Tropheus sick

[fmueller]

Sick Tropheus

Today my tropheus are a lot less active than usual and I have at least one individual with bulging eyes - see photo. The tank has an automatic water change system, and the filter is running great. Water parameters are ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate, close to 0, pH 7.6, GH 9. They have been that for months. I added some multies recently, which are looking fine, but maybe they introduced something that's a problem for the tropheus. Darn, shouldn't have done that

Have added Clout as soon as I noticed there was a problem. Any other advice?

Many thanks

Frank

PS: I just found a dead one in the plants - see photos below. Another one is on the way out - floating upside down. I took both out. What a nightmare!




Dead Tropheus

[fmueller]

I guess the question is how much Clout should I dose - what it says on the bottle or go higher? Also, should I raise the temperature in addition and/or give salt, or leave it be with the Clout?

Frank

[James Shingler]

Dunno really when 7 of mine had bloat (I had added WC 8 females and one male to a group of F1 Tropheus two weeks earlier that I believe had had 2 week quarantine and the usual prophylactic treatments by the importer)) I treated with just clout as it said. One tab per 10g. Dissolved in warm tap water before adding.
Stop feeding.
Day 1: Did 90% water change (pre aged water) and sand clean. Clout at full strength (1 tablet / 10 gallons--remove carbon from filter)
Day 2: No water change. Treated again with Clout at full strength.
Day 3: Did nothing
Day 4: Did an 50% water change and treated with Clout at full strength
Day 5: Did treated with Clout at full strength
Day 6 50% water change replaced carbon.

but I still lost the 7 sick fish over the treatment and one day beyond but none of the others went on to be sick.
Feeding started again very lightly with flake a week after last white poo seen in the tank.

I hear you can treat with a higher dose in quarentine/treatment tank were you do not mind if the filter is knocked out and/or even do a multi antibiotic treatment too or instead but this may knock out the biological filter (I do not know for sure) and be more risky in the main tank than it is worth.

(If doing it again I think I might start stronger with a 11/2 dose on day one and day 4 then a 1/2 dose day 2 and day 5 and start the treatment as a prophylactic one before symptoms are shown but I have not tried this yet)

I think raising the temp is mainly for Metrozole based treatments to increase its solubility (best dissolved in warm water before being added) and not needed with clout? (I know you can go much stronger than the recommended dose (up to X8) for Metro but not sure with clout)

Not sure what salt would do to help. Epsom salts might help as they are supposed to help fish pass faces but again not tried it myself.

Good luck with anything you try.

[fmueller]

Many thanks, James for sharing your treatment procedure. Sorry for the double post, but in my initial panic I also put this in the Health Forum, where I got some excellent advice, especially from Klaus Steinhaus!

Greetings

Frank

[James Shingler]

No worries, I think I learned some good stuff too by reading the other post. (thanks for the link I missed that post the first time round)
Seems raising the temperature and salt does help them in some disease cases (at least).
(I think if raising the temperature I would add extra aeration because of the increased oxygen demand of the fish and bacteria at higher temperatures)
I only replied (no expert on disease treatments, after keeping Tropheus (small scale) for over 20 years I only learned about the availability and treatments in the last couple of years or so (Asked Pam about it on this site while researching this ... http://www.cichlidae.com/askpam/viewtop ... f=13&t=918 )
(not on line before that) and just did my best to avoid disease problems back then and accepted any losses) as I was worried you were getting no feedback/advice. Very glad you got some from the guys.

All the best James