Reddening body on Siamese Algae Eaters

Bronwen

13. a. Any abnormal signs/symptoms: Significant reddening and swelling of the body. Another one of my Siamese Algae Eaters died the other day with very severe "bleeding" under the skin of whole body. Checked ammonia, it was very slightly elevated so changed the water. Now a 2nd fish has the same symptoms but nowhere near as severe. Currently treating with Pimafix - day 3. Infection does appear to be gradually worsening but appetite and activity are good. Last week I lost 2 cories as well. One with the same reddening, the other with a large fungal spot on the head I caught too late to treat.

Any recommendations of how to treat and cure? I feel bad for the little guy and I dont want him to have a horrible death. None of the other fish in the tank currently show symptoms of this illness or anything else.





1. Size of tank? 40gallon

2. All water parameters good - just did a massive water change after a minor ammonia spike. Water is very clear after minor algae outbreak last week.

3. Temperature 80 degrees

4. Freshwater

5. How long the aquarium has been set up? About 9 months

6. Fish family:
8 dwarf cories, all long-term and healthy
2 Blue-eyed rainbows (tiny but adult)
2 Siamese algae eaters, about 3" long each
1 Praecox rainbow, full grown
10 Burmese rasboras - about a month in the tank
3 white tip tetras, mature
1 mature Sparkling Gourami
Lots of amano shrimp

7. Were the fish placed under quarantine period - No cycled quarantine tank

8. Live plants, mostly hornwart & moss balls
b. Sand & gravel mix bottom
c. Natural rocks, driftwood and 1 little resin house

9. a. Filtration? Aquaclear 70, new filter media as of this weekend
b. Heater? Yes

10. Not sure what lights they are, but intended for plants. Auto-on at 10am, off at 9:30pm

11. a. Water change schedule? Usually every 3 weeks. Just did a significant cleaning 2 days ago with 60% water change. Chemically treated tap water, tends to be a bit hard and alkaline.

12. Foods? either live worms or natural dried flakes, once per day or every other day.

Bronwen

Very slight worsening of the redness this morning, but unexpected death of a white-tip tetra which seemed fine yesterday. Any suggestions or guidance would be much appreciated.

jentralala

I honestly have no idea from firsthand experience. However I did do a couple searches and checked some forums, and there are several possibilities. The most common thing I saw people say was ammonia poisoning, how bad was your spike?

Another forum I found had oto's that had intensive and similar brusing around their mouths, which some people say could have been caused by hitting something in the tank. What about lights off time? Do the fish get upset and bounce around and hit the glass? That could be something.

Sorry I'm not much help, I'm new at aquarium keeping :/

jentralala

I found this link, maybe there's something on here that could help? It's a chart of many of the known fish diseases.

Fish Disease and Treatment

It might give you a starting point.

Bronwen

Thanks for the link Jentralala. I found info about hemorrhagic septicemia and Red Pest which seem like likely culprits. Fortunately I have an arsenal of meds on hand so I'm going to try giving them Bifuran+ with food to see if we can fix this. I don't know why my fish always decide to get sick when I'm going out of town though! If this treatment works I'll post for future readers who may have similar symptoms.

fish monger

No ammonia is good ammonia. Keep an eye on it and do water changes as necessary to reduce / eliminate. No matter what the specific disease, ammonia can only have a negative impact on the fishes' ability to fight it.

fish monger

By the way, your tank is beautiful.

Bronwen

Thanks for the comments and compliments. Unfortunately the little algae eater didn't make it. I have been treating the fish for a week with medicated food. It appears to have worked since there were no other deaths. One of my cories does have a whitish patch on his head which I think is a fungus though. I had a cory die of something very similar about 2 weeks ago. We'll see how they all do from now.

This is the way I made medicated food for anyone interested: Making dry food with Bifurin+