Hi,
A couple of weeks ago I noticed one of my female boesemani rainbowfish, the one that had never really developed a lower half (normally they have a deep, rounded chest, this one's stayed flat) was swimming constantly in the filter return, one of the jets of the spray bars. After a day or so I also noticed that at the right angle you could see a couple of small slightly offwhite 'grains', which I believe was ich. IT also developed redness/lesion on one of its gills, and gill movement was fairly rapid.
Just prior to doing a water change before starting treatment (temp slowly up to 30c, conservative (due to sterba's corys) dose of King British White Spot control and reducing the flow on the filter so the water would be slower through the UV steriliser) I found a female celebes rainbowfish dead at the bottom. I had seen no signs apart from maybe the day before I thought one of them was swimming a bit listlessly near the top for a while. I treated the tank, and none of the other fish got sick, the 'ich' got a bit worse on the boesemani (but you still had to look fairly close) but she kept eating, but getting obviously weaker and worse, floating at the top, getting pushed/pulled around a bit by the current. After a few more days she seemed to recover a bit, but then died a few hours later while I was out. I continued treatmeant for another two doses (48hrly) and then stopped.
Just over a week later, I noticed a couple of the celebes behaving a bit listlessly again, and noticed on those fish the same type of spot that had been on the boesemani, again still very hard to see and only one or two of them. I immediately resumed treatment. There seemed to be one or two males possibly affected, and a female. The males have now recovered, but the female is getting worse day by day. The 'ich' spots went away, but this evening I can see another in a different place, and she is floating at the top about 50% of the time, then swimming/dropping down to near the bottom, and then swimming vertically back up. Still can get around the tank but is bumping into things a bit this evening. Hasn't eaten for days, maybe once or twice I've seen her peck at something drifting by. Gills don't seem to be working hard, but she is getting paler and paler.
So - thoughts?
quarantine is not really an option as the tank is occupied with new arrivals
current stock for main tank
1m 3f boesemani rainbowfish
4m 3f celebes 'rainbowfish' one of whom is the sick one
4 sterba's cory, at least one male and female as I have seen spawning. not to tempt fate but these guys seem rock hard, as far as I can tell they couldn't care less about the temp increase or the meds, i dont even see them popping the surface for air which is normal for them to occasionally do I understand), and even though there are only 4 I only have to hold still for a couple of minutes and they'll come out scouring the sand for bits to eat)
I have seen spawning from the celebes, at least one female (while it was 3m 1f, and I think it was that one that later died with no apparent cause), and lots of courting but don't think ever actual spawning from the boesemanis
Apart from the sick celebes they all are eagerly eating pretty much anything I throw at them - they seem to spit out the older/lower grade flake a lot, getting to be picky I guess
but everything else (flake, freeze dried bloodworm and tubifex, floating micro pellets, cyclopeese, finely chopped salad leaf, preserved daphnia, brine shrimp mix. shrimp pellets and the occasionally bit of veg for the corys, as well as algae wafers but they are not that keen on them)
qt has 3 juvenile male boesemani (was meant to be 1m 2f....) who seem to be doing very well indeed.
tank params whenever I check them are 0, 0, 20-40. did a big WC at the weekend and added JBL nitronatex as I want to get the nitrates down a bit in general. moderately planted, sand substrate, some drift/bogwood and mopani wood, couple of plastic ornaments. have added airstone and as of last night am leaving it on constantly as I noticed the other boesemanis staying at the surface after lights out, but seem fine now and otherwise.
recently had a pest snail explosion, am now removing as many as I can during water changes and they seem back under control. Reasonably amount of algae on things in the tank, slowly been getting under control by reducing outside light and feedings etc, hoping the jbl nitrate filter media is as good as people say....
55g, tt ex1200 canister filter, vecton 600 UV steriliser. 30-50% water changes per week with tapwater + prime, have now upped this to twice per week due to the seeming re-currence of the ich. Will continue treatment for 2 weeks this time after the last symptoms seen and then only drop one aspect at a time per week (heat/meds/uv flowrate)
just getting a bit depressed watching her slowly get worse, as it seems inevitable she is going to die, but euthanasia seems premature, she is still able to get about the tank. From what I can tell, a salt water dip is unlikely to help if it is indeed ich, and could stress her further
i've tried to provide all the relevant info, but feel free to ask for further detail/context. I'll try and remember to update asap if she suddenly quits or recovers
A couple of weeks ago I noticed one of my female boesemani rainbowfish, the one that had never really developed a lower half (normally they have a deep, rounded chest, this one's stayed flat) was swimming constantly in the filter return, one of the jets of the spray bars. After a day or so I also noticed that at the right angle you could see a couple of small slightly offwhite 'grains', which I believe was ich. IT also developed redness/lesion on one of its gills, and gill movement was fairly rapid.
Just prior to doing a water change before starting treatment (temp slowly up to 30c, conservative (due to sterba's corys) dose of King British White Spot control and reducing the flow on the filter so the water would be slower through the UV steriliser) I found a female celebes rainbowfish dead at the bottom. I had seen no signs apart from maybe the day before I thought one of them was swimming a bit listlessly near the top for a while. I treated the tank, and none of the other fish got sick, the 'ich' got a bit worse on the boesemani (but you still had to look fairly close) but she kept eating, but getting obviously weaker and worse, floating at the top, getting pushed/pulled around a bit by the current. After a few more days she seemed to recover a bit, but then died a few hours later while I was out. I continued treatmeant for another two doses (48hrly) and then stopped.
Just over a week later, I noticed a couple of the celebes behaving a bit listlessly again, and noticed on those fish the same type of spot that had been on the boesemani, again still very hard to see and only one or two of them. I immediately resumed treatment. There seemed to be one or two males possibly affected, and a female. The males have now recovered, but the female is getting worse day by day. The 'ich' spots went away, but this evening I can see another in a different place, and she is floating at the top about 50% of the time, then swimming/dropping down to near the bottom, and then swimming vertically back up. Still can get around the tank but is bumping into things a bit this evening. Hasn't eaten for days, maybe once or twice I've seen her peck at something drifting by. Gills don't seem to be working hard, but she is getting paler and paler.
So - thoughts?
quarantine is not really an option as the tank is occupied with new arrivals
current stock for main tank
1m 3f boesemani rainbowfish
4m 3f celebes 'rainbowfish' one of whom is the sick one
4 sterba's cory, at least one male and female as I have seen spawning. not to tempt fate but these guys seem rock hard, as far as I can tell they couldn't care less about the temp increase or the meds, i dont even see them popping the surface for air which is normal for them to occasionally do I understand), and even though there are only 4 I only have to hold still for a couple of minutes and they'll come out scouring the sand for bits to eat)
I have seen spawning from the celebes, at least one female (while it was 3m 1f, and I think it was that one that later died with no apparent cause), and lots of courting but don't think ever actual spawning from the boesemanis
Apart from the sick celebes they all are eagerly eating pretty much anything I throw at them - they seem to spit out the older/lower grade flake a lot, getting to be picky I guess
but everything else (flake, freeze dried bloodworm and tubifex, floating micro pellets, cyclopeese, finely chopped salad leaf, preserved daphnia, brine shrimp mix. shrimp pellets and the occasionally bit of veg for the corys, as well as algae wafers but they are not that keen on them)qt has 3 juvenile male boesemani (was meant to be 1m 2f....) who seem to be doing very well indeed.
tank params whenever I check them are 0, 0, 20-40. did a big WC at the weekend and added JBL nitronatex as I want to get the nitrates down a bit in general. moderately planted, sand substrate, some drift/bogwood and mopani wood, couple of plastic ornaments. have added airstone and as of last night am leaving it on constantly as I noticed the other boesemanis staying at the surface after lights out, but seem fine now and otherwise.
recently had a pest snail explosion, am now removing as many as I can during water changes and they seem back under control. Reasonably amount of algae on things in the tank, slowly been getting under control by reducing outside light and feedings etc, hoping the jbl nitrate filter media is as good as people say....
55g, tt ex1200 canister filter, vecton 600 UV steriliser. 30-50% water changes per week with tapwater + prime, have now upped this to twice per week due to the seeming re-currence of the ich. Will continue treatment for 2 weeks this time after the last symptoms seen and then only drop one aspect at a time per week (heat/meds/uv flowrate)
just getting a bit depressed watching her slowly get worse, as it seems inevitable she is going to die, but euthanasia seems premature, she is still able to get about the tank. From what I can tell, a salt water dip is unlikely to help if it is indeed ich, and could stress her further
i've tried to provide all the relevant info, but feel free to ask for further detail/context. I'll try and remember to update asap if she suddenly quits or recovers
