Ash Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 The story begins Monday.... I fished out one of my RDs & two of my convicts (my first two cichlids btw) from my buddys pond & just chucked them into my mixed CA tank, no quarantine or anything. The convicts didn't really like the move & acted weird, the RD fit in straight away. Ok, maybe the move stressed them? It was seperate trips with different water, RD in first then the cons the following day. Are they sulking? sitting on the bottom & breathing heavy, weird... A day goes by, one of the cons starts coming good but both of them seem to have tattered trailing fins. Is it agro from the other guys? watch the tank for a while, nope not agro. weird. In with the melafix.... Another day, the con starting to come good eats now, still shy & not up with the other guys. The sicker one is laying on his side now. Into a fry saver, continue with melafix. Both have lost more of their trailing fins... Yesterday, sicker one seems much better - ate in the fry saver. tipped him back into the tank, no problems so far. hiding in the corner, acting weird but not looking so bad. The other one still isn't "one of the boys" with the other fish but getting better. The RD looks like he never left & just had a 6 month pond holiday! Convict fins are still worse, markings on their bodys like they've been bitten but they haven't? Today, noticed Red Jr. (the freshly returned RD) is covered in whitespot - have I missed this or what? On closer inspection so are the cons, plus their fins are really ratty now. The original fish seem unaffected. In with a stack of salt, continue melafix. So, my indescriminate tank/pond swapping might have caught up with me! This is the first illness I've had in my tanks non-agro or falling rock related since my blackbelt got popeye about 12-18 months ago & could potentially cost me some of my favorite fish - Big red is on one side of the divider, my texas, blackbelt, Red Jr, big gold sev, JD & two first cichilds (the cons) are on the other (along with some expendable silver dollars). It could have been prevented if I wasn't so complacent & quarantined like I know I should but have never bothered... only time will tell if my luck holds I guess. Not looking for sympathy or people bagging me, just reminding people to be more careful & not to cut corners. Happy easter Cheers Ash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 bad luck mate, i too have some rds in the pond ,if they get taken out theyll get a good dosing ,hope yours are ok -try 2 courses of protozin always works for me and if its not too big an issue change the gravel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 14, 2006 Author Share Posted April 14, 2006 I think the movement & temp changes were the biggest problems. Also with all the rain the pond would have been super soft, I mean my tap water is only 3dh anyway but the pond would have been virtually nil hardness. I try not to use any meds where possible, salt & temp has always done the job for me. I'm just upset I didn't notice it at first, the RD expecially is quite obvious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D6C1 Posted April 14, 2006 Share Posted April 14, 2006 Sorry to hear that Ash. Thats got to hurt. I remember years ago, when all my gold fish got whitespot. I was very sad as they got knocked out one by one. Nothing helped them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 um, how do you tell velvet from whitespot? I'm justing thinking this is stuff might be a little finer than Ich - anyone have photos of infected fish to help me diagnose? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 Did some googling, it's velvet Have a look here, the one labelled velvet is spot on what I've got. Also have a look here, it explains the non-agro wounds on one of my convicts. Now I feel really stupid. The only 1/2 useful medication I have on hand is salt, I had Multi-cure but it's out of date by about 12 months. What's the best thing to treat this stuff? I can probably only get really common brand stuff up here quickly tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trofius Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 get a proper white spot treatment asap, i think its melachite green/formalin combo velvet is a copper sulpahate treatment i know it is a chemical and lots of people dont like, natural is best, blah , blah but white spot can be savage and damm kills quick unless you see it very early on... being easter is gunn stuff you shops all shut, unless you know someone with whitespot ooodonium?( velvet ) treatment,multi cure will do, i would even try the out of date stuff it would just be a bit weaker than it should, maybe...but dont bother if it is velvet , wont do jack! for velvet drop the lights right off, and Untill you get the good stuff i would crank those heaters to 30 degress and add the salt as you have been doing, or even better ( i would do this, make your own choice)is to get the get a bucket of very salty water and give the fish 10 second dips in it and then back to a clean bucket of water for 10minutes repeat 3 times this will really stress the organism, Amaricans are reasonably salt tolarant so will be ok, they also tend to be pretty hard buM.. good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted April 16, 2006 Author Share Posted April 16, 2006 best I could get today is Promethyasul, meant to be a bit better than Multi-cure at least. The LFS owner said whenever he's had to defeat velvet simply no lights & 30deg has done it alone without meds - my tank is sitting at 30deg anyway (no heaters, this is Townsville) so he thinks it's either a different strain or something else. Perhaps my thermometer is a bit out, I'll up the temp a little more anyway. There is 1/2 a kilo of rock salt in the 4x2 (well actually a 3'10"x2x2) now so hopefully that's strong enough salinity to help. No lights & the Promethyasul. Wait & see I guess. edit 10/6: this worked BTW, though I did lose the convict with all the open wounds - too far gone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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