help needed

Hiya all

need some urgent help please

quick background...1.8m tank (X45 X50)...been running for about 2 years and no major problems...all malawis in tank

2weeks ago...put in 5 new fish , 4 days ago the problems started.

the main symptoms...fish are flashing and scraping themselves against various things (1st though ich/parasites?)....no visible signs of ich/parasites though...and ive looked for hours, but cant see anything

then....they're shaking themselves violently (like they have some nervous disorder)....if they hang still in the tank...thye 'll be ok..but sometimes some serious twitching/head shaking (again..parasites?)

came home yesterday...1st death (one of the aulonocaras.....that i've had for ages)

then i noticed that one of the fish cant stay upright (swim bladder?)....he seems to keep falling over if he stays still (at one point he ended up upside down a few times)...but rights himself then swims normally, no swimming problems (ie cant regulate position intank).....he just falls over if he stays still (no head up/down problems...everything seems normal till he stays still for a bit)

1 or 2 other fish are now also doing it...and seem to swim at an angle/skew

ammonia/nitrates/nitrites etc checked...no problems...did a water change as well

i seriously need to sort this out

thanks

 

Hey Irw,
Welcome to TASA ^^,

First things first, get yourself a quarantine tank. I can't stress how important this is as you never know what kind of diseases the fish you just bought might have.

Secondly, I'm going to let someone else help you with the treatment as I'm still a noob too, but I sould suggest raising the temp and doing continuous water changes.

 

Hi linxie

do have a seperate tank that i put them in (maybe i should have left them in there longer...only had them in there for about a week)

everything looked fine....till a few days ago

 

Eish, that's a tough one. I probably would have put them over after a week aswell. Glad to hear you have one though ^^,

Oh, Lrw would you mind introducing yourself in the new members thread.
We LOVE introductions around here, and a few photo's of your setup would be an added bonus

 

I agree with Linxie on this raise the temp to about 29 to 30 degrees and do water changes of about 50% and see if there is any changes.
I wish I could give you better help but unfortunately when it comes to diseases I don't want to give you the wrong advice....sorry
I hope you don't have any more loses and you get this under control soon.
you might get better help if you post under ask the prof, he is way at the moment but he does check in every once in a while.

 

Hi Irw
Some more background. The Malawi's u have in the tank before the new ones, were they there for 2 years and did u get them as juveniles, in other words did they grow up in the tank and how big is the fish u added now. What Malawis u got there - Mbuna?

 

hi fishman

yes...the first malawis were there for about 2 years (all mbuna..red tops/melanochromis/pseudotropheus....1 or 2 others that i have no idea about.... and the one (now deceased) peacock male with 2 females)....got them all as 2-3cm juveniles......i've grown attached to them

new fish were about 5-6cm (bit small, but there wasnt too much friction between fish when they went in....they still seem to get along quite well)

dont know exact names of the new ones...will have to go look it up

 

How many fish do you have in the tank before you add the new fish?

 

too few:bigsmile:

there were only 13 in there (pretty empty for a 1.8m tank....but they seemed to like it that way)

put 5 new ones in

 

hey
dont know if i'm right with this, but should we not just put in some general tonic meds or something like that.
that should get rid off the "normal" gogga's?
Just asking...?

 

Upping temps helps with Ich, not for internal parasites.

Besides the fish with a swim bladder problem, you sure it isn't an agression issue with fish trying to show dominance? My fish scrape against the substrate to do that, think its called flashing. Same goes for the shaking all over

 

Neil

i've sen the shaking i think you refer too....fish stand still and sort of vibrates (fins/body etc) they seem to do that right before they have a go at each other .....this that they're doing is a violent twitching (nothing like the former).....and if they're shaking their heads...its like theres something stuck in their mouth....if its whole body...then its almost like a nervous disorder...whole body rapidly twitches (fish looks pretty bad when it happens)

i honestly thought the swim bladder one wasnt going to make it last night...this morning though...i see he's still there...all fins erect like normal (i put in a bit of salt last night....sodium chloride salt)

if i could narrow it down to what parasite....that would be good.....

 

Ah, have you had major swings in PH by any chance. Had that before with some Kennyi when they went from high ph to low ph.

If they scratching, sounds like flukes

 

Remember, Cichlids are very territorial(hope i spelled it right). The ones u got first had a change to set there territory, now u added some new fish, so theres bound to be some friction.
The shaking u see can be a way for a male to atrract a female or it can be a sign of aggresion to tell the other guy to get out of his space and i think the shaking is for the latter. I had the same problem when i introduced new fish to my tank. It's been 4 months now and they are still going at it, but a lot less. Things are calming down. I don't think u have a ich problem, don't know much about swim bladder though. I would say the scraping is also pretty normal behavior, mine did it from day one and there's no sign of ich.
Hope someone can help me right if i'm wrong here, but this is what i experienced. Good luck

 

nope no major changes...been sitting just under 8 for a while now


and i normally do a 10-15% water change weekly (tank cleaning)

the peacock actually showed no signs of anything being wrong...ate like normal (maybe a bit too much) etc etc......came home yesterday and he was belly up between a rock and the glass

*edit* fishman.....i'll try to take a video of the affected fish tonight....thought about it a bit...and it almost looks like the fish is getting an electric shock the way it twitches......almost a bit like sneezing as well....really nasty
I did the whole rock shifting thing too.....they're actually rather accomodating...swim together etc etc...only real fights i get are over the hidey holes.....and its usually the melanochromis that starts it

 

Yip, that sounds like the shaking we're talking about, i know it does look nasty. When a male shakes like that to attract a female and she does'nt show interest he wil chase her around the tank a few times as wel, so that might also be what you're seeing.
The rock shifting was a good thing, because they are all on equal terms now, but they stil do have to sort one another out for territory. Don't know how much rock you've got in there but you can add more if possible to make more hiding place.
Just keep a close eye on them for the next month or 2 and see how it goes. Sorry to here about the fish you lost, never a lekker thing. Hope the guy with the swim bladder will be okay.

 

could be some sort of funges,try using a Anti-funges med (you may need resuring from more expienced members.

 

This sounds a bit like a bacterial infection.

Parasite or Ich would be visible to the naked eye. Fungus would also be visible.

I would say there is a 99.9% chance that the bacterial infection came through the addition of the 5 new fish. (Fish should be quarantined for 2 weeks- for future reference).

I would however NOT just chuck in anything... i.e a multi meds stuff, or treat with fungus stuff, then ich, then this then that. When you go to the doctor, your doctor treats you for your problem. It's no good treating you for a head cold when you have gastro.

For starters, I would highly recommend you do a BIG water change... 50-75%. (Don't do anything to your filters tho, we don't want to kill the bacteria in the filters). Remember to add dechlor to water before adding back into the water. And do small 20% water changes every alternate days for the next week/2 weeks. A LOT of fish diseases can be cured/prevented by good water quality... doing the water changes will increase the quality.

Next, spend some time on the net and try and find out exactly what this could be. Try waterlife's website. Dolphin (sponsor here on TASA) also has a few websites up his sleeve (if I remember correctly). Only then consider medicating.

Oh, and lastly... I would suggest maybe going to the new members forum and posting an introductory thread. A lot of people feel it's rude nt to introduce yourself, but I agree with you that this is an urgent matter that needs attention now.

 

Hi zoom

thanks for info...will do the whole intro thing:smile1:

quick update....after much searching and talking to people yesterday.......i decided to give the parasite option a shot

got a product made by sera, called parazol.....chucked it in at about 6 last night

checked fish regularly till about 9.....they've just about stopped flashing (maybe once or twice in those few hours)

even swim bladder fish is staying upright and showing erect fins to other fish

i must add that i stopped the pellet food (HBH cichlid attack) completely yesterday and just giving them spirulina based food (thought they might be gorging themselves on pellet food ....swim bladder problem)

i considered not feeding them for a day or so....but when i turned up at the tank they were pretty excited...and hungry....and hungry malawis are mean little snots ....i watched 3 fights yesterday....mouths locked and round and round the tank...

 

Good to hear you have the problem solved.