Hi, first of all I don’t really know if I’m in the right forum if not I apologize in advance, I’m new here .
I’ve recently noticed 2 of my Snow White longfin bristlenoses are bloated of some sort, and was wondering what’s wrong with them and how i can prevent them from dying. It’s is a female and a male both bloated at the same way. I manage to capture a few pictures of the female when she was on the glass.
I keep them on my tap water as it is pretty good water, and i treat it with seachem prime to detoxify any chlorine or heavy metals just to be sure. They are in 80cm long tank. The rest of the group seem to be fine, it’s a group of 6.
1. Water parameters
a) Temperature range. 25-26 °c
b) pH. 7.0-7.5
c) GH. 7°
d) KH 8°
e)Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, levels.
<0.02ppm. 20mg/l. 0.1 mg/l
f) Water change frequency
Once a week at least 30% left over food I remove every day, if I notice exceeding ammonia/nitrite, I’ll do an extra water change.
(Most LFS's will check your water and give a list of readings).
2. Tank set up
a) Size. 80Lx30Wx25Hcm about height and width I’m not 100% sure
b) Substrate. Sand/gravel
c) Filtration. Canister filter + sponge filter
d) Furnishings. Rocks, pleco caves, Catappa leaves, driftwood+cholla wood a bit javamoss, Anubias and two other plants (I can’t remember the names)
e) Other tank mates. Neocaridina shrimps
f) How long has it been set-up? Let it cycle for 2 months, and been running for about 6 now (excluding the 2 cycle months)
g) When was the last new fish added? Last fish added 4-5 months ago
h) Foods used and frequency? Hikari algae wafers, daily a bit less then a quarter of one wafer. Some days I change the wafers with some fresh blanched vegetable. Either green beans, zucchini, cucumber or broccoli. And also once maybe twice a week a tiny bit of brozen brine shrimp or blood worms
I also use seachem flourish, excel and advance for my plants and every other week with the water change put some seachem stability in as well for beneficial bacteria.
I’ve also got a tank running with super reds, and they have no issues and seem to be growing rapidly and eating way more than the snow whites I have, same parameters as the other ones only difference is that the tank of the super reds has more plants.
Oh and I use also some house plants, philodendrons and pothos as well to suck up excessive nitrate and nitrites from the water, I have the leaves sticking out and the roots into the water. In both of the tanks.
It does look red too me indeed, but all the poop on the ground seem to be just brownish, however last few days I also managed that they eat less for at least I can tell.
If it is a parasitic worm, should I treat it with medicine? Could the plecs handle that? And should I quarantine the two I know are infected?
I’ve got either eSHan2000 and Hs aqua ectobell forte or should I get something specifically for parasites.
Any ideas how the parasites might have entered the aquarium? I haven’t put any new plants in or changed something else about it for a while.
Could it be through live food from pet store maybe? I do buy like not even once a month a bit of live food from pet store like brine shrimp or bloodworms.
Alright, little update: yesterday I bought the levamisole as soon as I came back from work and medicated it to the plecs, so bad and good news. glad to say it is working. But the bad news is that it are parasites however the medication is doing it’s job, so with a bit of luck I caught it in time.
Anyways they suggest to do the treatment wait 1-2 weeks so your fish can get some strength back and eggs of parasites can hatch and do it again to make sure everything is gone.
So as of now time will tell how this ends hopefully everything ends well.
Thx for all the help and I’ll post an future update!
Dylanpleco wrote: ↑23 Jan 2024, 22:12glad to say it is working.
Are the red things still sticking out of the pleco's anus? Have you seen the plecos pass any worms into the tank? If so, vacuum the worms off the substrate.
Dylanpleco wrote: ↑23 Jan 2024, 22:12Anyways they suggest to do the treatment wait 1-2 weeks so your fish can get some strength back and eggs of parasites can hatch and do it again to make sure everything is gone.
Yes that is the typical treatment - hit the fish once to kill current parasites, wait a short while, then hit the fish with another dose of medicine to kill any new parasites that might have hatched from eggs.
The red things aren’t sticking out anymore and the bloat seem to be a little less now, yes i saw them pooping out the red strings.
I’m currently cleaning the substrate, thinking about just removing it and go bare bottom and putting in a substrate after the second and final treatment just to get the water as clean as possible now to minimize the amount of stress they have
Sadly, almost at the finish line of the first treatment. My biggest male of the Snow White colony died, my guess is that he was just too invested with these parasites and may had some internal bleeding or it was just too much.
The others seem to be fine as of now. Still a little bloated but recovering
.