syno tank problem

[syno-kev]

in my main 6ft syno tank i have noticed some sort of disease,
the cich**** seem to be all ill plus the barbs to ,
the smaller ones sat on the bottom and the 3 inch fish hanging around near the top ,
they all seem to have dropped dorsel fins and a white powdery coating on them
is this a fungus ?
the synos seem to be hidding more so carnt see what they look like but velifer was swimming around the surface the other day .
i have put melafix in last night but there seems no improvement
any help please

[Richard B]

Hi Kev - this looks troubling Have you checked the nitrate, nitrite etc? Has anything out of the normal routine happened in the last fortnight - something must have stressed the fish for them to succumb to an infection.

The pics aren't too clear but plenty of aeration, frequent water changes & mela/pimafix would be a good start. I think we need to determine the root cause first to prevent prolonged problems.

[syno-kev]

the only thing new is i bought some small cich++++ at auction 2 weeks ago but nothing big and some plants maybe i introduced something to the tank then on one of these,
i got back in tonight and 2 of the banded lineatus barbs were dead .
the 2 silver sharks dont look to good either !
the syno seem ok and the big female notatus is swimming around as usual and looks ok ,
the other 2 that swim with her are mostly hidding now
i do water checks every week and water changes every 2,3 or 4 weeks around 25% or sometimes 40% if i get a reading of nitrite.

[Richard B]

something clearly has altered the harmonious balance you had. I suspect the new cichlids definately had something to do with it.

[syno-kev]

thanks richard for your reply ,
as i thought today the 2 x 5 inch silver sharks died so tonight i am doing a 50% water change as i have had the melafix in for 3 days now so maybe a fresh water supply will perk things up ,
and i really would be pissed if i lost any of my best synos which are all in this tank !
touch wood i have stopped it in time !

cheers kev

[Richard B]

You're not kidding , however IME synos are, if healthy in the first place, as tough as old boots & often survive infectious outbreaks, with virtually no impact to them. On the flipside when synos do start to suffer, it can often be a long & hard road back to full health. The key as with most situations is simple: top quality water & removal of the root cause (basically minimal nitrates, high aeration & removal of the thing causing stress, making the fish succumb to disease)

Keep us posted Kev & hope everything progresses well

[Chrysichthys]

A white powdery coating sounds like either whitespot (ich) or velvet (oodinium). If it's whitespot it will look like salt or sugar grains. I haven't seen velvet myself, but I understand it looks finer and more powdery.

I don't think Melafix would help if it's either of those, but there are specific remedies for whitespot, and I think for velvet also.

I've only ever once seen synos get whitespot (and this was on new imports which were in bad shape to start with). They seem to be fairly resistant to it.

[andywoolloo]

are they maybe producing an excess slime coat for some reason? Is something in the water irratating them and making them do that? Could that look like that?

I know if a betta has velvet you can shine a flashlight on them and see a gold shimmer of fine gold coloured dust which is velvet.

[syno-kev]

after my water change some of the new cich**** that were hidding behind the rock came out and were covered in white spot i am guessing these were where it originally came from !
i have started using white spot cure and i seem to be getting on top of it now the fish are feeding well and seem to be getting a bit more lively theres non sitting on the gravel any more
cheers guys

[Chrysichthys]

It takes a few days for the cysts to drop off. White spot cure actually kills the free-swimming stage of the parasite's life cycle, not the cysts themselves. Let us know how it works out.

[syno-kev]

just to let all know my tank seems to be back to normal now and only lost one of the very young syno pleurops last week but the other one i bought seems to be recovered with the rest of the syno family in there.
thanks for your posts

[Richard B]

Mostly good news...