Update On My ‘sick’ Cardinal Tetra

[Lazerus]

Here is a few pictures I’ve taken of one of my Cardinal tetras. (With great difficulty, I'll add !)

See the white stuff on his back fin, plus his colours are not good.

There he is with one of my healty Cardinals....


I’m concerned as I’ve been watching this guy for a week or so now and his behaviour has been different to the others....he’s been going through phases of hiding away in the tank etc. His colour was always odd, but he is a good eater though.

He’s shoaling with the group as usual today and ate a good feed...but I'm at a loss as today I noticed his small back fin has a furry covering. I think it doesn’t look good for him.

What is your opinion on this? What is it that he might be suffering from?

Should I take him out and put him out of his misery or is there any hope for him still?

Many thanks!


Also, I notice he's gasping more than the others.

 

[calandra]

IMO Columnaris may be setting in after a spout of mild fin rot.
Fin Rot can be brought on by stress or poor water quality.
Maracyn is a great treatment for this. Interpet no 9 is also a great treatment

increase air into the tank by adding an additional airstone

after the Columnaris has cleared the treat with interpet #8

If you have a hospital tank so much the better

Cal

 

[Lazerus]

Thanks....ok, I'll need to take a trip to the pet shop....

I hope its not to late, not just for him, but for the other fish too.

 

[Bblou]

sorry hes not doing so good. i hope he pulls through.

I hate it when they get sick..

I noticed today my betta stuck to the filter.. by choice it seemed, but yeh, coz he wasnt moving, I could see he has white spot.

so i got a sicky fishy too! and my gouramis ulcer didnt clear up after a course of medication

 

[Colin_T]

The fish is pretty emaciated, (has a sunken belly) and this could be from intestinal worms or something worse. If the fish has an internal problem then its immune system would be run down and other problems would be able to get in and cause damage.
It might be cheaper just to euthanase the fish and keep an eye on the others. If more start to develop the same symptoms then treat them for intestinal worms and see what happens.
If you want to treat it then try a worming medication.
The white patch on the adipose fin could be fungus or a virus called lymphocystis. The virus is stress and immune system related. Fungus could be from a weakened immune system or the fish was damaged thus allowing the fungus in.
It looks more like lymphocystis rather than fungus

 

[Lazerus]

Hi thanks for the replies...

Calandra, I headed out to the fish shop yesterday afternoon and I bought the Interpet No.9 Anti-internal Bacteria and Interpet.8 Anti-Fungus and Finrot.....

Now, on the Interpet No.9 it says it works best with aqualibrium salt...but I don't have any of this as this was only mentioned on the inside instructions not on the outside of the pack....so I wasn't aware of this till I got home. Doh!

I gave my tank a dose of it anyway. (By the way, I don't have an airstone or any 'air' related items in my tank....just a filter (Fluval Plus 1). What can I do to increase additional air into the tank?)

The fish is still up and about this morning with the other Cardinals and not gasping as much. So there's possible progress already maybe? His fungus thing on his back seems to be gone. Perhaps more will grow back though?

Anyway....as I only your post now Colin, I don't have any worm medication....But thanks, that’s another possibility so!!

The virus is stress and immune system related. Fungus could be from a weakened immune system or the fish was damaged thus allowing the fungus in.

I do think this fish was damaged prior to arriving at the fish store actually. As he always had this strange colouring. (I didn’t pick him by the way, he ended up in the bag! I should have said something at the time, but I didn't...lesson learnt. )

Anyway…I may move onto the worm medication that after this...can't do anything in the tank for week after each medication. So it’s a slow process! Hope he's not gone by then.

I’m sure its no harm having these medications at hand anyway.

Bblou… Oh no, sorry to hear about your Betta….and your Gourami….fingers crossed we’ll see some improvement with these guys quickly.

I'll watch your posts.

 

[calandra]

Colin T is far more experienced than me, so maybe it is worms. I still stick by my initial diagnosis, but sometimes I love to be proved wrong. Thats how you learn. Glad the fish is responding well. I'm in favour of recommending meds that you can easily get from most LFS, and lay their hands on quickly, rather than get specialist meds (which usually do the trick more quickly), but are only available from vets or specialist shops..

Cal

 

[Lazerus]

Colin T is far more experienced than me, so maybe it is worms. I still stick by my initial diagnosis, but sometimes I love to be proved wrong. Thats how you learn. Glad the fish is responding well. I'm in favour of recommending meds that you can easily get from most LFS, and lay their hands on quickly, rather than get specialist meds (which usually do the trick more quickly), but are only available from vets or specialist shops..

Cal

Thanks...welll, I'm sticking to this medicine for the moment because I've given the first dose, I have to give the second dose on Tues.

Then I've to wait a week before I can put anything else in...

I notice another spot on this fishes tail now, on the side, just down from the original site of 'fungus'.... Im worried.

 

[Lazerus]

I'm using Interpet No. 9 for internal bacteria....by the way.

 

[Colin_T]

Just run the anti bacterial medication at this stage and finish the treatment. Then if the fish isn't better look at other problems.

You can reduce the impact of intestinal worms on the fish by feeding them more food and more often. Try feeding them 3 to 4 times a day and make sure they all have fat stomachs. Make sure you remove any uneaten food and monitor the water quality. If there is any trace of ammonia or nitrite then cut the feeding back and do a water change if the levels start to go up.

You can also try dosing the food with vitamin C and beta carotene. These are available from health food shops. You crumble up the vit C and sprinkle it on some frozen food. Beta carotene is available in gel capsules and you poke a hole in one with a pin or needle and then squeeze the orange liquid onto some frozen or dry pellet food. Then feed this to the fish.

 

[Lazerus]

Thanks so much for all the advice!

It appears to be working.

The fish looks much improved this morning...its amazing...even his colour is 'richer' for want of a better word.

The small bit of fungus on the tail has changed colour to a beige and almost gone and the new spot that I saw yesterday is now gone.

He's not gasping at all any more. His shoaling with the group & lively....haven't watched him eat yet though so I'm not sure about that.

I don't have the vitiman C or betacarotene, but I did give them a bit more food yesterday in the evening (some bloodworms) ...I usually only feed with dry pellets once a day in the morning, but I thought they'd like a treat! Yes, they definately had nice fat bellies after that!!

This morning my ammonia is up.....0.25ppm so I've done a water change now...

I did a 10 litre water change so I added one pipette of Interpet. No.9 into the bucket of fresh water to 'top up' the medication that I removed so as not to dilute the dose.

I'll be giving the full second dose tomorrow though into the tank as per the instructions and that will be that course completed.

So we'll see what happens!

Okay....thats it for now!

 

[Lazerus]

Just an observation.....this particular fish is 'pooing' alot today. I've never seen the Cardinals pooing before, but twice today I've seen the sick lad do a poo thats long (for him), say about 2mm and it drops off.

Good or bad?

He's looking alot happier though these days. Perhaps his system is clearing of whatever was ailing him?

 

[Lazerus]

Hi all….

Well, this little fella is just looking better and better.

His colours are still not great, but I imagine its going to take time. He’s eating fine & there is no more hiding away going on. He's swimming away constantly with his room mates. His belly is not as emaciated as before and has filled out.

Anyway, onto the medication question.

I had a bit of an erratic day yesterday with my tank in that I got three spikes of ammonia. (I seem to be having a mini cycle in the tank but that’s in another thread)

Anyway, yesterday morning I changed the water (10 litres) and added 1 pipette of Interpet No.9 so that I wouldn't interrupt the medication course (the instructions say its one pipette for every 10 litres). I deliberately did 10 litres as it simplified things hugely for me when it came to giving the correct dosage.

Then yesterday evening I discovered that I had to change the water again as the ammonia had risen again to 0.25ppm….so that was another 10 litres with another pipette of medication.

Then, an hour or so later I tested be before I went to bed, and ammonia was still at 0.25ppm so I had do another water change…yes, I was busy!! Anyway, that meant another 10 litres and another pipette of medication.

The ammonia returned to 0ppm and is still at 0ppm this morning...thankfully.

So….today I was supposed to give the tank its 2nd and final dose of 3½ pipettes….but I’m thinking this is not necessary now as technically, it got its dose yesterday in the form of three separate smaller doses.

So….I was going to give the 2nd dose a miss today…what do you think?

Or should I dose the tank as normal today as scheduled, forgetting what happened yesterday? I'm just afraid I'll over dose.

Thanks!

Edited for spellings, as usual!

 

[Lazerus]

Anyone have any thoughts on this at all?

I haven't done anything with the tank yet....hesitant.

 

[Spishkey]

i think if you dont get any replies on here it may be better to start a seperate 'thread' on the dosage question perhaps?
people may skim past this thinking they've read it before, although the title is a little different