Possible parasite problem...

[pugwash]

Well, my 1.5 yr lad was helping with a water change on Friday and all was going well until he grabbed an artificial tree root. He turned it upside down, and to my horror all this stinking brown gunk shot into my tank! Stank of sulphates and all sorts.

Since this has occurred, nearly all of the mid to upper level fish have started flashing (cherry/pentazona barbs, zebra danios and the male gourami - the female 'seems' OK). Oddly the fish at the lower levels 'seem' to not exhibit the flashing (clown loaches and dwarf cichlids). There are no visable additions to the fish skin, gills, fins or faeces.

I have been doing daily 40% water changes and the water parameters last night were normal:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10

I've just checked a good LFS who suspected there were all sorts of beasties in this stinking stagnant water at the base of the decoration, most likely parasites causing the flashing. They were reluctant to suggest medications, due to the variety of soft and hard fish (clown loaches = soft, danios = hard) currently in my tank. The suggestion was to raise the temp to mid/high eighties (1 degree/day) and to possibly add aquarium salt to almost brackish levels (which I think is 1.005, but know no where near enough about this yet).

I also stumbled on this thread which proved interesting reading too:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79131&page=1&pp=15&highlight=parasites


Any thoughts, opinions or help?

Thanks in advance (oh, and I'm UK based too)

[liv2padl]

the first thing i'd do is a very thorough vacuuming of the gravel (a Python is great in this regard) and get any remaining 'brown gunk' out of there. do a gravel vacuum every week along with your weekly water changes.


checked a good LFS who suspected there were all sorts of beasties in this stinking stagnant water at the base of the decoration, most likely parasites causing the flashing. personally, i doubt you've got parasites derived from that brown gunk .. just a lot of decaying organic matter which produced anaerobic bacteria (sulphur smell).

if after several gravel vacuumings and water changes, your fish are still flashing, only then would i consider the possibility of parasites.

check your pH, gH and kH before you do all of the above .. and then check it again after a few days of the above. then c'mon back and let's talk more.

[Star_Rider]

I second liv2padl

if the flashing started after the issue with the stump..could be there was something released that irritated the mid dwelling fish.
do the vac's and keep the water clean..keep an eye on the fish.

if after a few days you might consider treating the tank.

[Hurley]

If this was in a spot that wasn't usually disturbed and all of a sudden it was mixed up, toxic gas, created by anaerobic bacteria may have been released. I would definitely vacuum the gravel and do a water change or two. I think getting the gunk out of the water would be your best bet.

[pugwash]

Ok, thanks guys. I saw liv2padl's reply before I left work (ISP at home has had a fault for over a week!). The LFS only had test kits for Nitrite and Nitrates, and I've run out of the pH one. I did buy some activated carbon, with the logic it might help by removing some nasties in the water. I'll remove this after a month, when it becomes redundant.

I don't monitor kH or gH as my water is very hard and alkaline (pH 8.2 last time I checked) and I don't believe it would change much from the source as the water company buffer it a heck of a lot(if soft then I would monitor it) as it feeds over 2 million people. It used to be very high in nitrates until the water company changed the pipes (from Victorian to blue plastic ones) this year.

I have been gravel vacuuming too, as well as the daily 40% water changes, although most of the gunk dissolved/dissipated before it reached the bottom.

I wish I had replaced my pH test kit to monitor the whole period, as I'm now wondering if the dissolved organic matter would potentially reduce the pH (from the days of my ecology degree, I seem to remember this would lower pH's) and my fishes could have gone through a pH crash (although hard water is tricky to reduce TDS). My dwarf cichlids have been defending the top of the tree root though, suggesting they prefer that water, before the incident.

Thanks guys, and I'll keep you posted. So far only one pentazona barb has succumbed...

[twig]

it'd depend how soft your water is maybe ...

if it went through a PH crash then your bacteria colony would have died. I don't think the nitrifying bacteria like PH crashes of 5 or lower.

0.o but maybe you have a strong buffer ...

[pugwash]

Well, all seems pretty much back to normal. All bar one cherry barb, which I think will survive and I lost a pentazona barb.

All I can guess is that whatever nasties were in the gunk, were unmonitorable with standard test kits (all though I wish I had tested for pH at the beginning now).

I was suprised that the fish at the bottom of the water column didn't exhibit any of the flashing behaviour, only those at the top/mid levels.

This is basicly a testament to clean water pulling the fish through a very rocky period, without the addition of salt or raised temps to combat any bugs (although I was monitoring all fish for them). I'm not sure if the activated carbon helped, but it made the water fractionally clearer.