Few Fish Health Problems

[Neo8223]

Hi all. I have quite a few endlers in two tanks. It seems that whenever the female endlers mature, they get white patches on their bodies. This is followed by the rotting of fins.This has happened in both tanks. Additionally, one of my endlers in tank 1 has got a cloudy eye.. I have used melafix to try to solve both problems. Its been dosed since monday to no avail. Its strange, but the males never have any health problems. I think it might be genetic due to generations of inbreeding to preserve the strain.

Finally One of my clown loaches in tank 1 is really looking quite bad. It has cloudy eyes, skinny disease and has fin rot. I tried buying flubanol 15 as i heard that it cures skinny disease. Could not find it anywhere, so i used the last of my reserves. Done nothing except kill a few snails. Apparently melafix has had possitive results in curing it. Both tanks have clown loaches and every one of them are very healthy and eat well (making the clicking sound as they eat), Except for the one clown loach. Since monday, its fins have stopped rotting. Its still thin and has a cloudy eye. Its acting strange too, not schooling with the other two clowns, and hanging around the surface. It also spits out any food it finds, and swims straight past some frozen food, whilst the other two clown loaches are clicking away devouring them.

Other than this problem, both tanks are healthy, with both endlers and bristlenoses breeding in both tanks. Tank 1 is overstocked due to endlers. I hope to get rid of them all as they breed too quickly and one can only re-home so many, but want to understand the source of the problem before i accidently release a pandemic to the world.

Tank 1: L12, W24, H 12 Temp. 27 c, Hard water, EI dosed, Flourish excel Dosed. partial water change @ 50% weekly. Filter eheim ecco 2332 cleaned once every 2 months (cuz its way overkill for my tank) Lights on for 8 hours. moon light kit on for 2 hours. Heavily planted with real plants. 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia Didnt test nitrates as they are never high.
Tank 2: About L24, W40, H30 Temp 26c, Hard water, partial water change @ 50% every two weeks. Plastic plants only. Filter cleaned quarterly (Dads pretty lazy) Lights on for 6 hours. 0 nitrites, 0 ammonia, didnt test nitrates.

Any help would be most welcomed. I dont think the melafix is working. I dont mind spending money on expensive treatments either, as long as they get better.

Thanks for reading.

 

[Colin_T]

The white patches on the body, rotting fins & cloudy eyes are an indication of poor water quality. White patching is generally excess mucous produced by the fish when they are stressed out. Grey patching can be skin parasites like costia or chilodonella, which are common in overcrowded tanks that don't get cleaned enough.

If the bristlenose and endlers are in the same tank then the tank will need more water changes and gravel cleans because the bristlenose are dirty little buggars. Try doing daily 50% water changes and gravel cleans for a week and then cut it back to 3 times a week. See if it helps.

The clown loach probably has intestinal worms and the fin rot and cloudy eyes are probably from poor water quality, (high nitrates perhaps). It could also have an internal bacterial infection like Tuberculosis and that might be causing the cloudy eyes and fin rot but try doing more water changes and gravel cleans and see what happens.
I prefer to clean filters every month so that way I know they are clean. All the tank water goes through the filter and if it isn't clean then the water will be filtered through all the gunk that is trapped in it. This can lead to an increase in diseases in the tank. It's a bit like people breathing air through a dirty dust mask. Eventually you are going to inhale some of the stuff you are trying to keep out and it will make you sick.

If cleaning the tank up doesn’t improve things then perhaps try something along the lines of “Waterlife Protozin". It will kill off most skin parasites and bacterial/ fungal infections. It won’t do anything for intestinal worms tho.

 

[Neo8223]

thanks for the lengthy in depth reply. I'll give away some endlers today so it should lower the bio load on the tank. Additionally, i may temperorily set up a 4 foot tank in the garden considering the good weather. No heater, internal filter, natural sun light, pea shingle as gravel. Should be low wattage so i can run off solar power. Then add only male endlers and a few bn's.

I'll also do daily water changes in tank 1.

 

[Neo8223]

Treated for 2 weeks now. Protozin did the job for the endlers. However, the clown loach is worse than ever. I'm going to euthanize it today. Any suggestions. I dont think the cold water trick will work. I was thinking of going overkill and just putting it on the ground outside and shooting an air gun through its head, particularly where the head meets the spinal column. The fish is soo thin that its got to be suffering but its the last resort.

I'll be doing it in about 5 hours or so. Any other better suggestions for euthanasia of a 2.5" fish, please say. Irrespective of the debate whether fish feel pain or not, i want the goal to be instant death so minimising potential pain. Anyone against euthanasia here to tell me off, dont bother replying.