Sick Convict Pic Included

[cdub614]

One of my convicts I've noticed not being very active for the past couple of days and I was watching her this evening and she doesn't look good at all. No visible injuries, cloudy eyes, missing scales, her fins aren't cut or torn. But she seems to be floating along more than swimming. I checked the water and all seems fine there, the ph stays pretty stable around 6.75, amm 0 nitrite 0, I don't have a test for nitrate but I will get one tomorrow. The other 3 cons seem to be doing ok. She's kind of the queen of the tank, and everyone else seems to be very chill. I also noticed an odd black line down her tail fin that wasn't there before.

Any ideas? She looks miserable and I'd hate to lose her!!

**Sorry for the low image quality I had to use my cell phone. But you can see the strange line on the fin and how she's just hanging out on the bottom. I will try to get a better pic with my camera once the battery gets a little charge....**


By charletw

 

[WILDER]

The black line does it look like spots or just a line.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Any excess slime on the gills or body of the fish.
Can the fish maintain its balance in the water.
is the fish acting listless and lethagic.
Is the fish still eating.
What does it look like when the fish goes to the toilet.
Is the fish being bullied.
Anything sharp in the tank that could of knocked the scales off.

 

[cdub614]

She died this morning I'm so sad, she was such a pretty, feisty little fish.

The black line was just a line. No spots, no flicking, she didn't really move much. It did look like she had a hard time staying upright. No one bullied her in the tank. I couldn't tell if she was extra slimey, didn't look like it. No red spots or white spots, no fuzzies. It was really bizarre. She had a big belly but her whole body did not swell up. She also looked like she had a hard time breathing. I tried to feed her peas but she wasn't eating.

I put her in a quarantine tank yesterday afternoon but I'm wondering if I did it soon enough because one of my other cons seems to have a little swollen belly and gasping. I went ahead and took her out of the big tank too. The other two cons seem to be breathing ok.

I also did a 25% water change this morning to be on the safe side.

Any ideas to keep the 2nd one alive?

I'm concerned

 

[WILDER]

Bless Her R.I.P.
I would feed some peas.
What do you normally feed the fish?
Have they eaten any rotting or off food?
How often do you do a gravel vac.
Hard time staying up right can be swim bladder.

http/www.flippersandfins.net/SwimbladderDisease.htm

 

[cdub614]

I feed them the small cichlid pellets, flake food and an occasional treat of blood worms. I only feed them once per day. I usually do the gravel vac once every two weeks.

Do you think they would be sick from eating the jack dempsey's fry? I no longer have the JD female so there won't be any more fry, but there were some 2 weeks ago.

 

[WILDER]

Depends if the fry were deseased.

I would put them on a more varied diet of frozen foods and veg.
To many bloodworms can bloat fish up. I would only feed them twice a week and sparingly.
Frozen daphnia good it helps the fish digest its food.

 

[Athena]

Just to clarify - I think when Wilder says to "feed them twice a week and sparingly" it's referring to feeding bloodworms (I think you'd have hungry fish if they were only fed twice a week LOL).

As Wilder said - feeding them squashed up pea at least once a week is a good way to help them prevent constipation/bloating.

That's really sad about your convict - I'd be extremely upset if I lost any of mine.

From the pic you posted it looked as though she was clamping some of her fins underneath which usually indicates a bacterial infection. That was very strange how that line appeared on her tail though! A perfect black line, almost as though she had developed another of the black body markings. I've no idea if these stripey convicts develop a stripe on their tails from a certain age - I only keep pink convicts so I'm not sure.

Check your other convict (the one that is looking a bit bloated) and see if they are clamping fins at all (any heavy breathing?). If it's a bacterial infection you should start treating with meds and increase aeration asap (Myxazin is the one I use).

Regards - Athena

 

[cdub614]

Fish #2 died this morning I had her in a 5 gallon hospital tank, was treating with bacterial meds. She seemed to be doing ok for a few days, not getting better but definately not getting worse. Last night I noticed that her belly had gotten a bit bigger and this morning she was swollen up even more. I did not see any scales popping out, so it didn't really look like the pics I've seen of dropsy.

As for their diet, the frozen foods really are an occasional treat, sometimes less than once per week. I've tried to feed them veggies (peas, spinach, romaine lettuce) but they never eat it. I know that for the past week or so they haven't really been eating anything, so after the others get better I will keep trying to introduce the peas and such to their diet.

Now my new problem is that the main tank has Ich. I noticed the white powdery spots last night before I went to bed and when I finish this post I am going out to get some Ich treatment. I've never had Ich before but I've read that it is not too difficult to treat. I do have a few questions about the Ich that I will start a new post for since it's in the main tank and I'm guessing a separate issue. However, I do want to note that the 2 convicts that have died in the past week did not have any white spots, so I'm pretty sure they had something else and I'm still concerned that whatever it was might still be lurking in the main tank.

I still have a 6" male jack dempsey, two 3" female convicts and a 1" female convict in the main tank and this morning they all have ick.

Needless to say, I've been having a bad week.

 

[WILDER]

Bless Her. R.I.P.

Raise temp to 30 once you have gotten the med.
Increase aeration as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Remove black carbon from the filter if you use it.
Read med instructiions carefully that you can use the full dose with the fish you keep.