Constant Rubbing & Flicking, Pop Eye.. Help Please!

[emilythestrange]

Woo i haven't been on here for a while, but here i am for desperate advice as im not sure whats best, as my tanks turned into chaos.

I have a 100 Litre tank, and it has in...

2 male platys
2 male sailfin mollies
7 neon tetras
2 corydoras

water stats are 0 ppm of ammonia, 0 ppm of nitrite and around 40 ppm of nitrate, tested with api freshwater kits (liquid) been testing for ages now so it seems all okay, as it used to be.

however..

My fish are flicking and rubbing constantly on plants ornaments etc
I cannot see large "salt grain" size of white spots,
my male molly has had pop eye twice in a short amount of time
AND

im over run with pest snails.


Please help !!

 

[WILDER]

Any black spots on the fish.
Any signs of darting, erratic swimming, laboured breathing, excess mucas or slime.
Do the gills look pale with excess mucas, or red and inflamed.
Do any fish swim in a jerky movement.
Any sores or red pin prick marks on the fish.
Do any fish have a greyish film, or bluish film on them.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Is the anus of the fish enlarged or red and inflamed.
Any rotting snails in the tank.
Added any fish, plants, or meds in the last two weeks.

Get a pop bottle and steralise it with boiling water.
Add some lettuce inside the bottle. Remove snails.
Bury the bottle down in the substrate, or a plant weight attached with a rubber band.

 

[emilythestrange]

Any black spots on the fish.
Any signs of darting, erratic swimming, laboured breathing, excess mucas or slime.
Do the gills look pale with excess mucas, or red and inflamed.
Do any fish swim in a jerky movement.
Any sores or red pin prick marks on the fish.
Do any fish have a greyish film, or bluish film on them.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Is the anus of the fish enlarged or red and inflamed.
Any rotting snails in the tank.
Added any fish, plants, or meds in the last two weeks.

Get a pop bottle and steralise it with boiling water.
Add some lettuce inside the bottle. Remove snails.
Bury the bottle down in the substrate, or a plant weight attached with a rubber band.

They do dart around and swim in an curving way, no black spots, theres a small sore on one of my mollies, and i dont know about rotting snails but theres 100 + in there, its gotten way out of hand.
The last med i used was melafix for pop eye but that was over 2 weeks ago.

i added plants around a month ago ish, but had one snail before then.
I dont know about the toilet issues, havent seen anything. They're eating as normal.

 

[WILDER]

It's sounding let skin flukes which you can't see with the naked eye.
Get a magifying glass and take a closer look at the fish to see if you can see anything.

The fish with the popeye does he have any white specs behind the lens of the eye.

I would treat for flukes first.

Signs of skin flukes and gill flukes are.

Flicking and rubbing.
Darting or erratic swimming.
Swimming in a jerky movement.
Pale gills with excess slime or red inflamed gills.
Opaque body with excess slime.
Sores on the body of the fish.
Spitting food out.
Weightloss.
Laboured breathing, or gasping at surface of tank.

 

[emilythestrange]

It's sounding let skin flukes which you can't see with the naked eye.
Get a magifying glass and take a closer look at the fish to see if you can see anything.

The fish with the popeye does he have any white specs behind the lens of the eye.

I would treat for flukes first.

Signs of skin flukes and gill flukes are.

Flicking and rubbing.
Darting or erratic swimming.
Swimming in a jerky movement.
Pale gills with excess slime or red inflamed gills.
Opaque body with excess slime.
Sores on the body of the fish.
Spitting food out.
Weightloss.
Laboured breathing, or gasping at surface of tank.

Yes, thankyou flukes is definatly what they've got, i have seen spitting food out, he is eating but spitting some out and does appear to have lost a little weight,

the other molly with pop eye i think has one teeny spot, i cant quite make it out, they have had white spot before, about 3-5 months ago then i treated it.

What would you recommend best for treating flukes effectively, In UK meds?

 

[WILDER]

White specs behind the lens of the eye can be eye flukes.
White spots on the eye can be whitespot.

Keep a look out for when fish go to the toilet, as fish can flick and rub also with internal parasites.

Get you a link to a flukes med.

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/WATERLIFE-Sterazin-Flukes-Worms-Leaches-Parasites_W0QQitemZ310096308307QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Pet_Supplies_Fish?hash=item48332e2853

 

[BlackWidow]

DOSE your Tank with Octoxin to clear the bacterial infections, then 4days after dose with either Protozin, Cuprazin or Cupramine
(Medicine for parasites with Copper Sulphate in it). This will clear any external parasites in your tank causing your fish to flick as the copper sulphate is very poisonous to parasites like Ich etc, it is also poisonous to pests like Snails so will wipeout all your 100 + snails to . Do this and do it Now before your popeye infection jumps to other fish, and the parasitic infections get worse. Trust me Ive had the same problems as you and copper sulphate wipes the parasites out everytime!

Good Luck, BW Out!

Here is where you can read up on the meds! http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/aqudistr.htm

 

[WILDER]

Parasites can cause popeye so I would treat the flukes first.
Flukes also cause bacterial infections, as in there hooks they carry a nasty bacteria which enters the fish bloodstream when it pierces the skin.

http/www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm

 

[emilythestrange]

DOSE your Tank with Octoxin to clear the bacterial infections, then 4days after dose with either Protozin, Cuprazin or Cupramine
(Medicine for parasites with Copper Sulphate in it). This will clear any external parasites in your tank causing your fish to flick as the copper sulphate is very poisonous to parasites like Ich etc, it is also poisonous to pests like Snails so will wipeout all your 100 + snails to . Do this and do it Now before your popeye infection jumps to other fish, and the parasitic infections get worse. Trust me Ive had the same problems as you and copper sulphate wipes the parasites out everytime!

Good Luck, BW Out!

Here is where you can read up on the meds! http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/aqudistr.htm

My other brought me a interpet "anti snail" med which contains copper sulphate, which it said can be harmful to fish when wrongly dosed, so i took it back as i dont trust myself dosing something that could kill them, just for the snails.

Im not sure what to do now !!! I have been given 2 pieces of very different advice !!

 

[WILDER]

I would treat for the parasites first which cause bacterial infection.
You need to get rid of the flukes first as they are a nasty parasite.
it could be the flukes that are causing the eyes to swell.

The med might kill the snails, so remove them when dead. As they can become toxic to fish when they start to rot.

 

[BlackWidow]

I would treat for the parasites first which cause bacterial infection.
You need to get rid of the flukes first as they are a nasty parasite.
it could be the flukes that are causing the eyes to swell.

The med might kill the snails, so remove them when dead. As they can become toxic to fish when they start to rot.

It is higly unlikely it has anything to do with flukes, these common infections are most likely as a result of the most common forms of bacteria and parasites all of which can be wiped out with the meds I stated above! Dont trust me well first off common sense will prevail when thinking about meds that contain copper sulphate as they wouldnt be for sale if they were harmful to fish?!?!?!?!?!
These meds are only harmful to fish when you Overdose the Tank which you WONT do if you (Read the Instructions on the Bottle).

Also I can vouch for Cuprazin(c) (contains Copper Sulphate) as a treatmnet for Parasites as I used it on my Marine Tank when my PufferFish got SaltWater WhiteSpot Parasite infection which is much much much harder to treat than regular freshwater parasitic infections like what youve got! I started out by Trying Hyposalinity on my tank (lowering the Salt Level to kill the Ich from 0.22SG to 0.11SG) and I left the salt at that low level for 4 weeks nothing happened, this method of hyposalinity was supposedly the best method for treating saltwater ich without harming your fish as apparently (Copper is bad for marine tanks bla bla bla).
Let me tell you doing the safe method of lowering the salt level lead to the Death of one of my Large Hermit Crabs and all of my Starfish (all of which were worth over £50!!!) AND at the end of the 4 weeks of Hyposalinity Treatment, the Saltwater ICH was still there!!!!

So all that Hard work and Dead Starfish / Crab was for Nothing, I decided then to treat the Tank with Copper Sulphate (ie Cuprazin(c)) and within a Week all the SaltWater Whitespot Parasite were GONE and my fish were all healthy and Stopped Flicking etc.

So there you have it first hand proof of going against peoples advice by treating parasites with Copper and it worked with no more Fish Deaths. If you want try Wilders idea and treat your fish for flukes, but like with the hyposalinity method I used you will get NO where and probs more fish will die?
No offence to Wilder im sure he described the treatment of flukes perfectly but since your fish had Dropsy 2 Weeks before and now has it again tells me you have common dropsy bacteria in your Tank and you need too wipe it out now before others get dropsy. Then treat for parasites with Copper.

Its up to you and good Luck Cya

Oh and all InterPet(c) Products suck dont use em

 

[WILDER]

I thought I read that her fish had popeye two weeks ago not dropsy.

Here some info on popeye.
Exophthalmia (a.k.a. Pop-Eye)
Info taken from here.
http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm



Symptoms:

Fish with exophthalmia will have eyes that are abnormally enlarged and protrude from their sockets. In severe cases the eyes may actually burst from the socket, leaving the fish eyeless. Eye swelling is caused by a build up of fluids in or behind the eye.



Cause:

There can be any number of causes for this condition. Possible causes include poor water quality, bacterial infections, viral infections, eye flukes or other parasitic infestations, or piscine tuberculosis. Even though the fish may recover, the protruding eye may remain that way. This should not adversely affect that fish.



Treatment:

Since there are so many possible causes a broad-spectrum antibiotic is recommended, such as Tetracycline, but this treatment cannot obviously guarantee success. Be sure to keep water quality in good condition.

 

[emilythestrange]

Update :

Finished the medication for flukes, fish arent rubbing or flicking, but a platy has dropsy now, I keep searchign for what to do but i am unsure in my case, around 3 ish months ago another platy had dropsy and died because it got severe.

However with my red platy he is slightly rounded "bloated" however i cannot see fins sticking out, they might be but this is the first day i have seen these signs.

 

[WILDER]

Think you mean scales sticking out not fins.

All you can do is epson salts baths to help draw fluids out.
Also feed some peas aswell.
What do you feed the fish?

 

[emilythestrange]

Think you mean scales sticking out not fins.

All you can do is epson salts baths to help draw fluids out.
Also feed some peas aswell.
What do you feed the fish?

Yes i mean scales, I feed the fish tetra min fish flakes, and algae wafers (for cories) but they all eat it.