diagnosis and treatment?

[Guest]

Hi


I have moved little orangey boy cichlid to the hospital. He is currently being treated with pimafix and melafix because i can't tell if this is bacterial or fungal.

can anyone diagnose and suggest treatment?

Thanks
P.

 

[dskidmore]

Could you be more descriptive of the problem? The pictures are a bit fuzzy. Is that red tint part of his coloring, or one of the symptoms? How is his behavior?

 

[Zagz]

What other symptoms does your fish show? Your previous post doesn't list very much. What are your parameters on the main tank?

 

[Guest]

Hi.

Sorry

NH3: .5ppm
NO2: 0ppm
NO3: 0ppm
PH: 7.5
GH: 7
KH: 3
Temp: 79F


Symptoms: lethargic, hiding, white fuzz on body, red gills. He will eat if i introduce food directly to him.

He is looking better body wise, but still hiding/hanging out at the bottom of the tank.

 

[dskidmore]

I see from your other thread that you're struggling with a tap water ammonia problem. What are you doing to help with that?

I'd be suspicious of ammonia burn allowing in a secondary fungal infection.

Red areas usually indicate ammonia burn or bacterial infection. Fuzz is usually fungal.

 

[Guest]

i went to the LFS and asked about the ammonia problem...

They had me dose up a lot of stability and switched my dechlor to prime.

Brought tap level down to about .25 ppm ammonia. really helped a lot. I have since been doing 25% water changes every day to bring the level in the tanks down. Got them all down to about .5 - 1.0 ppm now.

I know it isn't good for the little guys. but it is kinda late to just take them out. I had the tanks for a few months before I learned so much about all this.

I am guessing my tanks never cycled. Hopefully they will now.

 

[dskidmore]

Prime is good stuff. You can add it directly to the aquarium as well as treating your tap water to get down to a reasonable level.

You may want to consider an RO/DI filter though, that stuff can't be healthy for your family to drink!

What kind of filtration do you have on your tank? Prime detoxifies rather than removing ammonia. A heavy-duty biofilter will convert the excess ammonia.

You might really benifit from planting your aquarium. Plants will absorb ammonia and turn it into solid plant matter that you can trim out of the tank.

 

[Guest]

tank is semi planted. I have a biowheel and HOB filters

 

[dskidmore]

Models? Size of tank?

 

[Guest]

tank is 29gal. biowheel is penguin, HOB is topfin for now.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

I would say it's the ammonia, plus fungus. Going to need to treat with anti-fungal meds, and also do several PWC's to get the ammonia levels down. Are you using a dipstick or liquid test? The dipsticks are usually unreliable, IME. You may have more ammonia than you think.

Also, how long has the tank been set up? Having 0 nitrates leads me to believe the tank was not cycled.

 

[Guest]

i got the water down to the .5 range ammonia, with lots of water changes. Treating the fish with melafix and pimafix in the hospital tank now, he looks much better, and is swimming around now.

the tank has been up well over two months.

still no nitrates or nitrites =(. just started using stability 3 days ago to help jump start a cycle.

Using a liquid test now. (for about a week)
(salycate)

 

[rich311k]

That is odd. You should be cycled by now and it looks like you haven't started. Can you tells us about your tank cleaning routine? Do you clean your filter?

 

[Guest]

so far this has been my routine:


25-40% water changes daily to keep ammonia down. prime to dechlor now, was using aqua safe, then stress coat.

i changed the filters after 30 days, both filters sat in the tanks for 5 days before changing to let them build up any bacteria if there was any. Then after change, let old filter sit in HOB for another 5 days to help transfer bacteria.

feeding just once a day, flakes or bloodworms.

tap water is 2ppm ammonia still. but prime brings it down to less than .25

adding stability regularly for 3 days and half a cap of prime to keep ammonia under control.

dechlor with double dose of prime per LFS.

 

[dskidmore]

Seriously need a way to cut ammonia before it goes in the tank. I'd be tempted to run the water through a plant filter for a week before putting it in the main. An RO filter would be the simpler option.

Nitrate might be low because of all the water changes. Most of the freshwater test kits don't do well on the really low end. I'd guess there's really about 2ppm of nitrate, as the ammonia had to go somewhere.

I wouldn't change your filter cartridges. Just wash them in old tank water during a water change.

If the tap water is 2ppm ammonia, I'm not sure that water changes will really help keep ammonia down.

Can you get some bottled water to suppliment your water changes? Maybe do fewer changes with purer water?

 

[Guest]

I don't think you will believe me if i tell you this, but


Right now I am too poor to even buy enough bottled water to do changes on all my tanks.


so, a plant filter or DI filter are definately out of the question =(.

 

[dskidmore]

Do you have a sunny window? Plant filter can go as low as $20, one-time cost.

 

[Guest]

I do. where/how can i get/set up a plant filter?