German Blue Ram sick, flukes?

[blazingnate]

I have a 10 gallon tank with multiple plants and drift wood. It has been cycled for a good month and a half or so at least. I purchased a male GBR about a month ago. after getting him home, and acclimating him he seemed to adjust well to the tank. After about a week I noticed him "flashing" against drift wood and rocks. He did it a couple of times a day for a few days and then he stopped. a week and a half ago I added a female because the male looked bored and would swim up and down the sides of the tank following his own reflection. When i added her the pH was 7.0, the ammonia 0 nitrites were 0 and nitrates .25 and water temperature 82 F, water was a little hard. 3 days after adding the female, they were both doing great and she layer eggs and he fertilized them. Their colors were amazing during this time. well about a week later I noticed the male had began flashing again, but this time it was a lot more and he started developing other symptoms. He started hanging out at the top of the tank and looked like he was gasping for air. His tail also seemed to kind of hang down and he looked lethargic. I did a couple of big water changes try to help (30%), but he just kept flashing like crazing and rubbing his gills agains the substrate and rocks. The female flashed one or twice but that was about i, she seems to be just fine. From doing research online i suspected gill flukes so i purchased praziopro and added it 2 days ago. after day 1 I have noticed less flashing but the male still spends most of his time at the suface and he is really "Twitchy" and seems like he's uncomfortable. I tested the water after a day and ammo was 0, nitrites .5 and nitrates .25, ph 8. today is day 2 and the male is flashing less but still does a 10 times or so that i have seen. he still looks really sick and is twitchy, and is spending more time in his cave and under the drift wood. The female is fine! no flashing and she looks good.
Tonight the female laid eggs again! the male is still not looking good but he stopped by to help fertilize them and is now standing guard with her. This makes no sense to me! one minute he seems like he is dying and the next they are mating. I could be wrong but don't only healthy fish fertilize? If he has gill flukes wouldn't that put him "not in the mood?" I know having .5 nitrites isn't good, but if that were the problem wouldn't the female be sick too? Anyways, I just want to know what is going on. thanks.

 

[molliwopp]

Its quite hard to tell if im totally honest. If your tank was cycled you would have 0 ammonia 0 nitrite.
I would continue to change water out and
more reguarly and a higher% ed the better.
Twitchy, jerking, thrashing and loss of color are signs of nitrite poisoning. clean water and i believe the problem will be solved.

 

[blazingnate]

hi Molliiwopp, you could be right about the nitrites, but the tank did have 0 nitrites up until yesterday, which could have been just a small spike. the Prazipro i added to the tank said to not do any water changes for 5 days. If it is nitrite poisoning would the female have similar symptoms?

 

[molliwopp]

Its an awkward situtation, if its nitrite poisoning and you dont change out water they'll both die. If its flukes, which i personally doubt, diluting the meds with clean water wont be productive.
If you did a 50% change now, would you have enough meds to treatafterwards?

I actually think you should change half of the tank with fresh water, wait afew hours and see if hes imoroved.

 

[blazingnate]

When i noticed the problem I immediately started doing water changes and actually though he was getting worse. the flashing actually stayed about the same, but after adding the meds and not doing a water change the flashing has basically stopped, but he still looks sick and kind of hangs out in the corner alone.

 

[molliwopp]

When i noticed the problem I immediately started doing water changes and actually though he was getting worse. the flashing actually stayed about the same, but after adding the meds and not doing a water change the flashing has basically stopped, but he still looks sick and kind of hangs out in the corner alone.

Meds can have other ingredients that temporarily relax and calm fish making them more comfortable. When a fish is stressed, trying to fight illness is twice as hard for them.

Why dont you buy yourself a testing kit so you can keep an eye on your parameters. Nitrite poisoning is far too common in early tanks. At 2 months its still an extremely young tank.

How are things looking today?

 

[blazingnate]

Thank for your advice. I do need to buy a testing kit, but being a broke college student, I'm trying to space out my fish stuff purchases so my wife doesn't get mad. I plan to go to the pet store today or tomorrow to get my water tested and find out what my nitrites are at. My fish are doing much better. This is day 3 of my adding Prazipro to the water. I am curious if my nitrites have gone down. If they have then maybe the nitrites were the cause, but if nitrites are the same, then it is likely that the meds worked and that the fish did have gill flukes. I hear what you are saying about the meds having chemicals to calm the fish, i am not sure if mine does, but if that is what is going on, then we should see in about 2 or 3 days the symptoms start to return after i've done water changes.

 

[pip walters]

Thank for your advice. I do need to buy a testing kit, but being a broke college student, I'm trying to space out my fish stuff purchases so my wife doesn't get mad. I plan to go to the pet store today or tomorrow to get my water tested and find out what my nitrites are at. My fish are doing much better. This is day 3 of my adding Prazipro to the water. I am curious if my nitrites have gone down. If they have then maybe the nitrites were the cause, but if nitrites are the same, then it is likely that the meds worked and that the fish did have gill flukes. I hear what you are saying about the meds having chemicals to calm the fish, i am not sure if mine does, but if that is what is going on, then we should see in about 2 or 3 days the symptoms start to return after i've done water changes.

As a college student - are you able to get access to microscopes? If so, you could do skin scrapes and see what affects your fish

 

[blazingnate]

As a college student - are you able to get access to microscopes? If so, you could do skin scrapes and see what affects your fish

Yeah that's a great idea. So after doing my treatment of prazipro for 3 days, the male was looking much better and rarely flashing. I decided at this point to do a 40% water change and then add a second dose of prazipro which was recommended by the prazipro instructions. All the fish seem fine, but if it happens again, i will definitely try to do a scrape.

 

[pip walters]

Yeah that's a great idea. So after doing my treatment of prazipro for 3 days, the male was looking much better and rarely flashing. I decided at this point to do a 40% water change and then add a second dose of prazipro which was recommended by the prazipro instructions. All the fish seem fine, but if it happens again, i will definitely try to do a scrape.

Good news, well done. These types of treatment normally need a second dose.

At work, when we get fancy goldfish from singapore, they always come in with flukes. We now treat routinely with JBL Gyropond, which contains praziquantel and it always takes two doses after a 40-50% WC. Have used it on gourami and platies too after finding flukes. A microscope is an expensive piece of kit, but a great thing if you can afford it. Having access to one at college is a bonus

 

[Brookster123]

Corrected

 

[Caliban07]

Wouldn't scraping a fish damage it's slime cost making it more susceptible to disease? Unless you did it on a dead one straight after it died.

Sorry to go off topic op but pip. My tank is riddled with some kind of parasite. I'm almost certain it is flukes and I'm seeing it in a lot if my fish now. Flashing rubbing etc. all parameters are good and nitrates are low. I have gill flukes sterazin by waterlife and crustacean parasite parazin also by waterlife but none of them seem to be working. I was recommended api general cure which I had to source from USA as the meds arnt approved here but it is yet to arrive. Most of my fish are rubbing, flashing, swimming fast and erratically and also opening there mouths very wide every now and then as if something is bothering them. Also they are breathing a bit quicker than usual. I didn't finish the sterazin course as instructed to be honest as I wasn't seeing any signs of getting better so maybe I didn't see out the life cycle of the parasite? What else do you recommended waterlife keep the actual ingredients of there products pretty locked up.

This started a while back so I'm sure the parasite could have spread this far.

Thanks also tried salt baths to no avail.

 

[Caliban07]

I also think api general cure contains this prazi you mentioned and also one beginning with M.