Sick Rainbowfish

[hall2002]

Hey I have some sick fish and was wondering what advice you could give me. I noticed the other day in my 55 gallon that some of my rainbows looked sick, one bosemani had a fungus growth on his side fin, another bosemani had the "shakes" in that he would dart quickly around the tank and randomly "shiver" very fast without moving at all, this one also had a trail of whitish stringy feces. Another one of my bosemanis was also shaking, this one also has a reddish what looks like an open wound or ulcer that this one has had for almost a year now since i had other rainbows which also had these reddish growths (those died but this one survived and since then it's wound has looked like it's gotton progressivaly better.) A dwarf blue rainbow I have I also noticed had one of these growths, I noticed something I thought might be one of these before, but the fish looked otherwise healthy, but today i could see it was clearly a growth. These four fish have been separated into a 10 gal sick tank which i am treating with maracyn as from what i have read it looked likei have some sort of bacterial infection. I am also concerned about two of the rainbows still in my 50 gal, a bosemani which seems very healthy, except it has been swimmng around a little more then usual and sometimes making erratic movements, but they arn't as exatterated as the ones my other bosemani was making (this might be because it the only bosemani still in the 50?. Also one of my red rainbows appears healthy, but has a mark on it's skin which i am not sure if it is just coloration or the start of another one of those red ulcer type things. Anyways I was just hoping for any kind of advice on what i should do, should i put the two rainbows still in the 50 that i was concerned about out into the sick tank? and is there anything else I can do? Any help would be appreciated!

-Oh as for my water parameters, no problems, ammonia, nitrite levels are 0, ph is between 6.8 and 7, all these problems showed up out of nowhere in the past few days except for the two "ulcers" i mentioned earlier, none of these fish are new they have all been in this tank for at least a month.

 

[hall2002]

Update

Just a little more information, the red rainbow that i talked abotu before in the 50 gal I noticed does now have one of those white stringy feces trails, and i got a closer ok and the spot on that one i think is probably just part of the coloration.
The bosemani still in the 50 gal looks the same, and is pasing normal feces, so i do not know if this one is infected with whatever it is.
The fish in the sick tank have all stayed in pretty much the same condition, the one bosemani looks like the there ight be less fungus on his one fin now then there was before.
Once again any help or information you can give in greatly apreciated.

 

[An t-iasg]

Hi hall2002,
Do you think the Maracyn is working? Are you close to being done with the dose? If you think it's helping, finish the dosing schedule. If you don't think it's doing much, do a 40-50% water change and try MelaFix/PimaFix. I have heard that they are good meds for rainbows. This med would help the red areas, ulcers, and growths.

The white stringy poop is usually a sign of internal parasites. Try this med:
http://www.junglelabs.com/pages/details.asp?item=JF170. I would put the other two rainbows into the QT tank also. The one with the white poop should be in the QT tank, and the bosemani that has been swimming a little erratically in the big tank should be removed also. They could all have parasites and should be treated. The MelaFix would benefit them too. When you're treating for any disease, I would do water changes every day before adding that day's dose of medicine. Watch for signs of stress to the meds also. For example, some meds lower the dissolved oxygen level in the water. If you see the fish gasping at the surface of the water, or if you see their gills moving rapidly, increase the surface aeration. If you have a canister filter, you could adjust the spray bar to agitate the surface of the water. If you have a HOB filter, lower the water level a little so the return water "splashes" and creates a little more water movement. These "splashing" actions will increase the oxygenation of the water, hopefully enough to make up for what the meds remove.