Need help with disease ID and treatment

[Kevin F Smith]

Hi, I have several apistos that do the following: spit out food, act as if they are "coughing" or spitting something out, even when not feeding, and some have white feces. They gradually go down hill, then die. I've removed the sick fish, only to have the disease appear in others in the tank. My angelfish are affected also.
Can anyone help ID this? I would appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[ErtyJr]

I'm no expert with disease, and I doubt I could diagnose properly, but do your fish breathe rapidly and have inflamed gills?

Also are you sure it's a disease? What is your water quality and parameters. Most disease is prevented simply by having quality water I have stopped the spread of ich in my tank simply by feeding my fish lots of live food before, with no other changes. How is their diet?

Also noticed you are in PA as I am. Where about in pa are you, I'm near philly. I could possibly provide you a bit of quality food for them.

 

[Kevin F Smith]

Thank you. The water quality is fine: ammonia: 0, nitrite:0. PH: 5.5. Water: soft. water changes: 20% per week. densely planted. 55 gal tank. Other fish in tank: glolight tetras, angelfish. I'm a stingy feeder. Food seldom gets to the bottom of the tank. I clean 1/3 of the gravel with the [python when doing biweekly water changes. Temp: 82.
Whatever it is it appears to remain in the tank. Removing sick fish to quarantine does nothing. It seems to just transfer to someone else. Domino effect.
I collect Discus also and have not had this problem. Discus, in my experience over 35 years, are much hardier than apistos. Go figure.
Looks like I have no choice but to use an antibiotic.
I'm in Bucks. Not sure if you and I corresponded before about Hidden Reef. They recently had the most apistos I've ever seen in any pet shop. About ten species, over a hundred fish. With Harvey working there, this will become routine.

 

[ErtyJr]

Yes that was me, we talked about hidden reef. Your right likely it's time for some antibiotics. When my fish came down with ich I bought 100 scuds off aquabid and bought live blackworms at that pet place. I started a scud and blackworm culture. I dumped the majority of my scuds into the tank and didn't add blackworms was saving them to clean up a bit. My fish responded immediately. I thoroughly believe the hunting behavior involved with eating scuds greatly reduced the stress on my fish. I caught it early so there was only a few spots but they cleared up and the scratching stopped in only a few days.

I would greatly recommend purchasing scuds in a large quantity and just dropping them in the tank. They keep my tank very clean and provide an amazing constant food source. I gave some to a local fish store called aquarium world. He may sell you some as well but I would call first. Best bet is aquabid i recommend a seller named livefins. 100 scuds for 25 bucks and that's with 2 day shipping included. Hopefully i am not breaking any rules by advocating this, i was going to provide a link but decided that's likely against a rule. My apologies if i did break a rule i know i should have read them better

 

[Kevin F Smith]

I don't see any problem. All in an effort to help a fellow apisto enthusiast. Thank you!
BTW, have you seen the definition of SCUD on the urban dictionary?

 

[ErtyJr]

Haha just saw the definition. Yea your fish could Def use a few scuds. Lol!

 

[davidjp1982]

Do you feed bloodworm? I've lost some apistos to what I think was bloat and 2 I remember would spit out food and thrash around as if eating was agony on the rare times they would attempt to eat. I now rarely and sparingly feed frozen bloodworm and have not had a reoccurrence.

 

[Duffmanj]

Second the bloodworm comment. If you're feeding any type of frozen or live food, probably bin that source immediately, there will always be a bad batch somewhere. Daphnia are apparently a natural laxative, try feeding that in small quantities? Has your water source changed at all recently? It might also be worth trying a high quality wormer.

 

[gerald]

If problems persist even with diet improvement, it might be a protozoan and/or worm infection in the gut. Try either Flubendazole (Charles Harrison in MO sells it) or Praziquantel + Metronidazole (e.g. PraziPro).

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I think Gerald is probably right, and it is likely to be internal protozoan or worm infection. "White faeces" strongly suggests intestinal parasites.

"If you're feeding any type of frozen or live food, probably bin that source immediately, there will always be a bad batch somewhere. Daphnia are apparently a natural laxative, try feeding that in small quantities?"

I don't like frozen Blood-worms, or frozen Daphnia, the former because they are definitely implicated in fish death, and the latter because I don't think they have much feed value, but I feed mainly live food.

I feed live blood-worms, that I've "ranched" <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/you-guys-might-like-this-vid-breeding.11601/#post-62698>, and at this time of year the fish get a huge amount of Daphnia, both without any problem. <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/daphnia.12707/>

"I would greatly recommend purchasing scuds in a large quantity" are these Hyalella? "Scuds" are usually what we call Gammarus or "Freshwater Shrimp" in the UK. Both are good food, and Hyalella does well in warm conditions, but Gammarus doesn't, partially because they have a high oxygen requirement.

cheers Darrel

 

[Duffmanj]

Having done some research I'm on the parasite train too (that doesn't sound as good as I intended) I don't usually rate yahoo but this sounds reasonable https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110409001603AA7iUUZ