Wilder Can You Help Again.... Or Anyone Else Of Course

[mattlee]

a while ago i had several fish flicking with no obvious symptoms and i lost 2 gbr's. i treated for ich as directed by lfs and no effect to flicking.... i was then advised by wilder to treat with wormer plus and anti internal bacteria, which i did and it seemed to work and i had no more flicking until this week.... i have moved all fish to a bigger tank and used the media to seed the 2 externals currently on the new tank. about 8/9 days ago i added 2 more polka dot loaches to go with my single loach, they seemed very healthy and instantly started to swim about in a group last week i noticed a couple of corys flicking again on a regular basis so did a 30% water change, upped temp to 30 degrees and added wormer plus. pretty much instantly the flicking stopped, i left the tank for 4 days then did another water change 35% and put carbon in the filter to remove meds. that same day some corys were flicking again............. then nothing for 2 days that i noticed and last night and tonight i have seen 2 corys flicking again, not all the time but still flicking! they have no other symptoms again except fast breathing a little twitchy and not really as active as norm. there are no spots, ulcers, damage, swollen bellys, sunken bellys etc etc. none of my other fish seem bothered, my 3 loaches are quite inactive and sometimes on their sides when resting but isnt this normal for loaches?
my water stats are-
nitrite = 0
ammonia = 0
nitrate = 10
pH = 7.8

i have also added recently 3 moss balls bought off ebay. all fish seem to be feeding as normal and nothing out of the ordinary in the poop. i bought a uv steraliser a while ago but never fitted it so i installed it today and had to replace some lost water but only about 5 litres, api conditioner was used as normal.
its realy weird as one day they seem ok and the next they are flicking again......
should a leave for a few days and if persistant treat with anti internal as i did before?
please help im really fond of my gold stripes and dont want to loose any.............

 

[WILDER]

How many times have you used the wormer plus now.
Any excess mucas on the gills or body of the fish.
Is there plenty of aeration in the tank.

 

[mattlee]

How many times have you used the wormer plus now.
Any excess mucas on the gills or body of the fish.
Is there plenty of aeration in the tank.

i have used the wormer plus twice once last time about 5 weeks ago and once last week.
i have an eheim air pump 400lph with 2 stones running constantly.
there is no obvious excess mucas on body or gills.

again there doesnt seem to be any obvious symptoms on the fish at all to help identify the problem. they flick occasionally, seem a bit tired/resting on the substrate (especially for corys), and a couple of them seem to breath faster than normal.
i have looked on the net, read my books and everything seems to say they should have other symptoms to hit the nail on the head in diagnosing the problem....

 

[snowflake311]

Are you only treating the tank for 4 days???

It you have ich and that is the most common fish problem. Then you really should be treating the tank for 14 days. Some types of Ich are harder to get rid of. There is no way to know what kind of ich you have so its best to treat the tank for a longer time. I have had to deal with Ich a few times.

Just because you do not see any spots does not mean they are not on the fish. They hide in the gills an mouth.

You have to understand how ichs life cycle works in order to kill it. They hatch ever 12 hours at this time they are free swimming in your tank looking for a fish to latch to. Only at this time when they are free swimming can they be effected but the medication. The spots you see on your fish can not be harmed by medication. it is once they fall off you can get them. SO since you might have lots of ich at different stages of there life see how it will take longer to kill them. They can stay on the fish for a few days safe from the Treatment.

I am fighting some now that one of my new fish brought it Grrr yes I was quarantine my fish but this one I felt would be fine. Never think any fish is fine. I have bought fish from this same store before with no problems so I thought they will be fine. I was wrong. Oh well Ich is treatable I have don't it before.


So do the Ich treatment but you need to treat for more then a few days. 13-14 days would be best . Keep treating even if you think they are all gone because they might now. ALSO do water changes in-between treatments this helps keep the fish feeling good less chance for infection and it will take out any free swimmer and lessen the parasite load.

Ich is a pain to get rid of but don't worry it can be done.

Bring the heat up to 80F if you can this will speed up the life cycle so they spend less time on your fish and more time free swimming.

PS.
DO NOT ADD ANY NEW FISH TILL YOU HAVE THIS PROBLEM SOLVED.

 

[WILDER]

If its a parasite like flukes you treat once a week for four weeks.

 

[mattlee]

the wormer plus says 1 treatment and if real bad case another 7 days later. so should i remove the carbon and treat again? should i treat with anti internal bacteria too? still unsure as i dont know what it is my fish have.......

 

[WILDER]

Ok.
Flukes are hard to get rid off that's why you have to keep hitting them with the meds.
You have to kill the young as they hatch.
Yes use a bacterial med aswell.


If no improvement get back to the board.
Good Luck.

 

[mattlee]

Ok.
Flukes are hard to get rid off that's why you have to keep hitting them with the meds.
You have to kill the young as they hatch.
Yes use a bacterial med aswell.


If no improvement get back to the board.
Good Luck.

thanks wilder , again, ill start the treatments tomorrow. if nothing improves look out for my post......... i hope it will clear as it did last time,cheers. Matt

 

[WILDER]

You really need s skin scraping to see what it is.
You can remove large fish and wrap them in a cloth soaked in tank water.
Steralise some tweezers. Get a magifying glass.
Gently pull the gill flap and take a look to see if you can see tiny white specs or worms behind the gills.

 

[mattlee]

You really need s skin scraping to see what it is.
You can remove large fish and wrap them in a cloth soaked in tank water.
Steralise some tweezers. Get a magifying glass.
Gently pull the gill flap and take a look to see if you can see tiny white specs or worms behind the gills.

my fish are all quite small at the minute, plus i dont think i would dare do anything like that incase i killed them or dropped them etc etc............
i have started to add wormer plus again after removing the carbon from filters.

it says on wormer plus that you can leave the uv steraliser on but on the anti internal bacteria it doesnt mention anything about uv's... do you think i should turn it off or leave it on? on my waterlife treatments it states to turn off uv!

 

[WILDER]

I would turn the uv off for now.
Let me know if there any improvement.

 

[mattlee]

I would turn the uv off for now.
Let me know if there any improvement.

will keep you posted wilder

 

[WILDER]

Good Luck.

 

[mattlee]

Good Luck.

not seen any flicking since adding the 2nd dose of wormer plus so fingers crossed

 

[WILDER]

Sounds more promising.