's cave. Neither time looked "active" on the male's part, so maybe more of a cave conflict. But today seemed more intentional. I hope they spawn soon.

Anyone else keeping ? Anyone currently spawning them? I know it's not a super rare species, or super challenging to breed, but I've seen very few reports of people spawning this species and I find that puzzling.

Cheers, Eric

The lack of keepers/breeders I would suggest is down to them being variable, often not IDed species and there are several other similar species that grab the spotlight. More kudos for those that do...

Jools