Long Fin German Blue Ram with white growth/wound beside mouth

[gallowchris]

Anyone have a clue of what this is? Just showed up two days ago. Got bigger yesterday and hasnt grown since. He is hanging out mainly at the surface breathing quickly. Water is zero across the board. PH 6.8, just had to adjust and went down to 6.6 for a day only dip, constant over all... I have Rams so my water is super clean. The other 5 Rams are fine, doing their normal thing running around having fun. Also the rest of the tank is fine.

35 gallon
Over filtered with Ehiem 2213.

Now my KG finally went up one point from 3 to 4.

Dont know please help if u can.

 

[jlk]

Do you have a way to qt him? It looks like it may be columnaris (bacterial infection). You would need to treat him with antibiotics & aquarium salt but you dont need to treat the whole tank (you risk killing off your bb).

 

[gallowchris]

I have a second tank problem is its not cycled yet. I figured he needed to be put to his own to heal and not infect. But how to cycle and keep a Ram alive?

 

[jlk]

Can you move some media from your cycled tank? Anything will help but the antibiotics may kill it off. You will have to be viligant on daily checks of your water & doing pwcs to keep the water healthy as possible until he is healed. Ask if you are unsure about anything!

 

[bumzc]

I had a GBR that just died this morning with the same symptoms. One day a white spot appeared on his head but after a few days it got bigger and he started hanging out at the surface and then this morning I found him dead.

Chris - keep us updated if you find a cure/answer for this as I do not want this to happen again. Thanks

 

[adadkins1]

Definately qt him whether it is cycled or not. I know it sounds crazy, but doing daily water changes and treating him in an uncycled tank is better than ruining your whole cycled tank.

 

[gallowchris]

Ok folks, he is still alive. The growth has not got any bigger. Have a 7.5 gallon hospital going, should be fine. It was a bit of a trick getting the media from my canister into a little Aquaclear 20 LOL, added 90% water from my tank... so it hopefully won't have to cycle! Took the readings and ammonia went up to .25ppm so added some prime that should take care of it. Now going to put some sea salt in a seperate container to let it dissolve and add a little bit at a time. Going to take the readings again, then move the little guy over. Wish me luck!

 

[gallowchris]

Just looked at the pics again... man my tank looks dirty, but its not at all!!

 

[jlk]

Hi! What type of antibiotics do you have to use? I would recommended a combo of maracyn & maracyn2. You can get them at most big chain stores. If you are confident in your fish handling (dont do this if your afraid your going to stress your fish unnecessarily) & can do this quickly, you can also dab a little bit of peroxide or iodine directly on the growth daily. Let me know if you need more help!

 

[gallowchris]

Thank you so much for the info, little nervous about doing that he already seems stressed. The saltss seem to be doing the trick so far, infection looks smaller not growing at all. Also he is swimming around way more, going up and down in the tank. Still not eating much.
I now know why Rams have it be in male female pairs... The three females in the tank are battling. Nothing major but they rarely did it before the male was removed, now its almost all day!

 

[gallowchris]

Well I did the Hydro Peroxide on the wound and the stress was too much. Poor little guy went from ok to dieing in about 1 hour. Sadly the cost of the Meds is way more than replacing the fish.
In the past I have nursed fish back to great health from battle injuries, one being a 8' Jack Russell and the other a 7" Butter... they are costly to replace so it was worth it, for this little guy who I can replace for $8 or spend $30 on meds, not worth it.

 

[jlk]

I am truly sorry about you fish I am sorry i couldnt be of more help.

 

[gallowchris]

JlK it happens, I was a little slow on the treatment so in the future I will know now what to do because of you and that is great! Thank you again

In all my years of having a tank I haven't had to deal with many sickness at all so I learned from this.