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Sick cockatoo

hassan syed

New Member
Messages
3
Hi guys

I have a male apistogramma cockatoo he has been brilliant active and healthy from last 1.5 year. He lives with one angelfish in a 66 litre bow front tank. About 4-5 days ago I noticed he wasn't as active as he use to be he slowly went off his food and started resting at the bottom ever since. I saw him flash a few times when I turned the fish tank light on but haven't seen him flash since then. He has now completely gone off food and sits at the bottom occasionally moves from one end of tank to the other.

I have treated the tank with esha ndx single dose and then did 50% water change. Couple of days later I have treated the tank with esha 2000 and esha gdex today was the second day of the dose tomorrow will be the last day then I am to leave it without any dose and water change on 5th day.

I have attached a couple photos from today and you can see his clear poo a really long stringy poo.

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
ph 7.8
Temperature 25

I do 35% water changes weekly.

Any ideas guys?
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Eddy. E.

Member
Messages
72
Location
Germany
Hello,

I find it difficult to understand your treatment method, as you are not only putting a heavy load on the metabolism of the Apistogramma, but also on that of its housemate.
Against this background, already the treatment with eSHa NDX would be completely sufficient, as it is Levamisole. The disadvantage of levamisole is that livebearers do not tolerate it and it often leads to a bacterial bloom.

Levamisole is absorbed through the gills and is effective across the spectrum in endoparasitic infestations with respect to worms. So if a fish stops eating, levamisole would be the treatment of choice.
eSHa Gdex contains praziquantel. So it makes no sense to use it additionally. The same applies to eSHa2000, although this is a copper preparation with a very low (!) therapeutic effect. To remove it, it is not enough to do a water change, but a good water conditioner is necessary to remove the residues.

The application spectrum of eSHa2000 is also completely different. So I can not understand your chemical club in any way.

Ph value I would keep with Apistogramma cacatoides at 7.0 and the temperature I would set to 26° C.
Feeding with pure garlic juice, which is applied over the food. Garlic is an excellent remedy against worm infestation or intestinal flagellates.

What I notice with your Apistogramma:
1. the anal region is much thicker than usual.
2. the fish is darker than usual
3. the fish is segregating
4. the feces are slimy and whitish

So he is not suffering from worms, but from intestinal flagellates. If it had worms, the abdominal region would be much more sunken. I would treat the fish with Nematol from SERA.

Active ingredient in 100 ml: 5Nitro1,3thiazol2-ylazan 14 g.
Other ingredients: Macrogol 300, ascorbic acid palmitate (vitamin C) and.
Menadione sodium bisulfite (vitamin K 3).
 

hassan syed

New Member
Messages
3
Wow thank you Eddy I really appreciate your advice I have ordered the medication you recommended right away.

I live in london and our water is hard any suggestions as to how I can get the parameters to what you mentioned.

Best regards
 

Eddy. E.

Member
Messages
72
Location
Germany
Osmosis water or distilled water can be used to change the water parameters accordingly. Since I am not sure to what extent you are able to manage it accordingly, I would suggest you try adding humic substances.
These can be found for example in oak leaves, beech leaves or in alder cones (not the ones right from the tree!). I can well imagine that you will find something in the London area ;-)
Now in winter it should be difficult to find appropriate foliage. If you use it, you can simply scald the foliage with boiled water before using it.
Alternatively, you can also use leaves from Catappa. About the substances which are contained there, I have a detailed description here in the forum.

 

hassan syed

New Member
Messages
3
To be honest with you I like the idea of using leaves to adjust the chemistry. I will go ahead and place an order for some almond leaves. In a 66 litre tank how many leaves do you reckon I need to add after boiling them and also for how long can they stay in the tank?
 

MacZ

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,958
Location
Germany
In a 66 litre tank how many leaves do you reckon I need to add after boiling them and also for how long can they stay in the tank?
Leaves are natural products, and the amounts of humic substances can vary from species to species and even individual trees. Make sure to not add more than 3-5 medium sized leaves at once as they will use up oxygen during the first few days after adding. Then they can stay in indefinitely.

But very important: To get any significant impact on water parameters with leaf litter and botanicals (in contrast to peat) you will have to use 100% RO. No cutting with tap or remineralizing with powders and salts necessary. KH has to be under 2°.

Those are beech and oak leaves (and some scattered others) I collected 3 weeks ago in the woods outside of town. You will want to leave the metropolitan area for collecting. Pollution is too much otherwise.
photo_2022-12-12_21-39-49.jpg

Done right leaf litter in a tank looks like this:
IMG_20221221_151143.jpg
 

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