Sick Green Terror

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Candiceg

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 10, 2011
Messages
266
Hello I have never posted before but i often read forum for advice. I have a 7-8 in Green terror cichlid who has been sick for about ten days. Normally he lives in a 75 gallon tank with 4 other cichlids and an algae eater. Main tank has ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20, PH 6.8 to 7. I use an Aquaclear 500 and 70 together. The tank has been set up for almost a year. I do 30 to 40% water changes weekly. All the other fish are happy as clams. Last week GT stopped eating and had white poop. So I moved him to a 10 gal hospital tank with an aquaclear 20 and heater. I have treated him with salt and AP general cure everyother day with a 50% water change as well. I put bio media from original filter in hospital tank filter. After treating him for a week he finally as no white poop as of yesterday but still refuses to eat. I tried giving him some peas but nothing. My question is should I keep treating him or am I doing more harm than good at this point? I am debating just keeping him in the hospital with no medication until he eats? If he eats?:(
Thank You
 
Welome to AA,

Not a great situation for your first post. How many times have you treated with General Cure? Aequidens sp.goldsaum are prone to Hexamita I'm afraid, with the metro being the prefered medication I would treat anywhere from 3-5 times every other day with a 50% water change in between.

The other option in conjunction with the General Cure is a Epsom salt bath which works to, here is a good link for a article by R.D one of the most knowledgable people I know on fish nutrition and disease.

Treating Hexamita aka Spironucleus

Good luck a good friend of mine just lost his wild caught Andinoacara stalsbergi to this, and I personally just euphanized 6 wild caught Crytoheros sajicas this past weekend due to this as well. This is a serious problem and must be addressed as quick as possible if there is any hope, sorry to be all gloom and doom but in this instance I'm afraid I must.
 
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Thank you I have treated him first with parasite guard once and then 4 treatments of general cure with the last one today. I am going to go read the article now. thank you so much for your help hopefully he has a shot
 
Well I just force fed him some liquid food and epsome salt mixture. Wow when I got fish two years ago I never thought I would be doing that. I hope that I did it correctly. Some of the mixture came out of his gills after, but he looks ok just stressed out.
 
I was stressed too. The article you sent me yesterday was about epsom salt soaked food and if they will eat great or there was a link on how to siringe feed your fish. The person who wrote the article Neil said I can be a life saver. How do I do an epsom salt bath? and how long and how often? The mixture for the food was 1 tablespoon salt to 500 mil of distilled water.
Thanks
 
If your able to get the Epsom salt ingested then that is the best route, if your finding the fish refuses to swallow the baths might help. If your sure he's ingesting the presoaked food then continue that route like suggested.
 
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I have been force feeding him for a few days now and there's no change. Still won't eat on his own. Still has white poo. Should I try doing Epsom salt baths? And how do I do them? Thanks
 
I'm sorry but if your not seeing any improvement after General Cure and ingesting Epsom salts then I'm afraid there is nothing more that can be done.

If I were you I'd give some serious thought to euphanizing the fish. It's a terrible thing and like I said I just euthanized some sajica a couple of weeks ago for this very reason.

I would recommend any new fish you purchase in the future be treated for parasites during the QT process.
 
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I think I will euphanize the fish. I think it's better than starving to death. How do you think he got the parasites? I have had him more than a year and haven't added any new fish in at least 6 months.
 
There can be all sorts of reasons for Hexamita which are flaggellated protozoan's of which three are pathogens to freshwater fish, and they are all capable of causing gastrointestinal problems. One of the biggest reasons could be poor diet, certain proteins are hard to digest and can lead to irritation in the intestinal track allowing these protozoans to take hold. The next reason could be stress from deteriorating water quality or aggression from tankmates.
 
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