I have a large Jack Dempsey that has something wrong with its scales on each side of its body. It looks like the scales are rotting on each side of the front of the fish's head.
I tried a week of Seachem ParaGuard and that did not seem to help. I did some large water changes over two days and then tried an API Pimafix/Melafix combination and that does not seem to be helping either.
The fish has now seemed to lose its appetite and I am afraid it will slowly starve. The problem spots much itch because I see the fish occasionally really rubbing up agaist driftwood in the tank.
The fish is in a 5 foot 120 gallon tank with four good sized Silver Dollars, medium Pleco, and a few minnows which are all doing fine (just the Dempsey seems sick).
It has been cycled for a long time and gets weekly 40% water changes (I have been doing twice a week lately). I use Seachem Prime, Cichlid Trace, Stress Guard, and Stability on each water change.
It has three Ehiem large canisters running, one with an UV Sterilizer and the Ammonia and Nitrite levels are zero with low Nitrates as well.
The Dempsey also seems to have problem seeing and I have been hand feeding it for some time with a long plastic probe as it seems to miss floating frozen food. I am not sure if this is related.
Has anyone seen rotting scales on the side of a large Cichlid before and had any luck treating it?
I have a couple of pictures trying to show what the problem area on the fish looks like.
I tried a week of Seachem ParaGuard and that did not seem to help. I did some large water changes over two days and then tried an API Pimafix/Melafix combination and that does not seem to be helping either.
The fish has now seemed to lose its appetite and I am afraid it will slowly starve. The problem spots much itch because I see the fish occasionally really rubbing up agaist driftwood in the tank.
The fish is in a 5 foot 120 gallon tank with four good sized Silver Dollars, medium Pleco, and a few minnows which are all doing fine (just the Dempsey seems sick).
It has been cycled for a long time and gets weekly 40% water changes (I have been doing twice a week lately). I use Seachem Prime, Cichlid Trace, Stress Guard, and Stability on each water change.
It has three Ehiem large canisters running, one with an UV Sterilizer and the Ammonia and Nitrite levels are zero with low Nitrates as well.
The Dempsey also seems to have problem seeing and I have been hand feeding it for some time with a long plastic probe as it seems to miss floating frozen food. I am not sure if this is related.
Has anyone seen rotting scales on the side of a large Cichlid before and had any luck treating it?
I have a couple of pictures trying to show what the problem area on the fish looks like.
