Help my BN seems to have a fungal infection

What size tank is this? I'm not sure a dwarf pleco like a BN should be in with a bunch of BIG cichlids.

Here's my sick fish questionnaire... http://goldlenny.blogspot.com/2009/06/sick-fish-questionnaire.html

Try to answer as much as possible.

The fish with the long trail of poop looks like it could be suffering from an internal parsitic infestation as the long thin poop is a symptom of that. The BN pleco has something white on it's bristles but it's hard to tell from the pictures.

Do you have two quarantine/hospital tanks you can set up?

While your nitrogenous waste numbers may be OK, there's lots that those numbers don't tell us so the sick fish questionnaire will help.

Also, when fish get stressed, they are far more likely to get sick as stress affects their immune system. If the BN pleco is stressed for having been put in with a bunch of bully fish, then it may always have problems or spend it's life in hiding or not moving to avoid being bullied. Imagine being arrested and being the only puny guy in a holding cell of big thug looking criminals... you'd be pretty stressed and probably not sleep much either. And you wouldn't eat cuz the thugs would take your food. It wouldn't take long for you to get sick. Normally, armored catfish are capable of handling a cichlid tank but I think they would have to be appropriately sized plecos.

I should add that sick fish also try to hide so that Darwinism, survival fo the fittest, doesn't take hold and turn them into a meal. In the wild, a sick fish is the one most likely to be caught by predators.

It's a questionnaire with LOTS of questions asking all kinds of information that might be helpful in diagnosing a sick fish. While I made an educated guess about the thin poop since that's a known, it's hard to tell on some other fish. Bacterial infections can look moldy/fungus looking and vice-versa. Knowing more about what's in the tank, their sizes, etc., water parameters like pH and hardness, etc., all help in determining what would be the best medication. Also, for folks outside the USA, knowing where they are at gives us a better idea of what meds are available. While we have most everything available to us, it's not like that in most of the rest of the world. It only takes a minute to copy/paste the info from my blog to here... and then go through and provide as much info as possible. Just like the doctors office makes you fill out a questionnaire and then the nurse gets even more info... before the doctor comes in and makes a semi-final determination. A doctor isn't going to look a picture and make a decision.

I'm not a doctor but I've played one... when I was a kid, with little Sally, my next door neighbor. LOL

rockhoe14er said:

My ammonia is 0
Nitrates 0
Nitrites are 5 ppm
i don't know what my GH is or KH
pH 8
My temperature is 81 degrees.

The bn is a new fish that was just added about a week and a half ago. He is far larger then the 4 other cichlids that i have in the tank with them. These cichlids are pretty small only about 2 inches in length. I have a green Terror, Carpintis, Jaguar, and firemouth. The Carpintis seems to be acting sick and hasn't eaten while the other three have been great.

I had a little micro cycle start when I changed my filter so my water was a little cloudy for a couple of days.

The carpintis used to be the alpha and he still is but he hides a lot more now and only chases the other cichlids when they come close to his territory.

My tank is a 29 gallon and has been cycled for about 3 months I plan on upgrading in the next two months and get a larger fish tank for my cichlids but for know they're just little guys.

Click to expand...

Ooops... you posted lots of info while I was typing my last reply.

First, double check your typing and/or test results. You typed 5 for nitrites and 0 for nitrates and I'm wondering if you switched the nitrite and nitrate numbers? If your nitrites are at 5ppm, then you have some serious nitrogen cycle issues right now.

Second, your tank is far too small for your fish. That alone will cause MANY health issues due to all of the hormones/pheromones being put out by these supposed-to-get-BIG fish, with most of them needing much more space to claim as their territory.

I know your fish are small now but aquariums should be stocked based on the expected adult size of the fish, not their current size. When this is done, the fish will grow to their proper size at a rather quick rate and not be stunted or have so many health problems.

You have several hundred gallons worth of BIG cichlids in your 29G tank right now. Do you have immediate plans to move them into a much larger 300G+ sized tank or separate 75G to 90G tanks? If not, you should rehome them since you will just have so many problems trying to keep them in an undersized tank.

In the interim, you could start off with a salt/heat treatment until we know for certain what is wrong with the fish... and the salt/heat may just cure them. See this thread for my recommendations and directions. http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=231636

The possible internal parasite issue may be resolved with the salt treatment but more than likely you will need to either feed that fish anti-parasite fish food (Jungle makes one that has OK ingredients in it) or you would have to treat the water column... but the water column treatment probably would be overkill unless you had this one fish in a separate 10G hospital tank.

Also, if you haven't read it already, read my article, "Filter Maintenance And Cleaning", either on my blog or it's also posted in the article sections here on AC. Throwing your tank into a mini-cycle... which could be more than just a mini cycle if your nitrites are actually 5ppm, is a big cause of fish health problems. cycling with fish is very stressful on them and fish stress equals fish health problems.