Help with sick apistos

[Geoff]

I have lost 4 apistos within the last 10 days or so. The first two were both males, a Cacatoudies and an Agassizii. The Agassizii had pop-eye and was completly discolored he died about a week and a half ago.

The Cacatoudies died a day later with no physical signs of distress, was still well colored, eating, and had been swimming around the night before just fine. He was in my 55 with two females that just started getting sick this week. As soon as I noticed them acting sick I moved them to a new tank by themselves. The one had pop-eye in one eye and the other has just hangin around at the bottom and hiding, neither fish has been eating. The one with pop-eye seems to be getting better after being moved but the other one died this morning.

In a third tank I had a pair of Panduro and I lost the female on monday. She wasn't being bullied by the other fish which I believe is a male but not sure and she had no discoloration or anything. She too was swimming around the night before and eating.

A do a weekly water change of 25-30% and have stable ph around 6.6, gh 6, and kh 3. The NH3/4 was 0 after all deaths, nitrite 0, and nitrates no more than 10 on all 3 tanks.

If anybody has any ideas what to do to save the last cacatoudies and the other panduro plus the other fish various fish in my tanks it would be much appreciated. None of the other fish are dying and none appear to be sick.

Geoff

 

[fishgeek]

4 deaths in 3 tanks?
no external lesions other than 1 exopthalmus(pop eye for fish speakers)
what was the discolouration? bright? dull? something on the fish obscuring normal colour?

multiple fish in differing tanks suggests that if water related it is in your source water- think all the usual chlorine/chloramine/ then the others that we cant easily test (copper can cause increased colour just before death) Zn and is more toxic in soft water

not much for me to go on
unilateral or one sided exopthalmus usually suggests localsied disease
i have a male aggassizi with it now due to corneal truama so i will be interested in others answers aswell
the eye protruding is due to localised pressure chnages/swelling in supporting tissue or gas accumulations behind the eye

are the fish wild caught do you know?

difficult to treat without knowing the underlying cause and as an only clinical sign may be misleading in this case

sorry to be so vague

andrew

 

[Geoff]

The male agassizii had pop-eye in both eyes and has a very dull brown/bronze color, far from the original DR coloration he had. You could see just a hint of the red in his fins still when he died, the gold, green, and blue were completly washed out. I assume he was an aquarium strain because of his color but not sure.

The cacatoudies trio was a yellow/double red aquarium strain for sure. Both of the two that already passed had no discoloration looked very normal. The one that is still surviving and appears to be recovering has no discoloration either.

The panduro I do not know at all if wild or aquarium raised, but that female was starting to show breeding coloration. No external damage to any fins, no sunken belly just, woke up tues and she was dead.

Should I contact my local water company to see if they have changed the additives to the water supply? Any help at all is greatly appreaciated, I have only had the apistos for about 3 months, all three tanks have been set up at least 6 months or more.

Other fish in the tanks:
29
2 Dwarf Gouramis
6 Cherry barbs
2 otto cats
1 panda coryies
Where the cacatoudies were

2nd 29
8 Tiger barbs
2 zebra danios
1 Panduro male?

55
12 Cardinal tetras
10 baby tiger barbs less than .5 inch
6 Skunk stripped coryies

 

[fishgeek]

sudden death without other signs is likely water reated , unless we have missed the other signs
how do you prepare your source water?
do you have alternatives avalable?
contacting the supplier should give you a full list of water treatment and chemicals in, also ask about pipe work, here in england some is still lead!!!

bilateral exopthalmus and loss of colour suggest systemic internal disease

look at the colour of all fish's eye's with a pen torch or such , try to angle the light through the front - looking for any blueing of cornea
or blood- either red or black in anterior chamber just behind front of eye

treatment for internal bacteria may be of some use
can you see any red streaks on the palour underside of the fish?