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Trichodina spreading rapidly in my Gourami tank
11/25/06 Hi everyone. <<Hello, Sara. Tom here.>> First
I'd like to express gratitude to you guys for sharing your time and
knowledge. Your website is truly fish lifesaving. Thanks. <<Were
happy to help and your kind words are very much
appreciated.>> I have a 29 gal. tank with 2 adult
gold Gouramis, 1 adolescent pearl Gourami, 1 young blue Gourami, 1
young gold Gourami and 11 aeneus catfish of all ages who are constantly
reproducing. Earlier this evening I noticed Jeb, my blue
Gourami, slightly rocking back and forth. I immediately went to your
website for info on treating Trichodina infestation. <<A
conclusive determination of this would require a microscopic
examination, Sara. Probably as good a guess as anything else but
without visible evidence its still a guess. I mention this because,
obviously, we first want to be sure of what were treating for or, as
close to it as a reasonable person could conclude. Second, there are
parasitic infestations that don't respond at all to certain medications
which could leave us with a three-fold problem, i.e. we've incorrectly
medicated our fish (never good), we've lost valuable time in a virtually
worthless regimen and we've still got the original problem.>>
Merely four hours later and all of my Gouramis are rocking back and
forth and flicking against the filter intake. It's 2:00 am and the
only thing I have on hand is "Tank Buddies - Parasite Clear Fizz
Tabs" by Jungle Labs. Are you familiar with this remedy?
<<The latest generation of this product contains Praziquantel,
Metronidazole and Acriflavine. Sort of a shotgun-approach medication.
Praziquantel may be toxic to Corys and, reportedly, isn't advised as a
treatment regimen with young/juvenile fish. Personally, I wouldn't risk
using it.>> If so, should I use it or wait until I can get
something else? The box indicates usage for both external and internal
parasites. The ingredients are based on dimethyl phosphonate and
Metronidazole. If you have time to respond, it would be greatly
appreciated. <<Since healthy fish normally deal with Trichodina
at tolerable levels with no ill effects, an outbreak has some root
cause that must be corrected before any treatment will be truly
successful. I don't consider over-crowding to be the problem so Id turn
to water quality as the source of the stress in your fish the reason
for the population boom in the parasites. Change out 25%-30% of your
tanks water and premix 4-5 tablespoons of aquarium salt to the new
water before adding this back to the aquarium. While Corys aren't
particularly tolerant of salt, this level shouldn't prove an issue with
them and is safer, in the long run, than many medications would be. Of
course, you'll want to monitor your fish closely for both the
effectiveness of this regimen and for signs of stress in the Corys,
specifically. Again, I don't consider salt at this low level to be a
problem but fish have an amazing talent for surprising me.>>
Thanks again, Sara <<There are more aggressive measures that
could be taken here, Sara, but lets not go after the fly with a
sledgehammer just now. If the infestation is, in fact, Trichodina, its
probably the least of the common parasitic problems that our fish may
have to face. Nothing to disregard, certainly, as the added stress can
lead to bigger problems but, in itself, doesn't scream out for
aggressive treatment. With a little luck, your pets should be back to
normal soon. Best regards. Tom>> High Mortality Rate, FW, poss. Hexamita/Octomita 7/1/06 My daughter has had her Eclipse 12 aquarium for a little over a year. We have a high death rate. <Not good> In 13 months we have had about 18 out of 25 fish die. We test our water regularly at the local fish store and it always test at normal levels. <Mmm, you might want to invest in some simple test gear for your own, at-home use. Many important parameters can/do change in just the short trip to the store... And these tests, testing can be a useful element of education, sharing as well> Deaths include about 6-9 platies, 3 dwarf Gouramis, 2 albino catfish, 1 skirt tetra and 2 Rasboras. <A broad mix of tolerant species...> Our original skirt tetra is alive after 1 year and 3 of the 5 Rasboras we bought are still alive after 6 months. Many of the fish wasted away. Also some mainly the Gouramis had a hair-like excrement. <... trouble. This could well be indicative of a persistent protozoan parasite (Octomita/Hexamita...)> We finally treated for internal parasites. We bought our first 2 fish from one of those large chains and believe it might have brought a parasite with it. <Given what you present here, I concur> We did two treatments ( 2 doses each I think) a week or two apart. <With what medication?> Two fish died after that. We did not add any fish for at least 2 month after that. When we did add 3 guppies and 1 dwarf Gourami, the male guppy died after 2 days. The Gourami died after we added 3 more guppies 2 days later. I realize we added fish to quickly, but we were given the second batch. I am wondering if these last two deaths are likely due to stress or are there other things we should try. <Possibly> The male bloated before dying, the Gourami just died. I am getting really frustrated and my daughter is getting very discouraged. Can you give me some suggestions on how to reduce the death rate. <A few things, yes. For one, if this problem is Hexamitiasis and unless it was eradicated through treatment... it's still there (a very common cause of continuing high losses from and through fish stores). I would treat your system with Metronidazole/Flagyl to be sure. Please see WWM re this anti-protozoal, its careful use, and Hexamita... and particularly here re Gouramis: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/GouramiDisFAQs.htm and the next FAQ file linked above. Bob Fenner> Flipper the Trichogaster, Octomita? 5/28/06 Hi, my name is Kristin and this is my first time writing to you. I have a twenty gal. tank w/ 2 beautiful Angels, 3 Serpae tetras, 1 clown Pleco and 1 regular Pleco. (I am very new to this scene, forgive my spelling on species). I use to have 2 pink kissers until 1 killed the other and then I removed the "Killer". I have a ten gal. tank set up to house any unruly fish. ( Home to one monster Angel and 1 pink kisser and they get along well.) Anyway, I added one beautiful turquoise Gourami (Flipper) and really enjoyed it. It seemed to get along well w/ the others. I decided to get another one. Big trouble. From the moment I put it in the tank, it seemed unlike the other. Color was different and not at all as active. I am pretty new to this and figured he was getting acclimated. I later decided to remove the pink kisser as he was starting to pick on the newbie. After all the pink kisser had already killed one of his own. It was time for him to leave. Anyway, symptoms of this new Gourami were, just hanging out in the bottom corner all the time, not moving around very much and finally, me noticing very long clearish white stringy poop. Lastly, stopped eating. Unfortunately, I think I acted too slowly. I set up a 4 gal. hospital tank and initially started treating for a bacterial infection, <Mmm, likely protozoan... Seasonal Octomita, import...> no real results, then I started treating for a fungus infection. Lastly, I gave a parasitic med a shot. He would sometimes appear better but just never ate. He died and I was very upset by that. I think I really gave it a good shot aside from not doing something sooner. Since then I have learned a ton more (Thanks to your website). NOW, This is the problem. I just noticed in my 20 Gal. main tank, Flipper (the original turquoise Gourami) was excreting ( 2 times it length) a clearish stringy thing that had a black end. By that I mean, the very tip had a black head. To me it looked like it was a living thing and not "poop" at all. Could this be a worm of some sort????? <Possibly> I really think the second Gourami that I introduced was sick from the get go. And now Flipper has it!!!! HELP. I now have Flipper in the hospital tank and am feeding it Pepso food. Is this enough????? <Maybe> I am thinking that this food is just that. FOOD!!!!!! It may clear/clean out the intestinal tract, but will it actually kill whatever it has. I do think it is a parasite. The parasitic Mardel products I used didn't help the last guy. <Mardel Labs doesn't make parasiticides> I think it was Maracyn 2. Can U help?????? Thanks a bunch Kristin <Please read here: http://wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/GouramiDisFAQs.htm and the next linked file above re Gourami Disease... I would finish treating with the Pepso Food, and try one treatment of Flagyl/Metronidazole (via food) here. Bob Fenner> Parasitized? Gourami question 2/9/06 Hi, <Howdy> I have a question about a few Gouramis that my boyfriend had purchased a few weeks ago - when they first were put in the tank, I noticed that one of the Gouramis (V) had whitish translucent raised circles on its head, approximately 3 mm in diameter. In the center of each round growth there was a dark brownish line running down the center, but not extending all the way to the edges. Both appear to have a gel-type texture. Last night, one of the growths fell off and was presumably floating around the tank, though we couldn't see it. However, this morning V no longer had any bumps on the head, BUT both bumps seem to have migrated to another fish (K)! Can you tell me what this might be, and whether it needs to be treated? Thanks. <Might be coincidental... just markings... but could be an external (crustacean) parasite. A DTHP or Dimilin-based remedy will kill this pronto. Put these terms in WWM/Google search tool. Bob Fenner> Gourami with worms-- 09/17/07 Good afternoon. Thank you for
taking the time to answer my question. I have found much information on
my problem but I'm still not sure exactly which action to take. I
have a planted 75 gallon FW tank. About 2 months ago I had a
rainbowfish that had a swim bladder problem that turned out to be a
very bad case of worms. It happened right after I got back from a long
weekend to find out that my fish sitter didn't notice the filter
had stopped running. I was unable to save him using PraziPro. I was
concerned that the entire tank might have a problem but didn't want
to overreact so I did not treat the tank. <Ah, your first mistake:
you MUST treat the tank wherever communicable diseases are suspected.
Used properly, medications pose no risk to your fish, filter, or
plants.> Fast forward to last week and I had a breeder net in to try
and save some Cory cat eggs. They didn't hatch but I did see worms
on the netting after about 3 days. <Those wouldn't be intestinal
worms. If anything, they're more likely to be planarians
(flatworms). These are harmless as far as your fish go, being
free-living scavengers, but they will eat eggs and to a lesser extent
very small fry. Many ways to remove them, but the easiest is simply to
keep some sort of fish that eats them, such as gouramis or
Paradisefish.> I did a 25 gallon water change and treated the tank
with PraziPro. Within 24 hours one of my gouramis had stringy white
feces and stopped eating. The next morning his belly was a little
swollen. I was hoping that he would be able to pass what I'm
guessing must be worms. <Perhaps.> It has been 5 days now and he
is in no better shape. He is not eating and I have not seen him pass
anything since that first day. His belly is now very swollen this
morning. <Because you've delayed treatment, the worms have
become a worse problem. There's nothing you can really do except
treat the tank and hope for the best. That said, worms by themselves
don't normally cause dramatically rapid loss of health. Usually
what you see is gradual emaciation of the body while the body cavity
itself (sometimes) swells up abnormally. Bacterial infections are much
more rapid, and tend not to be associated with gradual emaciation
(though they can be) but more normally things like loss of colour,
lethargic behaviour, loss of appetite, odd social behaviour, and so
on.> I'm not sure that Epsom salt would work because from what
I've read I think it must be a bacterial infection. <Likely
won't make any difference. Epsom Salt is a muscle relaxant, and
helps fix constipation, when coupled with extra fibre in the diet. It
isn't a miracle cure.> The rest of the fish seem to have no
issues from the treatment. Could you please tell me what direction I
should take? <Re-dose the tank with anti-worming medication if
you're sure its worms. Otherwise, assume its an internal bacterial
infection, and use an antibiotic or antibacterial.> Other than
taking care of him, is there anything else I should do to the tank?
Should I remove the old plants or gravel? Should I treat with a second
round of PraziPro for good measure? <Do a big water change to flush
out any remaining medication, and then repeat the PraziPro or add the
antibiotic/antibacterial as you decide is required. Unless stated to be
safe, don't use two medications at the same time. As ever, remove
carbon from the filter if you're using it.> Thank you for your
time, Carol <Hope this helps, Neale> |
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