Sick nannacara

[siva]

Hey guys and gals, what do you think this is and how should I treat it?

 

[siva]

I noticed yesterday it had a little bump at the base of one fin, and seemed lethargic. Today that buldge has gotten much bigger and there's that new one behind the head as well.

 

[absolutangel04]

Ouch. Poor little fish.
What texture does the bump have?

 

[siva]

It's smooth, kinda looks liquid filled, with some white specs inside.

 

[siva]

I've been looking around at pictures of fish illnesses and I can't find anything that looks quite like this. I'm thinking about starting a round of antibiotics?

 

[siva]

Hey..actually..when I took pics a couple hours ago and put it in QT it was totally smooth, now I think it's just starting to take on a little fuzziness

 

[absolutangel04]

I do not know what it is either. My best guess is some sort of bacterial infection under the skin. I think antibiotics would be your best shot in this case. The fuzz could be from a secondary infection, but I have doubts that fungus is the primary issue considering the way the bumps started out. Hard to say though. To my knowledge, the heavier duty antibiotics will typically take out fungus as well. I suggest doing something that covers gram positive and negative bacteria since the origin is unknown.
Hopefully somebody else will chime in if they have a better idea of what it could be.

 

[siva]

E.M. is what I have on hand at the moment so I started a round of that last night. The bump at the base of the fin looks the same today, but the one behind the head looks worse. It's hard to describe..it's not really fuzzy..more like flakey. His disposition is the same or better, so that's good atleast.

 

[absolutangel04]

Good to hear you have started antibiotics. Keep us updated with how the little guy does. I will let you know if I run into any additional info that could be helpful.

 

[siva]

He died. After first two rounds of meds the sores got way better and I thought it was looking pretty good. Then just later that day I noticed his eyes were bulging and cloudy, dead the next day.

Now here's where I start freaking out...some months back an apisto caca from this same tank was found at the surface, nearly dead, with eyes bulging. I removed it to QT right away but it died within hours. Further back I had a school of PPD's in there that I suspected of having TB. One by one they would start wasting and getting hunchbacks. After half the school died, I put the rest down. Shortly after, a Boesemani suddenly turned hunchback, so I put her down. This was probably more than 6 months ago. All this time went by with nothing, and honestly I wasn't thinking about it anymore. When that happened with the apisto, I didn't make a connection between the two. But now I'm wondering if this is TB. This is my prize show tank. My pride and joy. I'm not sure what I should do next...

 

[jlk]

Does anyone else have any symptoms at the moment? If you have myco in your tank, it can survive almost indefinitely. I would look for an aquatic vet in your area. If there isnt one, consider Oregon State- they have an aquatic veterinary medicine dept. When the next fish comes down with these symptoms (it may be mths), I would take the fish there to euthanized and properly necropsied/path to determine what exactly you may be dealing with. An acquaintence of mine is dealing with something similar with her goldfish and it has been appearing completely randomly over the past 2yrs and she has tried every known treatment (and then some) with no success- I suggested that she do the the same thing the next time another fish becomes afflicted. I am sorry about your fish and wish I could offer a more definitive answer

 

[siva]

Thanks jlk. Definitely not an easy situation huh. Dang. I'm hoping the cichlids with pop eye are not related to the past issues with the schoolers. The apisto had no symptoms other than the pop eye, and that doesn't seem to be how TB usually works, but then again, I think a lot is misunderstood and unknown with the TB. Yikes...

 

[siva]

Oh and no, no one has any symptoms. Everything seems right as rain in the tank.

 

[jlk]

I sincerely wish you the best of luck! I think identifying the root cause here is key but a lab will be necessary to do this. Please keep us posted!!!

 

[absolutangel04]

I don't think it's this, but did you look into FNTD? It often presents very similarly to TB with fish wasting and getting humpbacks and white splotches.