requesting your urgent assistance

[Frank kung]

Dear sirs,

I would like to request your urgent assistance due to the serious problems I have been faced with.

I live in Brasil and I have 12 fish tanks where I have been able to successfully reproduce the Cacatuoide/ Gold / Agazizi/ Nijiseni/Macmastery. I have edited tapes of almost all of the breeding.

My problem is with the bigger fish tanks (200 liters) where I have the 47 Apistogramas in the growing phase. For the last three weeks, one Cacatuoide dies every 3 days.

Before the Cacatuoide´s die, they present the following symptoms:
First day – Breathing becomes hard, but they swim and eat well.
Second day - Fish stays at the bottom of the fish tank. Still breaths hard, swims with certain difficulty, but eats well.
Third day – Fish stays at the bottom of the fish tank, changes into an extremely bright and dark color. Hard breathing, don’t eat or swim anymore. The fishes remains at these conditions until their death.

The fishes started to show these symptoms right after I acquired some wild apistogramas, trifaciata and Mendesi. As a matter of the fact, they were the first fishes to die.

I keep the water conditions in the fish tank in the following manner:
PH 6,6 / GH 3, changing part of the water every three days, using 70% of RO water and 30% tap water.

I have already tried using bactericidal, fungicide and synthetic salt, but unfortunately I´m not getting any positive results.

I urgently request the help of anyone.
Thank you in advance.

Frank Kung

 

[Neil]

Frank kung,

WELCOME TO THE FORUM

Frank,
I think that you probably have internal parasites. Although I am far from an expert in fish diseases, I do know that wild fish quite often need to be treated right off. Metranitzol(sp?) or some other gut parasite medication is probably in order here. I think Tetra makes a medicated flake that probably would work at the stage that the fish are still eating well. But, hopefully someone else with more experience with meds than I will chime in soon. If not, I will try and look itup for you and give you a little better answer in the next day or so.
Neil

 

[Frank kung]

My friends and I having had had the same problem for a long time with any possible solution. The Apist. have a hard breathing and most of all die in 3 days.
Have you seen those symptons before.
I will follow your instruction and I'll keep you informed.
I just lost 3 more Cacatuoide male (1,5")
I hope it works. Thank's.
Frank

 

[Cichlids1]

When my fish are breathing hard and gasping at the surface, I almost alway show a rise in Nitrates and/or Ammonia. Have you checked for anything like that? You could have a malfunctioning filter in that tank if it has been going of for a period of time causing a rise in the pollution level thus the demise of the fish. Although, cacatouides have been practically bullet proof for me. Very tough and forgiving on water parameters and quality. But every fish and situation is a little different. A nitrate/nitrite and ammonia/ammonium test is always my first step in unknow fry die-offs.

 

[Frank kung]

Dear Cichlids 1

Any one of those Cacatuoides who dies went to the surface.
The ammonia and the nitrite is ok as well as PH and GH.
I am follow the Neil's suggestion. I am using the Clout for parasite. Today complete the 24 hs treatment.
I hope it works.
Frank

 

[Eva32181]

I had some rams die like that - heavy breathing at the surface, then resting on the bottom and finally dying. It killed them very quickly, too. The other tetras in my tank showed no signs of the disease, and all the water parameters were fine. I was told it was possibly gill flukes, but I never knew for sure and never got successful results with medication.

Try looking into diseases at http://www.thekrib.com

 

[aspen]

frank, imo, it is likely that you have gill flukes in your tank. do they seem to be breathing from one gill, flashing at objects in the tank, then darting around before they die? these are the gill fluke symptoms, and clout will work on that, but clout is a very strong med, so be very careful how you use it.

btw, please quartentine all new arrivals, it is much easier to prevent disease than to cure it.

good luck, rick

 

[Frank kung]

Helo Rick...

The Apist. are acting exactly as you mencioned.
3rd day using Clout and I still loosing my fishes.
Thank's for you assistance
Frank

 

[Neil]

Frank,
Has there been any change? Has the rate of death slowed at all?

 

[apistodave]

Mdicating is tough and rarely successful try acriflaven or destroy the fish

 

[Randall]

Dying Fish

Dear Frank,

So sorry to learn of your severe problem. From your description and the feedback from the forum, it sounds like you have a nasty parasitic infection on your hands. As suggested earlier, new fish, especially wild ones, should be quarantined; and at the first sign of disease, should be medicated to effect a cure, prior to moving them into another tank with other fish.

Intestinal protazoa have very specific symptoms. Those that you described don't strike me as being caused by an internal parasite. It sounds like an external parasitic infection. The Clout should work. If not, I think Dave's suggestion of using Acriflaven is a good one. I've had success with propriatary medications containing Formaldehyde. Aquarium Products makes a brand called Quick Cure. It contains Formaldehyde and Malachite Green, and is usually effective against parasitic infections. If necessary, you might have to try a combination of products, one at a time, not mixed together. Prior to switching to an alternative medication, a hefty water change should be done.

Good luck to you.

Randall Kohn