What's wrong with my fish?

[Anchor]

I started with 5 cacautoides juveniles and now I'm down to 3. The two that died were healthy one day then seemed to stop eating and eventually died -- though they maintiained full color as they wasted away. Now my nearly adult male has done this. They are in a planted 65 Hex community tank with no water issues. The angels and tetras are doing fine.

 

[fishgeek]

brightly coloured fish that die suddenly can be toxin's in the water, these are things unlikely to be tested with standard home aquarium kits
Zn/Cu from pipework
nitrates can always affect dwarf's at lower levels than most general hobby fish , how old is th tank setup

otherwise slow wasting with poor appetite would suggest internal parasitism with more commonly protozoan or worm species
try a search under the treatment options of metronidazol or levamisol, my preferred treatments for these
or search things like camallanus or spironucleus

have a look at feacal quality if the stool are longer and paler than usual you hvae an internal problem causing gut irritation and mucous production

treatment to be effective normally needs to be strated before the fish stop eating

best of luck
andrew

 

[Anchor]

Thanks for the feedback...

Sadly the fish died over night... based on the history of the two I had already lost, I thought I had a couple of weeks to figure something out. My remaining two seem fine-- highly active and eating -- but then this one was five days ago. Should I treat the entire aquarium or remove the apisto's and treat them separately? I'm running chemi-pure in my cannister filter -- should I remove that if I treat the entire tank? In answer to your other question, the tank is 4 months old but the filter media came from a tank that had been running for two years.

 

[fishgeek]

i tend to treat the whole tank, metronidazol is poorly water soluble and is better given to hungry fish in something oily(it is fat soluble not water soluble)

levamisol can be used in water as short dip or permanent bath

the archives here have lots of info

 

[Anchor]

I went to the LFS and all they had was the Jungle brand Internal Parasite Guard with active ingredients that include "100-percent sodium chloride, nitrofurazone, triethylene glycol, acriflavine & potassium dichromate."

Instructions are to do 25-percent water change, remove filter carbon and feed Pepso food for 3-days.

Any experience with this?

jc

 

[fishgeek]

sorry not personaly, nitrofurazone and acriflavine are common enough medications
nitrofurazone is antibacterial, turn off the lights whilst using it
acriflavine is antibacterial as well as some antiprotozoal effect

niether of these medications possess any nematodal activity

things you might look for are general cure by aquarium usa, metrozol or paragon 2 all contain metronidazol
levamisol maybe available as discomed or avitrol bird wormer , my memeory is going on that one though