Very, very ill irrubesco - R.I.P Knoll
Posted: Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:17 pm
I woke up this morning to a very bad surprise. At first I thought my irrubesco male was dead. He was lying on top of the filter, and had lost all color. But when I tried to touch him, he started moving. He had really trouble with staying straight in the water, but he managed to move away from me. He looked really terrible, still like he was dead - it was awful. His skin has lost almost all color (he is so extremely pale), and there seem to be something wrong with his skin. How the skin looks is really difficult to explain - it looks like there's a little bit of ich there, and that there are some other skin problems too. His fins are ragged, and his stomach is awfully thin (I suspect IPs, as I had this in the salivator tank earlier). I haven't seen him around much lately, so I haven't seen this developing. I see now that this shyness probably was because he wasn't feeling well. I have a feeling that he hasn't eaten for a while, but can't say for how long, as he often doesn't want to eat when I'm looking. But by the sight of his belly, it's really been a while. I really didn't think he would survive many hours, but he has stayed alive all day (I put in some meds, but really felt it was just hopeless). Tonight I found him again, after searching for him. Again I was sure he was dead, but again he was able to move around a little. The strange thing is that his tankmate, Houdini, looks all well. There's one more thing that is to say: yesterday I found a outbreak of some parasites in another tank, a tank with cories. Only three cories were affected, and they only have one hvite spot (like a pimple) each. But cories doesn't easily get external parasites, as they are armored, and don't have scales. And all tanks (except one) share the same equipment I use to do my water changes, so there's a possibility that the equipment can transfer illnesses and parasites from tank to tank.
So for the questions above:
1. Water parameters: Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: between 10 and 20 (before the waterchange I did earlier today). I haven't checked the PH, as I don't want to use my PH pen in a tank that's infected with something I don't know what is. And my liquid PH tests are out of date, and really gives wrong numbers.
2. Tank is 22 G, and it's only this irrubesco pair living there. The female seems to be well.
3. Feeding is usually shrimps, shrimp mix (with lots of green stuff in it), snails, different kinds of seafood. They get fed every other day. Usually the water change schedules is 50 % twice a week, but lately I've not been well, so it's only been once a week. But as the nitrate shows 10 -20 after a week since the last water change, it seems like the bioload is absolutely ok in this tank. I do water changes with water directly from the tap (heated), and have never had any trouble with that earlier. I do not add anything to the water (there's no clorine in the water here).
4. I've done no changes the last two weeks. But this autumn I've changed filter. I put an extra filter in the tank, and cycled it for a month (with the old one still in the tank). When the new filter was cycled, I put a new and bigger filter into the tank, and this is now cycling together with the new, cycled little one. But 0 nitrites tells me that the little filter is properly cycled, and is enough to handle the bioload in the tank.
5. The tank has been up for two years, but the filters are changed recently.
I really have no hope of him surviving, but I can't help trying anyway. I've added both Esha 2000 and Esha Exit, two meds that are very effective and good (and does not kill the filter bacteria) - one is for bacterial infections and fungus, and the other for external parasites. Those two meds can be used together. After finding him still alive tonight (after a whole day of being a zombie - a living dead), I also added some of my precious Flubenol (which can be used together with any med). So he really has a hard treatment right now. But I would suspect the odds for him to survive is 0,001 percent...
It's just so terrible to see a puffer so terribly ill!
So for the questions above:
1. Water parameters: Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: between 10 and 20 (before the waterchange I did earlier today). I haven't checked the PH, as I don't want to use my PH pen in a tank that's infected with something I don't know what is. And my liquid PH tests are out of date, and really gives wrong numbers.
2. Tank is 22 G, and it's only this irrubesco pair living there. The female seems to be well.
3. Feeding is usually shrimps, shrimp mix (with lots of green stuff in it), snails, different kinds of seafood. They get fed every other day. Usually the water change schedules is 50 % twice a week, but lately I've not been well, so it's only been once a week. But as the nitrate shows 10 -20 after a week since the last water change, it seems like the bioload is absolutely ok in this tank. I do water changes with water directly from the tap (heated), and have never had any trouble with that earlier. I do not add anything to the water (there's no clorine in the water here).
4. I've done no changes the last two weeks. But this autumn I've changed filter. I put an extra filter in the tank, and cycled it for a month (with the old one still in the tank). When the new filter was cycled, I put a new and bigger filter into the tank, and this is now cycling together with the new, cycled little one. But 0 nitrites tells me that the little filter is properly cycled, and is enough to handle the bioload in the tank.
5. The tank has been up for two years, but the filters are changed recently.
I really have no hope of him surviving, but I can't help trying anyway. I've added both Esha 2000 and Esha Exit, two meds that are very effective and good (and does not kill the filter bacteria) - one is for bacterial infections and fungus, and the other for external parasites. Those two meds can be used together. After finding him still alive tonight (after a whole day of being a zombie - a living dead), I also added some of my precious Flubenol (which can be used together with any med). So he really has a hard treatment right now. But I would suspect the odds for him to survive is 0,001 percent...
It's just so terrible to see a puffer so terribly ill!
I expected this, but it's sad anyway. 
