2 sick fish in seperate tanks

Hi Prof

Firstly thanks for ferts and plants you sent me... plants are growing well and my planted tank is coming along nicely.

Now to my Q: In the last week I've had two ill fish -

1st Tank, PH 7.5) Kribensis - (i posted this on the weekend but did not get a response so thought you may have an idea)

I noticed a week back that my big male Kribensis was not coming out of his rock cave and eating. I assumed he was gaurding eggs like he usually does....

Then on thursday he came out and I noticed he was much paler and breathing heavily. One of his gills was protruding and after doing a bit of research I treated for Gill Fluke. This didnt really seem to make much of a diff and when I came home tonight he was sitting in the middle of the tank

His face looks gaunt (like he's lost alot of weight) but his body is still plump, pale and he had a long thin white trail coming out of his anus. I havnt seen him eat anything since begining of last week.

I've QT him and can only think that its either an internal nematode infestation or bloat....

Not sure what to do?? any ideas?

2nd tank, PH 6.8) African Butterfly Fish - he went from being the hungriest fish i've ever seen to not even moving when a cricket hits the water within a 12 hour time frame. He now just floats in one spot. when he is spooked he trys to swimdown but seems to float back up like a ballon, he's also been 'burping'air which seems abit unusual?? otherwise nothing really seems to be out of place externally.

Due to both my butterflys only eating live foods i've been feeding them mainly crickets supplemented by wood lice, daddy long legs and mozzies that i manage to get my hands on.

I recently added Seachem Purigen to this tank to remove some of the tannins which were staining the water, it def cleared it up but it still has the tea colour (not as dark tho).

Factors common to both tanks: we had a hot couple of days with temps reaching 34 degrees here in Durbs. my thermo was recently broken so cant take the temp of the tank. did 25% water changes on both tanks on Saturday (butterfly started acting weird on Sunday).


Apologies for the long winded thread but I wanted to make sure I provided you with enough info. if you need anything else please let me know.

Thanks in Advance
Lyle

 

Hi Kaizer G,

I must prepare lectures for tomorrow and will have to be brief:

Kribensis, they are resistant to gill flukes so mis-diagnosis. Stringly faeces plus swollen belly = bloat. Most probably too late for treatment.... Whatever he has, all the other fishes in the tank have already in any case. If you take him out to QT him at this stage the stress is huge and will likely put him out of his misery as it is.....

Butterfly, also perhaps some bloat, but the temperature was faaaaaaar too high for him and he may just simply be burnt out. I think he has an infected swimbladder if I gauge by what you say re his floating at the top. This is also the result of the high heat. Medication against this is too late and will not work. Give his tank a couple of large water charges, forget about medication. Then try some live food again but for the meantime do not even bother to feed him. You must remember that crickets eat all sorts of muck and can have a high load of bacteria in their guts so unless you know what they have been eating be careful, Durban's high temps in general mean you have all sorts of nasty bacteria around.....

Kind regards,

Dirk

 

Thanks for the response Prof really appreciate it.... these high temps are relly not helping

I will follow your advice and see how it goes with them...just REALLY dont want to loose my Butterflys as they my favourite fish.