Several fish spitting out food after ammonia spike

[FishGuy919]

On 3/30/2023 at 7:22 AM, Colu said:

Has the puffer started to lose weight or develope a sunken belly if not it's possible it's eating small amounts of food

I don't think its belly is sunken in, included some pics from today. I think its probably slimmer but not 100% sure.

 

[FishGuy919]

This is the batch that my fish came from, in the video the fish seem more plump than what my fish currently is. I have seen my puffer bite at some plants and snails but have not confirmed that he is actually swallowing anything.

 

 

[FishGuy919]

The puffer has been more active today and has been chewing on roots of plants and going after some snails. I can't tell if he is eating anything though. But seems like some minor progress today.

[Colu]

Doesn't look thin he might be eating small amount of food I forgot to ask have you checked to see if his teeth are over grown that would also prevent him from eating properly 

[FishGuy919]

On 3/30/2023 at 1:23 PM, Colu said:

Doesn't look thin he might be eating small amount of food I forgot to ask have you checked to see if his teeth are over grown that would also prevent him from eating properly 

Pretty sure his beak is okay. His teeth seem to be normal. I will get a picture of it later to confirm. Thanks so much for your help.

[FishGuy919]

@Colu should I stop the metroplex before the 3 weeks if the hole in head is gone?

[Colu]

I would finish the three week course of metroplex @Fishguy

Edited March 30, 2023 by Colu

[FishGuy919]

@Colu Hard to tell because he chews them up and spits out pieces of shell, but pretty sure the puffer is eating snails now. Yes!

[FishGuy919]

@Colu So completed Metroplex treatment. Hole in head on the leopard is gone.

Will do last Expel P treatment on Monday.

The leopard still isnt able to eat larger food like it could before but I think it might be getting better. But definitely not too worried about the leopard because its eating.

The puffer seems better. It still isnt eating frozen foods like it did before but I it keeps biting and swallowing things around the substrate and plants. So it is eating something, just not 100% what it is eating. I have noticed some detritus worms lately so maybe its eating that and snails.

I did lose 3 juvenile Congo tetras during the treatment. They would seem fine, and the next morning they would be belly up floating. Not sure if the treatment was the actual cause though. All in all the leopard and the puffer seem to be doing much better. Thank you so much!  I will keep this thread updated if anything changes. 

@Colu I haven't been quarantining, so lesson learned. I purchased a 10 gallon tank. Is there any quarantine protocol that you recommend?  Thanks!

Edited April 8, 2023 by FishGuy919

[Colu]

On 4/8/2023 at 5:22 PM, FishGuy919 said:

haven't been quarantining, so lesson learned. I purchased a 10 gallon tank. Is there any quarantine protocol that you recommend?  Thanks!

What I usually do is quarantine for a minimum of 4 weeks and just monitor if I notice anything during the quarantine period then I treat some fish such as puffers and Otto's I would always recommend deworming them before adding them to the main tank as most are wild caught they can have a heavy parasite load 

[FishGuy919]

@Colu

The leopard and the puffer are both doing really well.

One thing that has happened over the last few weeks in the same tank that is odd though is I lost 4 juvenile congo tetras. The same thing happens. One will start gasping for air, it cant control how it swims, and then he goes belly up. Today a juvenile leopard in the same tank is experiencing the same symptom. Pretty sure Im going to lose it. Any ideas why this could be happening? Seems like all of the fish are juveniles.

I just increased the surface agitation but all of the other fish seem fine.

Thanks! 

[Colu]

On 4/15/2023 at 1:07 PM, FishGuy919 said:

@Colu

The leopard and the puffer are both doing really well.

One thing that has happened over the last few weeks in the same tank that is odd though is I lost 4 juvenile congo tetras. The same thing happens. One will start gasping for air, it cant control how it swims, and then he goes belly up. Today a juvenile leopard in the same tank is experiencing the same symptom. Pretty sure Im going to lose it. Any ideas why this could be happening? Seems like all of the fish are juveniles.

I just increased the surface agitation but all of the other fish seem fine.

Thanks! 

Have you check your water parameters when you notice these symptoms just in case something off as juvenile fish are more susceptible to changes in water parameters 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Colu

[FishGuy919]

On 4/15/2023 at 8:09 AM, Colu said:

Have you check your water parameters when you notice these symptoms just in case something off as juvenile fish are more susceptible to changes in water parameters 

Just checked water parameters seem fine. My nitrate is a little higher than usual though, 40 PPM.

[Colu]

On 4/15/2023 at 1:16 PM, FishGuy919 said:

Just checked water parameters seem fine. My nitrate is a little higher than usual though, 40 PPM.

It could be flukes with some of the symptoms your describing possible a bacterial internal bacterial infections what I would do is treat with prazipro once a week for 3 weeks and do a course of maracyn2 in food to cover all 

 

On 4/15/2023 at 1:16 PM, FishGuy919 said:

Just checked water parameters seem fine. My nitrate is a little higher than usual though, 40 PPM.

 

[FishGuy919]

@Colu

So a couple of months ago I dosed the tank with a course of API erythromycin and I think it might have killed off my bacteria and I got an ammonia spike that I mentioned initially in this post. I think maracyn has erythromycin, should I not dose it again since I recently dosed it? 

Assuming my juvenile leopard passes, is there I way I can inspect it and see if it is flukes?

Thanks

@Colu

I also did a treatment of paracleanse a couple of months ago too and followed the directions.

[Colu]

On 4/15/2023 at 2:37 PM, FishGuy919 said:

@Colu

So a couple of months ago I dosed the tank with a course of API erythromycin and I think it might have killed off my bacteria and I got an ammonia spike that I mentioned initially in this post. I think maracyn has erythromycin, should I not dose it again since I recently dosed it? 

Assuming my juvenile leopard passes, is there I way I can inspect it and see if it is flukes?

Thanks

@Colu

I also did a treatment of paracleanse a couple of months ago too and followed the directions.

Maracyn2 is a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment active ingredient is minocycline it predominantly treat gram negative and some gram positive bacteria were as maracyn predominantly treats gram positive some gram negative bacteria if you add it to food following the recipe I provided it won't harm your benefial bacterial if you only did one course of paracleanse and didn't follow in two weeks  it's possible your dealings with parasitic infection  you would have take a Gill biopsy or skin scraping and look at it under a microscope if you have paracleanse to hand I would do three courses two weeks apart for a total of three full courses of treatment and a course of maracyn2 in food feeding a small amount twice a day for 7 days if your using maracyn2 in food you can dose the tank with paracleanse at the same time that will cover all bases 

[FishGuy919]

@Colu

The juvenile leopard passed. There were no obvious issues that were visible when I inspected it.

Unless paracleanse is better, I will go with prazipro. Its cheaper and I only have to dose it once a week.

So to make sure I understand.

Prazipro for once a week for 3 weeks in total.

Then do Maracyn2 by mixing in food twice a day per instructions for 7 days.

Is this correct?

One concern is the puffer seems to only be eating snails.

 

@Colu

One other question, so i have a culture of scuds in another tank.  My plan was to eventually start feeding them to the puffer. However, I am mega paranoid now about introducing disease into my tank after all the problems I have had. What should I do to ensure the scuds dont introduce disease to my fish? Should I treat the scuds? Or should I not even bother with introducing scuds into my main tank. Like, maybe the risk out weighs the benefits?

Edited April 15, 2023 by FishGuy919

[Colu]

Prazipro is just as effective at treating flukes as paracleanse use prazipro  once a week for 3 weeks and you can use medication with prazipro feeding a Small amount twice a day for 7 days As long as the tank with the scuds hasn't been exposed to any disease i wouldn't worry 

[FishGuy919]

@Colu  I was reading this article about fish getting throat irritation due to protozoans. My leopard rolls the food around his mouth and can't seem to swallow it and spits it out just like the article mentions. It also mentioned to use a medication called Flubendazole to treat this. Would prazipro work too? Thoughts on this? Thanks!

https://www.myaquariumclub.com/wasting-disease-and-flubendazole-718.html

[Scapexghost]

Fish use their gills for swallowing, so if there gills are damaged, theyll be forced to spit out the food as they can't swallow. Ammonia can cause gill damage, ive also seen this with ich.

[Colu]

On 4/22/2023 at 2:49 AM, FishGuy919 said:

@Colu  I was reading this article about fish getting throat irritation due to protozoans. My leopard rolls the food around his mouth and can't seem to swallow it and spits it out just like the article mentions. It also mentioned to use a medication called Flubendazole to treat this. Would prazipro work too? Thoughts on this? Thanks!

https://www.myaquariumclub.com/wasting-disease-and-flubendazole-718.html

The type of parasites your describing can be treated with levamisole as you have already done multiple course Expel p  flubendazole  should be unnecessary unless your dealing with a parasite that has built up a  resistance to levamisole 

[FishGuy919]

@Colu could gill flukes cause fish to not be able to swallow properly and spit out their food?

[Colu]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:33 AM, FishGuy919 said:

@Colu could gill flukes cause fish to not be able to swallow properly and spit out their food?

Gill flukes can cause fish to spit food out  

[FishGuy919]

@Colu so i am pretty sure the leopard swallowing is improving. Today I put in frozen blood worms. He swallowed a pretty big chunk if it.  It took him a while to swallow it but he eventually got it down! Maybe its taking some time for his gills to heal after the Expel-P treatment?

I have been on the fence about treating with Prazipro and Maracyn2. Kind of like is it better to take inaction or action kind of thing. I bought prazipro and maracyn2 so I currently have them on hand but part of me is hesitant to dose the tank with more meds. I was thinking about maybe just watching the fish very closing to see if they start to exhibit any of the gasping symptoms. Or maybe I should just go ahead and dose the meds? I feel conflicted.

Thank so much for your help!

[FishGuy919]

On 4/22/2023 at 6:14 AM, Colu said:

Gill flukes can cause fish to spit food out  

Hmm interesting. Okay based on that I think I will go ahead and start treatment with Prazipro. Hopefully the leopard's eating will improve and then I can possibly start the Maracyn2.