Lost & trying to get to the bottom of things...

[N757QQ]

Alright,

I have a 55g tank set up for about a month now with Malawi Peacock & haps. I have one mbuna that was a rescue from a friend's tank that I am working on getting a 2nd tank set up to house him in.

I have had 2 fish die so far, initially I had a female that never acted normal from the time I had her in the tank & eventually we found her dead about 5 days after getting her. That was almost a month ago. Today, we had 1 of our 3 blue dolphins die, which was again never really acting right, and was significantly smaller than even the smallest other dolphin within a week of showing up here.

Both cases they were 'breathing' heavily constantly. The dolphin was mouth moving all the time & in the last 2 days isolated & did not eat. The female that died first did the same.

I have treated for bloat with 2 rounds of Metronidazole keeping it in for 48hrs then doing a 30% wc, dosing again, waiting another 48hrs, then I did about a half dose for my 55g tank with the remaining packages of medication, then & finally 50% wc after the last 48hr period. Well, that got everyone acting normal again, of which only a few fish were isolating. Well, my girlfriend & I were watching them & she thinks a couple have the beginning of HITH, because 2 have some very minor damage looking thing right between their eyes. 1 female has a white streak down her head, which I am not sure where that came from.

She also thinks that she saw some very small white spots on one or two fish, of which I have not seem at all & suggested it might be shimmer from their scales when they are swimming by.

To be safe, I am turning the temp slowly up to 86, and will leave it there for a week or two. I did a 30% wc today & water quality seems okay.

Parameters:

temp 83.3 currently
ammo 0-0.25 over the last month of testing. I have never had a 0.25 but it is never quite yellow (API master test kit)
nitrites: 0 over the last month always consistently 0
nitrates: they have been high, I admit, and I have done weekly wc of 20-30%. They usually run from 30ppm-80ppm. They are currently at 30ppm or so as of the last wc tonight.
PH: 8.2 fairly consistently right in this range.

Filtration has been an Aqueon 55/75, I just added a Fluval 406 Friday, using filter floss in place of the top 2 charcoal tray inserts.

Substrate is sand, with Texas holey rock deco.

I also have an 18" bubble wand that runs all the time to help with oxygenation & gas exchange.

I feed them mostly Omega One Super Veggie, small floating pellets, with occasional super color pellets. I also occasionally drop a Tetra Veggie algae tab in for the dolphins & mbuna.

I also feed 1-2 times per week shredded carrots & peas. I just got & am going to feed for variety Omega One freeze dried brine shrimp, and I got Hikari Cichlid Gold & Cichlid staple to switch it up in case one is not as nutritious for them as the other.

I know that the nitrates being on the high side aid in allowing parasites & disease to take hold and I am doing bi-weekly wc to get & keep them down.

I also noticed tonight that one of my bigger males, a German Red peacock has some shredded fins on the top & bottom, but seems to be swimming without issue & is eating a voraciously as ever. I have dosed a bit of API fin repair (cannot remember the exact name, but it has aloe in it I think, helps repair fin & scale damage & build slime coat) when I noticed the minor pin sized dip in the head of a couple of fish.

I am at a loss here. I know my parameters are all good except for nitrates, which I am working on. I do not know what to do medication wise. I do not know if I should do anything medication wise. I do not think they have ich, but am not so sure that HITH is not starting. I am also not sure that anyone had bloat, but I went ahead with treatment because I was worried about the one fish that isolated & stopped eating. Everyone got treated to be on the safe side.

Is there anything I can do to prevent disease, because I feel like I am fighting a losing battle here? I think being ignorant in regard to what to look for as well as if any minor change in behavior should be looked at as woeful or not on top of still reading as much as I can, I am starting to scare myself.

Any help or suggestion here is greatly appreciated. I know the post is all over the place, but I am not sure what is going on, if anything, and if I should treat, or not.

Thanks in advance,

N

 

[N757QQ]

Here are a couple of pictures of the things she & I have started to think may be early signs of disease:

This is the only spot on his body & the only spot I can see on any of the 14 fish in the tank currently:

This is the guy with the spot that I think may be HITH starting:

I know the last pic is not great, and his black & blue pattern makes it hard to see but there is the slightest indention on his forehead area.


Oh, on a side note, in case anyone mentions it, I know the plant is in bad shape, I just finished up a build on a DIY light system for this tank to help these plants out, and they are looking better already, but I need to research some more on pruning or not.
Thanks again for any help...

 

[N757QQ]

Okay, so I have some more information that I can add, but is still not helping e to determine if I am in danger of losing any more fish, and if so, why. I tested my tap water for nitrates tonight & it is showing (I cannot read this API MTK for the life of me) approximately 30ppm, so I am never going to get my Nitrates lower than that I guess, unless I start buying water, which is not happening. Now, when I hold the test tube against the chart, it looks very red, but when I hold it up, I can see that it is slightly more orange than the 20ppm indicator, so I am not sure what the heck to make of that. If I go by holding it against the paper, I get 80+ppm readings, but I am inside & it is night time. I work nights, so I will have to test during the day sometime & use sunlight to see if I get a better idea.

I am fairly confident that my fish do not have ich, but I am so freaking lost on what is & is not going on at this point that I doubt myself as much as I think I know what I am doing.

All of my fish are eating, one that was the worst off nearly choked himself out tonight grabbing 2 pellets at a time. They finally softened up enough to break up & he got them down. I did pre-soak them for 15 minutes. However, several of my fish have a white line down their head, and not like they are getting color, but like they are bumping their heads or (to our untrained, inexperienced eye) HITH. So, I took another picture, abeit a poor example because the guy that was still enough has a yellow stripe on his top, to show you the line I am talking about.

Both of our all grey / brown females have this line, one that is going away & one that showed up tonight. The flavescent pictured above also has a bit of one tonight.

Here is the picture:

Any ideas, help, suggestions, anything would be great. I did a 50% wc tonight, and Nitrates are 30ppm, of course, and Ammo is not quite 0, it has just the slightest tinge of green. PH is 8.1 if I am reading it accurately.

I did dose Melafix tonight to be on the safe side.

Edit: I wanted to add that I have been doing weekly & sometimes bi-weekly wc since the fish have been in the tank. I have also been doing wc every 48hrs since Friday.

Thanks,

N