A. Agassizii wasting away

[damoUK]

Hi,

My fiancee and I have been trying to keep A. agassizii for a while, but regularly lose them to exactly the same symptoms, which no one's been able to help us with really - after a long spell of no losses, we've suddenly got another one displaying the same symptoms, which basically is suddenly becoming really thin, so thin it looks like the stomach is starting to cave in, then they hide for about 24 hours before dying shortly after.

We have a couple of established females (one of which is now starting to thin and display the symptoms), and 2 that we've had in the tank for about a month, one is a male and the other was bought as a female (but we're not convinced, it's grown large if it is a female!). The sick one is eating, although most of what she takes in comes out through her gills, so we're not sure how much she's actually digesting.

Our tank conditions are:
125l (33gal) semi-planted tank with lots of wood and caves.
0 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
20 Nitrate
8d GH
6.4 pH

Tank mates, apart from Apisto's mentioned are a couple of Ghost Widow Tetra's, a few neon's, a few rasboro's and 3 Cory's.

We always Quarantine new fish, treating for bacteria and parasites, so we're pretty sure it's neither of those, we have the usual occasional squabbles between the Apisto's, but they're fairly infrequent.

Does anyone have any recommendations/ideas?

 

[gerald]

I wouldn't be so sure - there's an awful lot of different bacteria and parasites, and no med treatment that eliminates them all. And even if your quarrantine treatment is successful, they might be getting infected by something living in your main tank. Have you looked for intestinal nematodes like Camallanus? Also do any of the fish show rapid breathing, or bumps/sores on the head or body before they die?

Hi,
We always Quarantine new fish, treating for bacteria and parasites, so we're pretty sure it's neither of those ...

 

[slimbolen99]

Are you getting your apistos from the same source? They could be bringing something that your meds don't treat; what do their feces look like?

 

[Mike Wise]

One important fact that you didn't give. What exactly are you feeding your fish?

 

[aarhud]

Any small white growths anywhere on the fish? Specifically around the gills and mouth?

Anecdotal experience here, but I had Thorichthys sp. dying a similar way with obvious white growths on their bodies. I'm convinced the fish had Lymphocystis. After the Thorichthys with obvious bumps began dying, I had Cryptoheros in the same tank die with very small, almost unnoticeable bumps die in a similar fashion. I only noticed the bumps upon very close inspection. I tried various treatments and finally got fed up with the continued deaths and culled all my fish.

Very anecdotal evidence and from what I understand my experience with Lympho was very different from the norm. But I thought you may want to at least check around the gills and mouths for small white pimples/cauliflower like dots.

 

[damoUK]

Sorry for not coming back, life took a hold and it's been hell for the last couple of weeks!! Just what we didn't need!!

We feed them a mixture of dry or frozen bloodworms, Cichlid pellets, flake foods, delphina, frozen mosquito larvae or brine shrimp (fresh or frozen) and tubifex (again, frozen or dry!)


We think we have Camallanus, which we suspect is the cause of most of these fish dying. Now we're trying to find a treatment in the UK - we suddenly have 2 Apisto's with very visible red worms coming out. Can anyone recommend anything, as most of the treatments seem to be unavailable in the UK, we don't really have time to order online due to the public holiday weekend which would mean it won't arrive until Wednesday/Thursday, so it needs to be available from the lfs?

 

[merlin]

You have probably seen this but thought it may be of interest.
http://www.fish-treatment.co.uk/chanaverm.html

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

 

[damoUK]

You have probably seen this but thought it may be of interest.
http://www.fish-treatment.co.uk/chanaverm.html

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 4

Chanaverm is sadly discontinued. Vetark say they will be producing their own version but it's not available yet

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
You can get Levamisole HCL as "Harka Verm" liquid in the UK. It is intended for cage birds, but works equally well on fish. There are several sellers via Amazon, and it isn't expensive.

I'd have to have a look at the bottle, but I think "Harka Verm" is 8% Levamisole HCl solution, and I think the answer is for my 60 litre tank and 8% "Harka Verm", was about 11 0r 12ml of "Harka Verm".

From this thread: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/camallanus-worms.14396/>

cheers Darrel

 

[damoUK]

Hi all,
You can get Levamisole HCL as "Harka Verm" liquid in the UK. It is intended for cage birds, but works equally well on fish. There are several sellers via Amazon, and it isn't expensive.


From this thread: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/camallanus-worms.14396/>

cheers Darrel

Ordered and just waiting for delivery - will let you know how we get on!