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Sick fish, what is it?


bues0022

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Neon goby. Started as what looked like ich about 3-4 days ago. Yesterday had one white lesion on it’s side looked like lymphocystis - which it’s had before. Tonight it looks BAD. Like it’s skin is shedding. I had a battle with it, got it out, and is now in my wife’s mixing bowl with an air stone and heater (no hospital tank).

 

I can’t post pics from my phone, but txt me at 612-208-5354 and I’ll send you a pic if you think you can help. I have copper, was thinking of starting hypo and copper tonight. Other fish seem fine (clowns, Hector’s goby, firefish).

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Based on your description and the picture, it sounds like you've got both a parasite like ich or velvet, and there's a secondary bacterial infection.

 

I would treat for parasites first. A 5 minute freshwater dip to help clear the gills and reduce the number of surface parasites. Then copper.

 

I would also treat with a mix of antibiotics. MetroPlex, KanaPlex, and Furan-2. 

 

You can simultaneously treat with copper and antibiotics. Make sure you aerate though.

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Well, not good news. I tried doing a FW dip last night. It lasted about 10 seconds before it went belly up and stopped moving completely. I took it out and put it back in my makeshift QT (my wife doesn't know I took her big glass mixing bowl!). Heater, airstone, and copper in the SW. This morning I check on it and it was dead. 

 

While I really hate losing fish, I have to keep in perspective that this was a less than $20 fish, and it was always "sickly" in my tank. It had ich breakouts probably 4 times in the past few months (nobody else had them), and came to me with lympho already too. I really liked how it did clean the other fish though, so I guess I'll have to keep my eyes open for another one.

 

For my remaining fish, are they at risk just because they shared the same water? I know ich is present, likely always will be in my tank, but is this event likely isolated to just this one fish or will it spread like the plague? I'll obviously be watching closely for the next few days.

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They are for sure at risk and they all likely have ich, but if you keep them healthy they may never show symptoms.

 

Eliminating it from your tank is possible, but difficult and takes months with fish out of the tank and in their own treatment quarantine.

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I'm not going to worry about ich - that one is usually manageable with keeping the rest healthy. I'm mostly concerned if I'm should be working to catch and treat them, or just keep up with good husbandry and let them be.

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Sounds like brooklynella. How long have you had this fish? Any new additions to the tank? How are other fishes today?

 That looks like brooklynella to me also. It's pretty bad. I've had about a 50/50 success rate on treating fish with it in the past the rare times I've gotten it. It's the sole reason I have a QT tank now after years without one. I had some success using Rid Ich Plus initially followed up with metroplex. Honestly I could have just gotten lucky though. Good luck!

 

http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/disease.html

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I had the fish for about 3 months. No new additions to the tank (fish-wise) for about 2.5 months. Brook was on my list of differentials, but I think it moved too slow. My fish lasted 3-4 days after seeing the nasty stuff on it. Also, the things I've read about Brook say that the excess white "stuff" is excess mucus production. I picked this guy up in my fingers, and he wasn't excessively mucusy, but it was literally like his skin was falling off. I'm no expert with fish diseases, but I also assumed that if I'd have/get brook, my clowns would also be nailed as they seem to be more susceptible, right? 

 

In any case, this coincided with an outbreak of red slime, so water quality also had (IMHO) a big factor to play with the fish getting sick with whatever it had. I've done two big water changes, and a third 50% is happening tonight (benefits of a small tank - big % water changes are only a couple buckets of water). Nothing else seems affected at this time.

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Let’s hope it was not brook. Keep an eye on the gills, swimming at 45 degrees, and white patches on skin. Rapid respiration is usually the first symptom. Are your clowns cb or wc?

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