cacatuiodes sick need help with diagnosis

[Cerianthus]

Although A. agassizi is smaller than A. caca, did you ever see them locking jaws?? Look at the upper lip of caca! Is that a scrapes/wound??
How big is the tank??

White protrusions behnd the head and near caudal peducle, do they look like a mucle tissue protruding between scales??
If so, has it been exposed to low, low pH for long time or is this one pretty recent addition?

Google for images of Fish TB to compare. Keep in mind though that not all images provided are correct images thus dont jump to conclusions.

As far as wc, the idea is to keep water stablized provided it is w/in ideal condition to begin with. If you dont see a major/drastic problems with test results (pH/NH3/NO2), I would try to avoid any unnecessary wc. Constant changing of water chemistry brought upon by too many wc does impose more stress on the fish which may already be going thru complication.
Personally, never encountered self inflicted wounds unless provoked as Ive seen injuries/wounds caused by when fish are spooked/Tap on the glass, etc & from fighting...

If it does resemble certain characteristics of fish TB, early diagnose and treatment can do the trick.

Hope all goes well.

 

[mel_20_20]

I agree 100% with Msjinkzd's advice on the water changes to help him heal and prevent infection.

Since you've already had good water change habits, a bit more than 20% twice a week, the tank would not have huge swings in chemistry if you increase your water changes in both volume and frequency during the recovery period for this fish.

I've had fish with injuries, some extreme, and I believe that the daily water changes I did kept them from getting infections, bacterial or fungal.

I agree that big swings in water chemistry could be stressful and if you were doing water changes monthly or even every two weeks you might have some significant differences in ph and TDS, but you've been doing frequent water changes so your tank and your tap water should be pretty close.

Removing excess dissolved organic solids and any traces of ammonia, even undetectable levels, keeps the water pristine and, I believe, is extremely helful in the healing process.

 

[mel_20_20]

Oops... math correction. I just noticed the error.

Sorry... you've been doing a bit less than 20% twice weekly. At 10 gallons that's 18% approximately.

 

[dave76]

I agree 100% with Msjinkzd's advice on the water changes to help him heal and prevent infection.

Since you've already had good water change habits, a bit more than 20% twice a week, the tank would not have huge swings in chemistry if you increase your water changes in both volume and frequency during the recovery period for this fish.

I've had fish with injuries, some extreme, and I believe that the daily water changes I did kept them from getting infections, bacterial or fungal.

I agree that big swings in water chemistry could be stressful and if you were doing water changes monthly or even every two weeks you might have some significant differences in ph and TDS, but you've been doing frequent water changes so your tank and your tap water should be pretty close.

Removing excess dissolved organic solids and any traces of ammonia, even undetectable levels, keeps the water pristine and, I believe, is extremely helful in the healing process.

Since the last problem I had that you helped me with the water parameters have been rock solid. I also have stepped up my pruning so that has helped as well.

My wife has taken more of an interest in my hobby lately and she has this real bad habit of making sudden movements whilst in front of the tank and scaring the fish. I assume something like this probably caused the injury when they were running from her. His wound has since improved dramatically. The white tuft behind his head is now gone and the redness has all but disappeared.

Waterchanges and melafix seemed to have taken care of this one.

 

[dave76]

Although A. agassizi is smaller than A. caca, did you ever see them locking jaws?? Look at the upper lip of caca! Is that a scrapes/wound??
How big is the tank??

White protrusions behnd the head and near caudal peducle, do they look like a mucle tissue protruding between scales??
If so, has it been exposed to low, low pH for long time or is this one pretty recent addition?

Google for images of Fish TB to compare. Keep in mind though that not all images provided are correct images thus dont jump to conclusions.

As far as wc, the idea is to keep water stablized provided it is w/in ideal condition to begin with. If you dont see a major/drastic problems with test results (pH/NH3/NO2), I would try to avoid any unnecessary wc. Constant changing of water chemistry brought upon by too many wc does impose more stress on the fish which may already be going thru complication.
Personally, never encountered self inflicted wounds unless provoked as Ive seen injuries/wounds caused by when fish are spooked/Tap on the glass, etc & from fighting...

If it does resemble certain characteristics of fish TB, early diagnose and treatment can do the trick.

Hope all goes well.

The agassizii is about half the cockatoos size and he is a chicken. The cockatoo does chase him, but not relentlessly. The agassizii has learned how to traverse the aquascape without antagonizing the cockatoo. No one in the tank stands up to the cockatoo he is the clear alpha. I have another tank set up in case of future aggression issues. I scaped the thank with multiple species being in mind when I made it. Plenty of hiding spaces and spots to get away.

My tank runs around 6.4 and my tap is about 7.8 so large water changes could be stressful to the fish indeed which is why I change less water more often instead of more water less often.

Thanks for all the advice guys. It has been very helpful.

 

[Cerianthus]

The agassizii is about half the cockatoos size and he is a chicken. The cockatoo does chase him, but not relentlessly. The agassizii has learned how to traverse the aquascape without antagonizing the cockatoo. No one in the tank stands up to the cockatoo he is the clear alpha. I have another tank set up in case of future aggression issues. I scaped the thank with multiple species being in mind when I made it. Plenty of hiding spaces and spots to get away.

My tank runs around 6.4 and my tap is about 7.8 so large water changes could be stressful to the fish indeed which is why I change less water more often instead of more water less often.

Thanks for all the advice guys. It has been very helpful.[/QUOTE

Since your pH of tap is 7.8 and pH is stable at 6.4, could it possible that pH has dropped bit lower just before water changes?
OR pH will rise a bit right after water changes and gradually dropped down to 6.4 before next water changes?

This is type of method, I would recommend to stablize pH as contained water with live stcoks wil eventually drop in pH w/o addtives (buffer, etc) and/or w/o routine/proper wc....

Was there a method how you obtain 6.4 pH from 7.8 tap when you first set up the tank or did it gradually dropped down to 6.4 on its own with time and you figured out right volume and frequency of wc to keep pH stable at 6.4?

Although I did plenty of experiements on my own on the subject of Fish TB, mostly on larger cichlids which spawned on their own, dont recall symtoms displayed by you caca with any dwarf cichlid I have kept/bred for many years.I woudnt dare exposing breeding dwarf cichlid (Very Expensive when pair went for $200.00) to such conditions as Dwarf dont produce as many offsring as their cousins.

Have you done any image comparison??? I am very curious as I can not come to any conclusions from pics provided.

Are you seeing any improvements???

 

[dave76]

The agassizii is about half the cockatoos size and he is a chicken. The cockatoo does chase him, but not relentlessly. The agassizii has learned how to traverse the aquascape without antagonizing the cockatoo. No one in the tank stands up to the cockatoo he is the clear alpha. I have another tank set up in case of future aggression issues. I scaped the thank with multiple species being in mind when I made it. Plenty of hiding spaces and spots to get away.

My tank runs around 6.4 and my tap is about 7.8 so large water changes could be stressful to the fish indeed which is why I change less water more often instead of more water less often.

Thanks for all the advice guys. It has been very helpful.[/QUOTE

Since your pH of tap is 7.8 and pH is stable at 6.4, could it possible that pH has dropped bit lower just before water changes?
OR pH will rise a bit right after water changes and gradually dropped down to 6.4 before next water changes?

This is type of method, I would recommend to stablize pH as contained water with live stcoks wil eventually drop in pH w/o addtives (buffer, etc) and/or w/o routine/proper wc....

Was there a method how you obtain 6.4 pH from 7.8 tap when you first set up the tank or did it gradually dropped down to 6.4 on its own with time and you figured out right volume and frequency of wc to keep pH stable at 6.4?

Although I did plenty of experiements on my own on the subject of Fish TB, mostly on larger cichlids which spawned on their own, dont recall symtoms displayed by you caca with any dwarf cichlid I have kept/bred for many years.I woudnt dare exposing breeding dwarf cichlid (Very Expensive when pair went for $200.00) to such conditions as Dwarf dont produce as many offsring as their cousins.

Have you done any image comparison??? I am very curious as I can not come to any conclusions from pics provided.

Are you seeing any improvements???

He is getting better daily....

My KH is 120 and comes out of the tap at 150. I know that my co2 and driftwood effect the ph but its nothing drastic. So far it really doesn't seem to bother them at all. I am just going to chalk this up as an injury caused by my wife tapping on the glass and making sudden sweeping movements with her arms in front of the tank and scaring them.

My camera on my phone sucks. When my daughter gets home I will try to get her camera and post more pics. He is looking much better now.

 

[Cerianthus]

Nice to hear good news.

Actually, CO2 and driftwood can/does have good impact on pH. CO2 = carbonic acid and driftwood produces tannic and humic acids., eventually having impact on KH and GH

 

[dave76]

OK now I am starting to get worried. At first it appeared to get better, but now either he has injured himself more or he might be getting a fungal infection. There are now white tufts where the red was. Here is a pic.