What's wrong with my agassizi?

[michelle767]

(First, I should mention that ultimately my entire problem is probably a good illustration of why QT's are necessary...)

My male agassizi hasn't been doing well for awhile now. His mate was lost to an ich infection developed when I added two gouramis to the tank. He recovered, but has been reclusive ever since.

About a week ago, I added three gold rams (the tank's a 20L and has been up for months now, so cycling isn't an issue). They had ich and I started the usual salt and heat treatment...part of the reason I don't bother with QT's is that ich's always cured so easily by this method - not a great excuse, but I also don't have the spare tanks, etc. Well, the gold rams are looking noticeably better, but my male agassizi has not eaten in about five days. Tonight I decided to net him to see if I could put a few blood worms in front of him to induce him to eat. When he tried to swim away, he wasn't moving well and would stop to hang upside down. He has no ich-spots but his belly is a little swollen...which sounds like a swim-bladder problem. But I don't understand - The tank is well-filtered and, due to the ich, I've been doing daily 20% water changes.

Any suggestions as to what's going on? I really don't think he's going to make it through the night, but I'd at least like to know what happened. Could it have been the ich treatment (he went through one once, though, when I first got him and it didn't bother him then)?

Thanks.

 

[fishgeek]

dwarf cichids are relatively nitrate sensitive and so a few months old tank that is being medicated may have still some cycling issue's

older filters are more capable of withstanding in water medications without losing biological capacity(they have the reserve)
saying that most ich medication is not going to affect bacteria ful stop and shouldn't be an issue

nitrates and other ntrogenous waste's need to be checked
hardness is very important
pH
if the fish appeared well coloured and just had poor appetite nd swimming , especially if erractic movements in water or brightly coloured at death, then heavy metals copper,zinc etc should be a concern

thre are so many water issue's that are probably a big factor here

in my opinion ich should never be a problem, quarantine or not, as you stated it is usually very easy to clear , this is because healthy fish have a very good immune response to ich and will sort it out themselves

something in your system has weakend the fish and allowed what should have been a simple problem to overwhelm him
bloated belly and poor appetite may be any internal problem, tb and granuloma's ascites(dropsy) bloat, stone ingestion, swimbladder- though i hvae never seen that in a cichlid(any opinions?)

any opinions on the value of salt in soft water species? i assume their ability to cope in very soft water means they dont suffer as much osmotic stress?
sorry for the questions ,when i am supposed to be giving answers?

andrew

 

[Mike Wise]

If your newly introduced fish introduced ich into your tank, they could have introduced other pathogens, too. The low cost of a quarantine tank pays for itself quite quickly. I personally am not a fan of salt in tanks with soft water fish. High conductivity seems to adversely affect them more than pH values, etc.

 

[michelle767]

Thanks for both the responses. He died sometime last night - so RIP for the little guy. I'm still not sure what did it. I checked all the levels and they were fine....I thought they would be as the tank's been up since Sept. and I've been doing regular water changes. All the other fish are doing great, too. I'm leaning towards the extended salt and heat treatment as an explanation. Maybe if the second hadn't come so soon after the first, he might have been able to handle it. Live and learn, I guess.