Sick Mudskippers - Unsure How To Treat.

[Mudskipperman]

Orriginally posted in the Newcommers section, but was told to post here for a better responce.

I have two seemingly sick mudskippers. Usually the pair are rather playful, but as of late they have become sluggish. They are still both eating, but not in amounts they normally eat. They both tend to 'flick' themselves around on the pebbles from time to time - something I found is common with Ich' but they have no visible signs of the parasite, yet any type of parasite at all.

I have been treating them for intestinal worms and gill fluke with tablets from my local aquarium to rule out the possibility of parasites. It's alot easier to pick up on regular fish, but for mudskippers is quite hard and not sure what to look out for.

Problems I have had trying to treat these fish with medication is that they tend to venture out of water where the medication is meant for. I am not familliar with other methods of medicating something that spends the majority of the time on land.

I did a full tank clean up to rule out the possibility of a contaminated environment, though the symptoms are still apparent 2 weeks after the change.

Currently the tank is set up with just rocks and pebbles. I removed the driftwood from the tank because it seemed to attract some sort of fly-like insects. There is no plastic decor. Fish other than the 2 mudskippers are 2 feeder fish (which I have removed during the night because one of them was attacked). The feeder fish have no simptoms at all and seem healthy (other then the bite mark one just recieved). I usually have an external filter running but currently have it off. PH levels are about 7.6, water is brakish (though I found these little fellows don't mind fresh water) and there's not traces of metals in the water.

I currently raised their water level over their land and treating the water with a broad spectrum antibiotic incase it's a disease of some sort. Strangely enough since I started the treatment (48 hours ago), I havn't noticed any 'flicking' behaviour.

I am begining to run out of ideas. Does anyone have any suggestions as to why these mudskippers are acting this way?

Thanks a bunch.

 

[WILDER]

First thing to rule out is water quality so can we take a look at ammonia,nitrite,nitrate.
When fish flick with no symtoms if water quality is good usually tend to look at flukes.
Any excess mucas or slime build up on the fish.
Check the gills for being pale with excess mucas on them, or red and flamed.