Need help to diagnose Apsitogramma macmasteri sickness

[Russ Hennessey]

Hi all,

I need help disgnosing and treating what i think is a lethal sickness that a new Apisto is showing signs of.

Yesterday, I purhcased 3 wild Apistogramma macmasteri from my LFS. When purchased they were in a tank with another 10 macmasteri (I am aware that they are wild and may not be exaclty as advertised) and I took the largest male and two small (hopefully) females. They had been there for a couple of months and all fish seemed to be fine in the store.

I don't have a quarantine tank and when introduced I didn't do a long transition from bag to tank, 30 min in bag for temp adjustmend and 15 min with 1/2 tank water in bag, then release.

Since introduction to my tank the females appear to be fine are moving around the tank and not showing any outward signs of any problems.

The problem is the male who is showing signs of being sick. When I introduced them to the aquarium everthing seemed fine although i noticed a small wound/scratch on the forehead of the male. About an hour after introduction i noticed that the male was hiding and breathing quickly and his colour was very dark. Today about 12 hours after introduction the male is very pale in colour, breathing rapidly and either hiding in a cave or when he swims he seems to be drunk and bumping into things. He is staying in the bottom area of the tank and also seems to be having troubles controlling his up and down (skips off bottom) movements. When he swims he also is doing some scrathing on rocks although i've only seen it a couple of times.

I don't see any visible sign of sickness except the scratch on the head. I am concerned because a similar problem (i think as I was not able to diagnose last time) happened recently with another Apisto i purchased and the fish died within 3 days.

Tank Details: setup for 1 month, 20gallon, ph 7.2, Kh <60, Gh 0, NO3 20, NO2 0, temp 23c. Lots of plants, bogwood and caves. Also have leaf litter and fine gravel substrate. Tankmates are 2 female apistos (added with Male) 10 very small endlers livebear hybrid, 4 cardinal tetras and 5 corydoras. All other fish appear to be ok.

My thoughs on what it is...maybe ich or some other parasite....or perhaps dropsy...?

Treatment taken so far. I have removed carbon filter and treated tank with ich cure (API). I also am raising temperature slowly thinking that 30c will kill the ich if that is what it is. Also, I will be setting up a hospital/sick tank today and will move the male to it.

I would realy appreciate any advice or ideas on what this may be and how to cure it. I think that i have a couple of days at max.

Thanks,
RH

 

[gerald]

Rapid breathing could indicate either gill damage (possibly parasitic or bacterial infection, ammonia poisoning, etc) or damage to other internal organs (such as kidney, intestines) that are critical for osmoregulation (water/salt balance). It seems odd that he was "fine" in the shop for months and immediately got sick in your tank. That makes it sound like something happened during transport & acclimation.