Apisto With Discolored Skin Patch And Scratching

[WILDER]

I would just check your water quality as fish will flick and rub with the slightest ammonia reading, or nitrite.
I would only medicate for parasites if you are sure they are suffering from a parasite.

Good Luck.
Hope the sick fish gets well.

 

[gregswimm]

EDTA isn't something I would knowingly dose into my tanks, it is both genotoxic and cytotoxic. Not sure I would attribute that to your fishes illness

I would leave him in the QT, put a piece of media from the old tank in the filter of the quarantine tank to cycle it up. Moving a sick fish around is likely to cause its early death. 80% water change is too much, no more than 50%.

What frozen foods are you feeding? Brine shrimp is rather nutrient deficient and shouldn't be a staple feed. I would move him to a quality pellet food such as NLS or a vitamin flake. A vitamin deficiency can cause an infection to take hold. BUT I would only feed him a little bit every other day while in quarantine.

Based on the picture, the white specs on the front could be the begging of a Spironucleus vortens, and or Hexamita spp. infection. Keep his stress low (give him LOTS of cover and maybe an air pump). You can feed him Metronidazole soaked food and also treat the water with it. I know you can order the meds here (http/www.angelsplus.com/Meds.htm) if you have trouble finding it.

Hope he gets better

 

[Noster]

Thanks a lot for all your help!

Yes 80% was overdoing it... I did squeeze filter media in the tank hoping this would settle in the quarantine filter but the ammonia went up anyway.
I feed him daphnia, brine shrimp and bloodworms in turns . I also throw in some flakes first, but they mainly get eaten by the tetras (he is a bit snob or a bit slow). I tried recently to feed more flakes and reduced the frozen food but he just ends up eating less. he does like the sinking pellets for the corys though, but they dont fit in his mouth (its entertaining to watch though).
I would not be worried about EDTA. It's in some fertilizers as trace as it's a chelator that helps plants to absorb nutrients. I agree its unnecessary, but it would need to be dosed on the tenth of mg/L to see any fish tox effect. I would be surprised if any fertilizer constituents was not toxic at the dose they test lab animals with

I dont know what to do with him. Retested the water quality. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate <5ppm (liquid test this time). I will filter with activated carbon and see if there is any improvement... Otherwise I might end up treating the tank for parasites .

 

[WILDER]

Is the fish still flicking and rubbing?
Do the gills still look inflamed?
Any changes to the patch?

 

[Noster]

not much changes
I have seen him scratch once tonight, but appart from that he does not seem distressed... I guess I will need to wait until further symptoms appear? this is a bit frustrating...

 

[WILDER]

Thanks for the update.

 

[gregswimm]

NLS has a .5mm sinking pellet called "Spectrum grow by new life", I feed it to all my fish even my kribs and endlers.

Squeezing the media in the tank is worrisome, could cause a nasty ammonia spike from all the mulm. Just snip a bit off the media and put it in the new filter.

He is not distressed, a very good sign. I would feed him a high quality pellet food soaked in a gram stain positive antibiotic and copper the quarantine tank or use any of the meds I have already mentioned.

Best of luck

 

[Noster]

Thanks for the tips! The pellets look perfect, I was looking for that.
I have seen many accounts of dipping food in antibiotics, but I am a bit confused as to how I could get liquid antibiotics in the UK (I mean real antibiotics, not antiseptics), as I thought these were not distributed to the public without a prescription.

 

[WILDER]

You can only get hold of antibiotics in the UK from a doctor, or vet.
You can use antibiotics that the doctor prescribed for you if there not out of date.
Soak a pellet in egg white. Crush the antibiotics into a fine powder, than roll the pellet in the crushed antibiotic. Set in fridge for a few hours.

 

[Noster]

Brilliant thanks

 

[Noster]

Hiya,

Thought I would give an update. Since the thread of message, I have seen a few other fish scratching. I decided to replace part of the substrate (I have a soil-type substrate, with a heavily planted tank in general, but this part of the tank was not planted but with floating plants mainly) as I feared it was getting anaerobic and producing toxins (might not be the case, but better safe than sorry). Not sure it made any change, but my big male seems to be fine, I have not seen him scratch recently and even my otos have been mating .

 

[Flute]

Fantastic news that he and ottos are doing better