Cherry Barbs acting wierd, diseased?

[josh]

Hi

My cherry barbs are dying one by one. The first one went without warning. I started to observe them and I noticed some ICH so I went to the store and got some Maracide (looks like great stuff) that kills all kinds of protazoans and skin infections including gill flukes.

I have two of four left, and they are still doing the same thing the other ones did. First they start acting really crazy, sometimes being sluggish, and then starting to dart around. They flash from time to time rubbing their gills on things. their gills have turned a bright red color so it seems like somethings going on in thier gills. They have a few white spots that look like ICH. I've heard Cherry Barbs are pretty succeptable to velvet disease too, but that's in the same category as ICH. I havn't seen them eat much in the last few days either...

So it's the third day of treatment with maracide. it says it usually only takes five days but the fish are not getting much better. the first few days I had the aquarium heated up to about 83 degrees, but the firsh were really wiggin out swimming all over the place an not eating, so I turned it back down to 75 gradually. Could it be something else? I don't notice any other symptoms besides the one's I've said!

what do I do?

-Josh

 

[Faramir]

Sounds like Ich to me - the gills are the preferred attack site for the parasites, and sometimes you never see any spots on the body of the fish.

Raise the temperature back again. I'm told salt can be used as a backup treatment for ich but I have no details. Others here will, I'm sure.

 

[josh]

I read the pamphlet included with the maracide a little closer and realized it said it does not directly kill gill flukes. I was reading somewhere else some of the symptoms of gill flukes, and I think that's what must be attacking the fish, so I'm going to try some Aquari-Sol copper salts in addition to the maricide (which they recoomended).... that's the update. I'll post whether or not it works just in case someone cares!

-Josh

 

[gaurang]

--Hi Josh--

Even I had the same problem few days back in my tank, and now I have got rid of it.

I added Malachite Green and salt (1 table spoon/gallon) also did 50% water change every other day. As I'm from India I really dont need to rise the temp as its really warm out here . I'm sure you can do the same and you'll find your fish in a better situation.

 

[josh]

Alright, here's the status:

third day treating with aquari-sol soluable copper

fifth day treating with maricide

today the cherry barbs actually seem to be getting better. They started eating again (thank God!) and are swimming more normally around the tank. I think they are on their way to recovery. I'm going to continue the maricide into the sixth day (tomorrow) and continue the aquarisol untill the fifth day of it's treatment as well (saturday)

At this point I think I can very well attribute the recovery of the barbs from the gill flukes to the soluable copper. On the other hand, there was an outbreak of ICH at the same time, and i think the maricide took care of that.

So at this point my tank is down to half it's origional stock, but I've learned a bit about treating disease, and doing it quick. I would probably still have the rest of them if I had tried earlier.

-Josh

 

[josh]

final report:

Here's the final status:

All three Neon Tetras, and both Cherry barbs are back to full health, and eating normally. The cherry barbs are looking healthier than ever, and everything seems fine. In fact, the plants are still looking fairly healthy after all those chemicals, but all the algae that was on them is dead!

so that's the rest of the story. Yay for Aquari-Sol

-Josh

 

[ewok]

i wish i had seen this thread earlier, but unfortunately i didn't and i still might not had alot of suggestions. it's good that the fish are responding to treatment, and i guess unfortunately sometimes it needs to be like this. in the long run you will be a better fishkeeper because of it though.

good luck