Fish Spinning And Corkscrewing

[wodesorel]

The gourami, pleco, and kuhlis all were starting to have problems before the water change. If anything, the pleco starting looking better after the WC.

The bedroom betta had a water change a week ago and just started showing symptoms about 18 hours ago. I've got a second betta in my kitchen with clamped fins now as well - she's the only one that had a water change close to the time of symptoms, on Sunday. She shares a divided tank with a male betta who so far seems to be fine. I've only got one other tank in the house, with two young female bettas, and they received the same water as the sick kitchen betta on Sunday. They are perky as always.

The fish get a variety of Omega One flakes, Hikari bloodworms, Hikari daphnia, Hikari micro-pellets (the baby betta are tiny!), and the large male betta gets Hikari betta bio-gold pellets. The betta don't get the flakes but a mix of everything else, and the loaches and gourami got a mix of all of the above. I bought everything new within the last two to four months, and they've been steadily fed these things.

I'm not sure what the white specs where on the bettas eyes. I treated him with the Parasite Clear last night and both the spots and the cloudiness are gone from his eyes. His fins are still clamped tight though. Kitchen female betta is clamped finned and laying on the gravel more and more.

I've got one kuhli (the one in the photo right above) who is stuck in a corkscrew. I can lift him with my fingers and he cannot uncurl himself.

Symptoms:

Loaches

----Scratching on objects in tank (bacteria, parasites, toxins)
----Twitching (bacteria, parasites, toxins, skin irritant)
----Spastic, uncoordinated movements
----Sluggish, lethargic
----Lying on bottom and gasping (near death; heavy bacteria, parasite or dinoflagellate infection)
----Gasping, irregular opercular beat, rapid opercular beat (bacteria, dinoflagellates, parasites, toxins)
----Rapid or irregular opercular beat (bacteria, dinoflagellates [free-living or parasitic], toxins,
hyperplasia, parasites )
----Body deformed, twisted, etc (genetic, injury in egg, vitamin/mineral deficiency, old age, etc)

Plecos

----Eyes protruding or pop-eye (exophthalmos) (gas bubble disease, lymphocystis or parasites or tumor
behind eye in socket pushing eye out, bacteria)
----Bloated belly, scales raised from scale pockets (dropsy, kidney damage, tumor-benign or cancer)
----Sluggish, lethargic

Bettas
----Clamped fins (poor water quality, parasites)
----Sluggish, lethargic

 

[wodesorel]

The gourami, pleco, and kuhlis all were starting to have problems before the water change. If anything, the pleco starting looking better after the WC.

The bedroom betta had a water change a week ago and just started showing symptoms about 18 hours ago. I've got a second betta in my kitchen with clamped fins now as well - she's the only one that had a water change close to the time of symptoms, on Sunday. She shares a divided tank with a male betta who so far seems to be fine. I've only got one other tank in the house, with two young female bettas, and they received the same water as the sick kitchen betta on Sunday. They are perky as always.

The fish get a variety of Omega One flakes, Hikari bloodworms, Hikari daphnia, Hikari micro-pellets (the baby betta are tiny!), and the large male betta gets Hikari betta bio-gold pellets. The betta don't get the flakes but a mix of everything else, and the loaches and gourami got a mix of all of the above. I bought everything new within the last two to four months, and they've been steadily fed these things.

I'm not sure what the white specs where on the bettas eyes. I treated him with the Parasite Clear last night and both the spots and the cloudiness are gone from his eyes. His fins are still clamped tight though. Kitchen female betta is clamped finned and laying on the gravel more and more.

I've got one kuhli (the one in the photo right above) who is stuck in a corkscrew. I can lift him with my fingers and he cannot uncurl himself.

Symptoms:

Loaches

----Scratching on objects in tank (bacteria, parasites, toxins)
----Twitching (bacteria, parasites, toxins, skin irritant)
----Spastic, uncoordinated movements
----Sluggish, lethargic
----Lying on bottom and gasping (near death; heavy bacteria, parasite or dinoflagellate infection)
----Gasping, irregular opercular beat, rapid opercular beat (bacteria, dinoflagellates, parasites, toxins)
----Rapid or irregular opercular beat (bacteria, dinoflagellates [free-living or parasitic], toxins,
hyperplasia, parasites )
----Body deformed, twisted, etc (genetic, injury in egg, vitamin/mineral deficiency, old age, etc)

Plecos

----Eyes protruding or pop-eye (exophthalmos) (gas bubble disease, lymphocystis or parasites or tumor
behind eye in socket pushing eye out, bacteria)
----Bloated belly, scales raised from scale pockets (dropsy, kidney damage, tumor-benign or cancer)
----Sluggish, lethargic

Bettas
----Clamped fins (poor water quality, parasites)
----Sluggish, lethargic

 

[ArnieStinger]

are you using dechlorinator?

 

[wodesorel]

Been using Seachem Prime for almost six years. I bought a new bottle about six months ago and I actually need to get a new one this week because it's almost gone. Between the fish and the hermit crabs I go through it like crazy.

 

[WILDER]

Do you rinse the sink before you do water changes. To remove chemicals like bleach and washing up liquid.

Any impovement in the fish since adding the parasite med?

 

[wodesorel]

I always run the tap for a minute first to flush the pipes, and I have a dedicated fish only bucket for the water change. The water never comes in contact with the actual sink, though I keep that clean enough to eat out of anyways.

The meds seem to have helped a bit. The fish are no longer flashing and the morning light turn-on was actually kind of normal this morning - the kuhlis all scurrying for cover like they have every morning for the past six years. They haven't done that at all for a week and a half. No deaths either - that was a relief!

The corkscrew fish is still spiraled up. I can lift him up with my fingers still and he cannot uncurl. I've got a second kuhli that's starting to do the same thing, but to a lesser extent. That may just be damage done, though. They both appear to still be eating.

The orange betta appears to have perked up a bit as well.

The cambodian female betta in the kitchen seems to be holding steady. The blue male she shares a tank with is now lethargic and laying on the bottom, though.

I think I'm going to go ahead and re-dose them tonight according to the directions. If I don't see any more improvement in their color in two days then I may switch gears and try a better velvet treatment.

 

[WILDER]

Keep going with the med then.

If you think there improvement in the fish you might need to add the med to the other tank aswell.

Keep us all updated if you don't mind.
Good Luck.

 

[the biffster]

Keep going with the med then.

If you think there improvement in the fish you might need to add the med to the other tank aswell.

Keep us all updated if you don't mind.
Good Luck.

hi wilder is it possible that this
is an air borne contaminant

 

[WILDER]

hi wilder is it possible that this
is an air borne contaminant


it's sounding like parasites now if the med helping. So it's ruling out a contaminant at the moment.
I wondered if it was that. But he hasn't added anything to the tank for a while. Been throwing me.

 

[the biffster]

the only thing is if
nothing as been added to the tank
in the way of livestock
how can a parasite have
got in to the tank

 

[WILDER]

All fish have a few flukes it only takes stress due to the temp being unstable for a break out. Young fish are more prone.
Also fish can get internal flukes aswell as other internal parasites.

 

[wodesorel]

I dosed the 20 gallon last night according to the directions, and about a half-hour later the loaches starting acting like they were in toxic shock. (Paralyzed, heavy breathing, loss of color.) I immediately added carbon to the filter, and they seem to be okay again this morning.....

So....... I think I'll take a break from any meds for a few days and see how they do. They all have their color back, and one has started doing kuhli loach happy-loops again. I'll continue to do small water changes on a daily basis to slowly remove the aquarium salt from their water and anything remaining from the medication. Hopefully it was just something like flukes and the meds killed the off quickly.

The bettas on the other hand are worrying me now. They are still clamped down tight, and the two in the kitchen seem so depressed. The orange one in the bedroom is still clampy, but is more active than he was.

 

[WILDER]

Did you overdose the med?
Did you increase aeration in the tank.

if it was flukes you need to keep treating to kill the young ones as they hatch.
As some flukes are egg layers.

 

[wodesorel]

Nope, no overdose. It stated one tab per 10 gallons which equals 2 tabs for the 20 gallon. I don't have a way to increase aeration other than dropping the water level and letting the filter fall farther, which I did. The loaches just went into total shock, but the plecos were fine.

It's been about 48 hours since I added the carbon and I've been doing small water changes daily. Tonight I went out and bought Prazipro am treating them with that in case it is still parasites. It's been in the tank for about three hours, and they seem to be handling it fine. I also got them Maracyn-TC (tetracycline) in case it is parasites and they have any open wounds. I don't want to kill off the parasites only to have them die from a secondary bacterial infection.

 

[WILDER]

The tetracycline will wipe the beneifical bacteria out in your filter.


Is there an improvement with the fish since using the meds.