Help with freshwater anyone? Getting desperate

[reef’r]

So I have a 125g display tank with African cichlids. Long story short, the fish are acting like they have a bad parasite problem, only I can’t seem to treat it. The fish are still eating like they should I haven’t really found any signs of anything physically on them, however they are flashing and scratching to the point that it’s almost driving me crazy. I’ve treated with metroplex, prazipro and tried copper safe but that seemed to make them go nuts (probably just me) so I did a 80-90% water change and now the tank is back to original parameters with no meds and they are still doing it. They are scratching off scales and marking up their bodies, clamped fins,twitching, shaking there heads, diving heads into the sand and twisting, and I have one that’s even trying to scratch in the turbulent water at the surface. I have taken two fish from the tank and they don’t seem to be doing it anymore. I have three other tanks, all the same water and none of this behavior in any of those tanks. I’m all out of ideas and any help is really and greatly appreciated

 

[Evil1]

How long is the tank up? You said you move 2 to a different tank and they stopped acting erratically?

 

[reef’r]

How long is the tank up? You said you move 2 to a different tank and they stopped acting erratically?

Tanks been running since may of last year. Had a few different species of fish in, never had this problem until now. Substrate has been the same and filtration. Yes as best as I can tell the fish that I moved are not showing same behavior

 

[Evil1]

It could be possible a piece of equipment is leaching electricity into the tank if your sure no disease

 

[Cichlid Dad]

It could be possible a piece of equipment is leaching electricity into the tank if your sure no disease

My thoughts exactly

 

[Jay Hemdal]

So I have a 125g display tank with African cichlids. Long story short, the fish are acting like they have a bad parasite problem, only I can’t seem to treat it. The fish are still eating like they should I haven’t really found any signs of anything physically on them, however they are flashing and scratching to the point that it’s almost driving me crazy. I’ve treated with metroplex, prazipro and tried copper safe but that seemed to make them go nuts (probably just me) so I did a 80-90% water change and now the tank is back to original parameters with no meds and they are still doing it. They are scratching off scales and marking up their bodies, clamped fins,twitching, shaking there heads, diving heads into the sand and twisting, and I have one that’s even trying to scratch in the turbulent water at the surface. I have taken two fish from the tank and they don’t seem to be doing it anymore. I have three other tanks, all the same water and none of this behavior in any of those tanks. I’m all out of ideas and any help is really and greatly appreciated

Can you post a video?
Are all fish affected, or just some of them?
Do you know the pH of the water?

Jay

 

[reef’r]

It could be possible a piece of equipment is leaching electricity into the tank if your sure no disease

My thoughts exactly

It’s funny you say that. Checked for voltage in the tank and sure enough it has about 24v. It decreases with each piece of equipment I turn off. But, checked my other two tanks and they also read voltage. It’s really strange to me, just stating what I’ve observed. Why I’m getting voltage in the tank I have no idea. Heater is unplugged, turned off one power strip and voltage dropped, turned off the other power strip and voltage decreased further. But even with everything off in the tank for 10 mins fish still were flashing

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It’s funny you say that. Checked for voltage in the tank and sure enough it has about 24v. It decreases with each piece of equipment I turn off. But, checked my other two tanks and they also read voltage. It’s really strange to me, just stating what I’ve observed. Why I’m getting voltage in the tank I have no idea. Heater is unplugged, turned off one power strip and voltage dropped, turned off the other power strip and voltage decreased further. But even with everything off in the tank for 10 mins fish still were flashing

Stray voltage is a red herring, an actual short circuit can be dangerous for you, but this induced voltage can be found in most aquariums at various levels. The fish are not grounded so there is no potential. Same reason birds can perch on high tension lines.

Jay

 

[Cichlid Dad]

It’s funny you say that. Checked for voltage in the tank and sure enough it has about 24v. It decreases with each piece of equipment I turn off. But, checked my other two tanks and they also read voltage. It’s really strange to me, just stating what I’ve observed. Why I’m getting voltage in the tank I have no idea. Heater is unplugged, turned off one power strip and voltage dropped, turned off the other power strip and voltage decreased further. But even with everything off in the tank for 10 mins fish still were flashing

Hmmm, there is a product available on Amazon made for aquariums that you plug into an outlet for grounding.

 

[threebuoys]

Are all of the fish flashing and showing scale damage, or just some? Are both males and females displaying issues?

How many cycles of prazi did you run, and did you use the liquid or powder form?

I have a 90 gallon African tank. it is fairly mature with several of the males in the 6 - 8 inch range. I haven't added new fish in over 18 months. Still, from time to time, several will flash, and rather violently. I did use prazipro over two years ago and followed the standard protocol with 3 treatment cycles. So, I don't know if mine have flukes or not. But, not all of the fish flash. And the males can be very aggressive with each other and with the females when breeding (i.e. all the time). I think the flashing at times is triggered by the interaction of the tankmates, and maybe sometimes because they get some sand stuck in their gills because of all the digging they do.

Watch the fish closely and see if you can find a pattern. All fish? Only a few fish? All the time? Is health deteriorating? etc. Maybe that will provide a clue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

So I have a 125g display tank with African cichlids. Long story short, the fish are acting like they have a bad parasite problem, only I can’t seem to treat it. The fish are still eating like they should I haven’t really found any signs of anything physically on them, however they are flashing and scratching to the point that it’s almost driving me crazy. I’ve treated with metroplex, prazipro and tried copper safe but that seemed to make them go nuts (probably just me) so I did a 80-90% water change and now the tank is back to original parameters with no meds and they are still doing it. They are scratching off scales and marking up their bodies, clamped fins,twitching, shaking there heads, diving heads into the sand and twisting, and I have one that’s even trying to scratch in the turbulent water at the surface. I have taken two fish from the tank and they don’t seem to be doing it anymore. I have three other tanks, all the same water and none of this behavior in any of those tanks. I’m all out of ideas and any help is really and greatly appreciated

African cichlids are susceptible to skin irritations caused by ich, flukes and even anchor worms and hole in the head also caused by worms. The behavior you mention sound like flukes which will initiate constant scratching and even heavier breathing. In my LFS, my cichlid tanks contained lake malawi salt and epsom salt to help alleviate this at one Teaspoon per 10 gallons. Prazi too will work but takes 2-3 days to start working. Each dose is 5 day period with a water change and one more application- Do not overdose prazi

 

[vetteguy53081]

It could be possible a piece of equipment is leaching electricity into the tank if your sure no disease

You would see more than scratching and likely ruled out.

 

[reef’r]

 

[vetteguy53081]

Nice collection of Tanganika species. Sure looks like flukes. These fish in high number are going to need a nice piece of driftwood and much more rock for hiding and cave structure.

 

[Spicy Reef]

That's a gorgeous group of pets!
I was going to mention the salt, someone already mentioned above...
How about airstone, is that what that blue thing is?
Sending you good vibes

 

[reef’r]

Are all of the fish flashing and showing scale damage, or just some? Are both males and females displaying issues?

How many cycles of prazi did you run, and did you use the liquid or powder form?

I have a 90 gallon African tank. it is fairly mature with several of the males in the 6 - 8 inch range. I haven't added new fish in over 18 months. Still, from time to time, several will flash, and rather violently. I did use prazipro over two years ago and followed the standard protocol with 3 treatment cycles. So, I don't know if mine have flukes or not. But, not all of the fish flash. And the males can be very aggressive with each other and with the females when breeding (i.e. all the time). I think the flashing at times is triggered by the interaction of the tankmates, and maybe sometimes because they get some sand stuck in their gills because of all the digging they do.

Watch the fish closely and see if you can find a pattern. All fish? Only a few fish? All the time? Is health deteriorating? etc. Maybe that will provide a clue.

The tank is all males. And definitely the vast majority of fish are flashing I’d say 95% of them even the synodontis cats. But some rarely ever do it. I dosed prazi, waited three days, changed water and doses again, then repeated once more

 

[reef’r]

That's a gorgeous group of pets!
I was going to mention the salt, someone already mentioned above...
How about airstone, is that what that blue thing is?
Sending you good vibes

Yes that was an air stone for the prazi and copper safe mixture, just haven’t removed it

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes that was an air stone for the prazi and copper safe mixture, just haven’t removed it

What is the pH of the water? That is a critical piece to all this.
You should still run an air stone in a tank like that, it helps drive off carbon dioxide and keeps the pH up.
I keep Malawi cichlids like these in up to 3 ppt salt - use sea salt, or rift lake cichlid salt, not plain sodium chloride.

I think the fluke's life cycle just wasn't broken.

Your prazi dose was what they say on the bottle, but unfortunately, it is wrong for dealing with egg laying flukes, it only works for live bearing flukes that way. What you need to do is dose prazipro two more times - dose it once, then wait 8 days and dose it again. Prazi doesn't kill the unhatched eggs, so you need to time it out so that the eggs hatched, and get dosed, before they have time to lay their own eggs. It sometimes takes three doses.

Another issue with Malawi cichlids is that they can develop high numbers of Hexamita gut protozoans.
these don't cause scratching, but if you start to lose fish for no apparent reason, (or maybe just some gut bloating) consider that. It can be treated with Metronidazole in their food.

I used to manage a similar tank (grin):

Jay

 

[threebuoys]

What is the pH of the water? That is a critical piece to all this.
You should still run an air stone in a tank like that, it helps drive off carbon dioxide and keeps the pH up.
I keep Malawi cichlids like these in up to 3 ppt salt - use sea salt, or rift lake cichlid salt, not plain sodium chloride.

I think the fluke's life cycle just wasn't broken.

Your prazi dose was what they say on the bottle, but unfortunately, it is wrong for dealing with egg laying flukes, it only works for live bearing flukes that way. What you need to do is dose prazipro two more times - dose it once, then wait 8 days and dose it again. Prazi doesn't kill the unhatched eggs, so you need to time it out so that the eggs hatched, and get dosed, before they have time to lay their own eggs. It sometimes takes three doses.

Another issue with Malawi cichlids is that they can develop high numbers of Hexamita gut protozoans.
these don't cause scratching, but if you start to lose fish for no apparent reason, (or maybe just some gut bloating) consider that. It can be treated with Metronidazole in their food.

I used to manage a similar tank (grin):

Jay

How many 1000's of gallons was that tank?

 

[reef’r]

What is the pH of the water? That is a critical piece to all this.
You should still run an air stone in a tank like that, it helps drive off carbon dioxide and keeps the pH up.
I keep Malawi cichlids like these in up to 3 ppt salt - use sea salt, or rift lake cichlid salt, not plain sodium chloride.

I think the fluke's life cycle just wasn't broken.

Your prazi dose was what they say on the bottle, but unfortunately, it is wrong for dealing with egg laying flukes, it only works for live bearing flukes that way. What you need to do is dose prazipro two more times - dose it once, then wait 8 days and dose it again. Prazi doesn't kill the unhatched eggs, so you need to time it out so that the eggs hatched, and get dosed, before they have time to lay their own eggs. It sometimes takes three doses.

Another issue with Malawi cichlids is that they can develop high numbers of Hexamita gut protozoans.
these don't cause scratching, but if you start to lose fish for no apparent reason, (or maybe just some gut bloating) consider that. It can be treated with Metronidazole in their food.

I used to manage a similar tank (grin):

Jay

PH is 8.2. Last night I added a cup of epsom salt and 3 tablespoons of prazipro. I will dose at your recommended intervals and see how it goes, thank you!