Any hope for a very sick cacatuides?

[Egona]

For the last 2 months I have a beautiful Appistogramma Cacatuides living in my 96 lt. aquarium. I installed 3 caves made of potery and the 2 females have both laid eggs in these caves. Although none have actually hatched!
Last night I found the male hiding in a cave. He would not eat and would not venture out of the cave.
Today I took him out and put him in a smaller "quarantine" aquarium. He could not swim. His back and his back fin seems paralysed. He breaths and when he does swim he is usually upside down.
His back part is white and swollen.
The PH is 7.5, NO3 is under 25mg/l and the hardness under 7.5.
The other fish include 3 corydoras, 12 neons and 2 ghost shrimp.
They are all very healthy.
Does my fish have any chance of survival?

 

[litesky]

dude...last time this happened....it died for me. I didn't know what was wrong and coudln't do anything.

 

[BigDaddy]

I had a male cacatuoides who had a similar fate.

Got him from an LFS instead of a breeder (first mistake). He ate well for weeks, then one day he just stopped eating. Eventually, he wound up in a corner, lying on his side with his back arched. I'm pretty sure this is Tuberculosis, which is very difficult for fish to recover from.

 

[Egona]

Thank you for your answer. The poor fish died. But this leads me to a few other questions:
1. He didn't seem to get along very well with the 2 other females. They often fought each other. Is this normal?
2. About 2 weeks ago Mr Apisto (!) sported a small white spot that on closer observation seemed to be a little eruption on the surface of his skin. At the time he was forever at war with the older of the 2 girl apistos. The spot went away. Before he died another larger white spot appeared on the left side towards his back fin. What sort of pain does a fish feel? Is it better to sacrifice him rather that trying to keep him alive a few more hours?
3. The 2 girls have laid 5 times in 2 months. The longest one of them has kept the eggs protected is 5 days. Each time, at the end it was Mr. Apisto that ate the eggs. Do Apistos have feelings? Are personality clashes the norm with these tremendously agreable fish?
4. Any chance you might know of 'breeders' near or in Paris France? In Paris I have visited all the aquarium shops. None breed.
4. If I want to attempt to reproduce these fish must I take the Apistos out of my communal tank and put them in an austere seperate tank lacking all the quality of life ammenities? Have you been able to reproduce them with other fish swimming around poking their noses everywhere?
Thanks for your patience.

 

[fishgeek]

apisto courtship/spawning behaviour is not dissimilar to aggresive behaviour , it will involve apparent biting of the mid rift and tailswishing

breeding of these fish is easily accomplished in the presence of other fish as long as those other fish are not proficent at egg eating, armoured catfish are able to force the parent apisto's off the egg's
or fry hunters such as the tetra's

i have breed the with many of the surface dwelling fish from guppies/betta's and the more typical sth american dithers of hatchets and pencil fish
when you mention austere, the tank doesn't need to be bare , infact a well planted tank will harbour more natural food for the fry and more hiding places for a spawn

as for buying fish to breed , all mine have come from the lfs not a specialist breeder , the quality of the fish is dependant on more than just the style of vendor you purchase from

asto not eating after a period of seemingly being ok, any internal paraitism in wild caught fish from protozoan/nematodal/cestodal can be implicated and treated succesfully
water quality will also cause these fish to act in a similar manner and my male cac was the first to display signs of poor quality water before i upped my water change regime

keep your chin up the first succesful spawning is well worth the effort

andrew

 

[Egona]

Thank you for your helpful notes. I guess the most important is not to give up after a major set back. We had gotten to really like Mr. Apisto!
I have been changing around 10% of the water every week and no other fish seem remotely sick or unhappy.
I have 2 red Hyphessobrycon Serpae, and they do not get along at all with the apistos, male or female. Could this be a destabilizing factor in my aquarium?