Everything Fishy

Cichlid Disease, Hexamita Affects cichlids from all over the world. Popular cichlid species include Angel Fish, Oscars, Jack Dempseys. There are African, South American and Asian Cichlids of all types, shapes and sizes. All are fairly aggressive fish, but it's a shame to watch them die.

Symptoms include thinness, skull too large for body, followed by loss of appetite, loss of navigational ability and death. Once hexamita starts to multiply in a young fish, death can occur within 24 to 48 hours. Older fish may develop intestinal blockages, an inability to stay upright due to gas pockets in the intestines, and spend a month or more in the process of dying. The damage done from prolonged illness is often not reversible. Hole-in-the-Head disease may be caused by hexamita, or by a vitamin deficiency depending on whose official opinion you choose. Both can be dealt with best before major problems start.

Hexamita can be carried by a fish for a long time without any sign of visible illness. A new tank, a new tankmate, a disruption in water quality, or a case of ich may suddenly leave the fish vulnerable and the hexamita begins to multiply. Hexamita is an internal parasite, and can only be solidly identified by dissecting the fish and viewing under a microscope. Once it starts multiplying, it generally kills within 3 days. Fish begin to look thin, stop eating and exhibit balance problems. Then they die. Hexamita generally affects cichlids. I have put sick angels in with live-bearers and none of the live-bearers ever exhibited symptoms. I treat all my newly purchased cichlids now. I lost over half of my first angelfish, and 2/3 of my first africans (while listening to kind helpful fishkeepers in a chat room that suggested I not treat with medicine) to hexamita. Once I treated them, I stopped losing fish. I also dropped out of the chat room.
Always test your tank for nitrites before adding cichlids of any variety. They have a zero tolerance for even minute levels of nitrite. I prefer a mature biological filter to any nitrite cure. But if it's too late, the cichlids are in the tank, and there is even a trace of nitrite, use a full dose of Fritz-Zyme 7 now, and another one in a week. It works and provides better long-term results than any product I've used.

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Treatment for Cichlid Disease, Hexamita, internal parasites: 1319 * Metronidazole

Ordinary Septicemia, Dropsy, internal infections

Internal infections, septicemia and dropsy are considered 'gram-negative' infections. These have few external symptoms, red streaks or swollen body being the main ones., but can be contagious and fatal.

Treatments for Dropsy, Red Streaks / Septicemia:
* Gel-Tek Tetracycline
* Aquatrol Tetracycline 250 mg/10 ct
Treating a tank with non-edible dissolved tetracycline will give the aquarium water a brown bubbly appearance during treatment, however, it will save your fish, and the water discoloration can be removed with carbon after treatment is completed.
2012 update - tetracycline alone no longer treats enteric septicemia, but it will crash your biological filter. See FritzZyme.. I combined it with Romet with some success on my last run. 1320 * 12/20/06 KanaPlex was used per label directions, and the heaters were adjusted into normal range where ES can multiply if it is still present. All of the fish died with enteric septicemia symptoms, of tetracycline resistant ES. So this is not a treatment for ES, although it may work on other diseases. It is in stock.
A second test group was held at temperatures over 84 degrees through all of 2006. When we lower the temp, we will see if the TC resistant disease behaved as the original strain we observed, and died of 'old age'. Fingers crossed. It's hard watching the fish die. 2012 update. Not having found anything Kanaplex actually works on, we no longer carry it.

Enteric Septicemia

Enteric Septicemia is normally found in food-grade pond bred catfish, which I have ceased to eat after 7 years of watching what it does to fish. It came to my attention in fall 1998, on 4 fish that came from P*tsmart. They wiped out 1/3 of my stock after they died. It has since become very widespread in tropicals, less common in goldfish or cichlids. The disease is dormant and does not multiply or cause the fish to exhibit symptoms below 71 degrees or above 83 degrees. If temperatures are outside the breeding range, the bacteria can still live in the brain, kidneys and liver of exposed fish for 200 days. I feed medicated food to all fish that were in the tank with an infected fish. Bottom feeders may ingest waste from an infected fish and seem most prone to infection. Fish that consume part of a dead fish infected with ES develop symptoms fastest of all, regardless of species. Successful treatment for the last 8 years has been feeding medicated food. Tetra Anti-Bacterial was perfect, but was discontinued by the mfgr. A gel form of tetracycline that can be mixed with food shows great promise, since nothing but tetracycline seems to work, and it is in stock now. Feed all fish exposed to the disease at least once a day for 7 to 10 days. Feed no pellets, lettuce, treats, brine shrimp, etc. until the tetracycline treatment is over. (I tried 5 days in an elementary school tank, and it almost stopped the deaths. 4 bottom feeders died afterward.)

Only a handful of fish develop solidly identifiable symptoms, but if half of the fish in the tank are sick and symptoms vary, it might be ES. The disease seems to be very prevalent in the DFW area of North Texas, especially on newly purchased fish. Treating with the wrong medicine wastes your money while the fish continue to die. Quarantine new purchases - always. Control temp on quarantine tanks and feed or dose with tetracycline for 7 to 10 days. Too short a treatment with the right drug results in a very dangerous fish, one carrying an antibiotic-resistant form of ES, and it is still highly contagious to any new tankmates, so allow a generous quarantine period of 7 to 10 days. Owing to the availability of sick fish around here, we continue to experiment with medicines and post results as time permits. Enteric Septicemia symptom list by type of fish, until I finally got my tanks cleared up.
Change temperature, up or down at the first sign. (see checklist at bottom for species temps) Any fish exhibiting severe symptoms (not eating, mouth erosion) should be removed from the community aquarium and put down humanely. Put the body in the trash, not a sewer system that feeds a stream or lake. Feed the community tank tetracycline saturated food, and any fish in isolation the medicated feed as well. Quarantine period on fish that had symptoms: at least 3 weeks after apparent return to health. Fish that are not eating will not respond to treatment but would probably infect the rest of the tank. Humanely putting them to death might be a good choice. All of my cichlids received medicated food at the same time as the community tanks. None had exhibited symptoms, but algae eaters make good carriers.

• If the fish were small, such as neons, cardinals, rasboras, red eye tetras, or dwarf rainbowfish, they would first exhibit darting and erratic swimming, followed by death, with the body appearing to have had the head bitten off.
• Dojos stop eating and appear to have 'sore mouths' before they die.
• Cory catfish stop eating, fins erode similar to fin rot, eyes may darken, and move around very little for the 2 weeks or so prior to death. A day or 2 before death, red marks or sores may appear on albino catfish, or be visible on the bellies of other cories. I could find no other markings on the dark catfish I have lost.
• Mollies that seem to die for no reason, very soon after purchase, are often carrying it. And new news to me: so are their offspring. I didn't bother to dose the babies, moved them from a tank at 83 to a community tank, and infected the community tank. Mollies hang out at the bottom, then die. Usually no visible symptoms.
• Fancy guppies exhibit dropsy symptoms, but other than poor apetite and bloating, no symptoms.
• Plecos don't seem to have visible symptoms, but if it is in the tank they usually carry it invisibly for some time before they die. They eat the bodies of the dead fish, so are nearly always infected, but maybe because of their size, they don't die as quickly, so there is more time for treatment. Assuming an exposed pleco to be healthy can be a mess. Mine hid in the cave and I didn't know he was gone til he fell apart.
• Medium sized fish such as barbs or red tail sharks often exhibit flashing or darting behavior in the hours just before they die, but have no visible symptoms. Darting: swimming rapidly from end to end in the tank, even running into the end, etc.
• On a clown loach, no visible signs. No discoloration, no erosion around the mouth, not even a red gill. Lack of desire to eat, great desire to hide from light, inability to control swimming pattern so it tucks itself under a rock. Death.
• Large fish such as bala sharks (4 to 6 inch size) may exhibit red streaks on the body and gills, but in a more all-over pattern than with septicemia resulting from an injury, for instance, all fins, and the belly marked with red lines.
• Very large fish (7 inch gouramis) may exhibit dropsy for a period of a month or 2, be contagious during most of that time and continue to eat. The dropsy will not respond to conventional treatments such as Maracyn-Two. Dropsy symptoms on gouramis including hanging in the water, or resting on the tank bottom, head up, tail down, and severe bloating. If the fish is still eating, isolate in a quarantine tank and feed medicated feed. It might respond. (I put mine down days before finding a treatment for ES.)

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