Chronicles of the sickly Pacific Blue-Eyed Signifiers

[laritheloud]

To update everyone, my 55 gallon tank has been through:

3 rounds of General Cure
1 round of kanaplex in food (10 days)
1 Round of Metronidazole in food (10 days)
3 rounds of Levamisole HCL (one week apart each)
1 round of Oxytetracycline in food (9 day course)

AND....................... the weakest Blue-Eyed now has unilaterial popeye and isn't schooling with the others. 🤪 Merry Christmas to me! Hoping it's just an injury from sparring, but I've been seriously regretting purchasing this batch of fish. When my 20 gallon quarantine is ready I might scoop them out and shift them over there. I am Tired.

Anyway, I'm absolutely not treating the tank and just going to go with my scheduled Saturday partial water change. The water is very low nitrates (under 10 ppm) and looks clean according to testing, so I'm just going to throw my arms up and stop messing with the tank.

[laritheloud]

So I am getting a close look at him because he is hovering near the surface… he appears to have a white growth coming out of the swollen eye?? The heck? Is it an injury or something else?

Edited December 24, 2021 by laritheloud

[Colu]

 as it unilateral Popeye it's more than likely bacterial  with secondary fungal infection I would Qarantine and treat with ick x and do another course of oxytetracycline in food 

Edited December 25, 2021 by Colu

[laritheloud]

@Colu I really don't understand how this keeps happening. I've put this tank through so many treatments. Parameters are great, 0/0/ 20-30ppm nitrates. I'm not sure if he's eating. I don't know if it's something that's worth treating anymore. He has looked worse throughout the day and is now hanging out near the bottom. I could quarantine, but I am not optimistic about his chances. I feel very much like I made a big mistake getting these fish, because they haven't been working out at all. 😞

[Colu]

It could be weak though lack of genetic diversity a lot of aquarium fish are heavily inbred  making them more susceptible to disease 

[laritheloud]

Either way, it isn't good for me (mentally) or for the fish to keep going through the wringer with medications. I love this hobby, but for the past few months, I haven't been enjoying this tank or these fish because all I am doing is worrying and obsessing over their symptoms or the dying snails. I can't get him out now because he's hiding underneath the driftwood (I found him after about 15 minutes of searching), the 20 gallon is still cycling (but close), and the 10 gallon has kuhli loaches that I don't want exposed to whatever-this-is. I don't fully think it's contagious because I've placed the weakest/sickest rainbows in with other fish in quarantine and have seen no signs of this spreading across species over about 5 weeks in a 10 gallon. I've also seen every symptom under the sun: wasting, weak swimming, bleeding gills, stringy white poo, pale coloration, tatty fins. Now this guy has popeye and is worsening fast. I'm out of reasonable explanations and energy. I've had these fish since August/September and it's not improving.

I'll check on him in the morning and hope he's back at the top and easy to catch and figure it out from there.

Edited December 25, 2021 by laritheloud

[Colu]

I wouldn't get disheartened I have similar thing happened with a group of tetras were every couple of week one would get sick no matter what I treated with it just bad luck sometimes all  you can do is try you best helpfully they pull though

Edited December 25, 2021 by Colu

[laritheloud]

On 12/24/2021 at 9:51 PM, Colu said:

I wouldn't get disheartened I have similar thing happened with a group of tetras were every couple of week one would get sick no matter what I treated with it just bad luck sometimes all  you can do is try you best helpfully they pull though

Weirdly it does help to hear this. Thank you. I know I struggle but I don’t give up — I just get very emotional along the way. ❤️ I know it’ll work out how it should and I’m doing what I can to keep the little guys comfortable. I’m happy most of my fish and inverts are thriving and I’ll see it through. 
 

I hope you have a great holiday colu. Merry Christmas if you celebrate!

[Colu]

Merry Christmas to you

[laritheloud]

The sick fish passed.

The remaining 6 were the original 6 I purchased, I'm almost certain. I bought the fish in two batches, 6 and then 4, all from the same LFS, same tank. I extended their isolation period to almost two full months and treated the whole batch together after adding the four extras. Seems like the additional 4 had something up with them, and the original 6 powered through. The color on the original 6 rainbows was all better, stronger, and more saturated than the four later additions. Maybe that was a sign. I'll likely keep a close eye on them in the coming months. The 20 gallon is burning through nitrites in about 36 hours, so it's getting close to cycled... considering moving them out to another tank and getting a siamese algae eater or a school of barbs (odessa? snakeskin? black rubies?) for the 55 gallon instead.

After a solid quarantine period, of course. But that's for the future.

Edited December 27, 2021 by laritheloud

[Guppysnail]

I’m sorry you are struggling with this. Sometimes once a group of fish have weakened compromised immune systems there is nothing that can help them from being continuously ill. This often occurs from high stress and poor conditions from the breeder and is no reflection on you. Once their system is that far compromised they become a liability to your other fish because they give bacteria etc a place to grow uncontrollably in my experience. It is sad but there often is no reversing the damage that was done prior to us receiving them. I hope the originals start to thrive for you and compensate for all your hard work and care. 

[laritheloud]

Thank you both, @Colu and @Guppysnail. I think things are starting to look up. My 55 gallon tank looks healthier and stronger than I've felt about it for a long time. The six rainbows that are left are vigorous and healthy. My gouramis are happy and plump. My synodontis petricola are cute little juvenile sharkies that are just about reaching two inches long now. My remaining adult rabbit snail is back to his normal activity level moving around the tank, and I spotted four live juvenile snails doing just fine. My trapdoors and nerites are all totally unbothered.

It's a relief to feel like I'm getting past all of this. I'm planning on heading back to the store this weekend to add something to my 20 gallon quarantine tank now reaching a complete cycle, probably a bristlenose or some other fancy pleco. It's looking very lovely; I don't really treat quarantine tanks as traditional quarantines and plant them up so that they're cozy and comfortable for the fish, but I keep the stocking limited to whoever's being quarantined.