Cichlids Heavy Gasping And Dieing

[Joller]

hello, i recently added a fish without quarantine and i'm paying the price, first i had ich but now it seems there was another problem aswell

the tank has bolivian rams, juvie angels, juvie elliotis, juvie firemouths and juvie rainbow cichlids, guppies and tetras

so far the bolivian rams, angels, guppies and tetras are yet to suffer any symptoms, a guppy did get dropsy but i don't think that was related

symtoms:
fish becomes lethargic
heavy gasping
the nose area of the face can sometimes be red as if bleeding internally

so i've been losing the odd firemouth and ellioti to this for a few weeks but the smaller rainbow cichlids started dropping at about 2 per day about 4 or 5 days ago, they're about 1cm

the tanks about 200L (~60G)
ph 7.3
ammonia 0ppm
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 5-10ppm

treatments i have here are salt, primafix, multicure and metro

thanks, joel

 

[This Old Spouse]

When was the last time you did a water change, and how much?

 

[Joller]

this has been going on for a feewe weeks now on weekly 50% water changes, but currently doing 2 a week in an attempt to help

 

[Joller]

ive moved all the fish to a 2 footer, in case i need to medicate

 

[fishprotector]

symtoms:
fish becomes lethargic
heavy gasping
the nose area of the face can sometimes be red as if bleeding internally
thanks, joel

It sounds like it could be an internal bacterial infection, possibly leading to septicemia. I experienced a similar thing a few years back with some Angel fish I purchased. Maracyn / Maracyn 2 (can not remember off the top of my head which one is for internal infections) is good but hard to get hold of.

 

[Joller]

i don't think i can get maracyn here so i treated metronidazole, i know it may not work but its the only thing at my disposal so it will have to do