Help with turquiose rainbow fish

Hi. Thanks for posting. Sorry you're having problems. Pictures and/or video would be very helpful in trying to figure out what is wrong. You can upload a video to youtube and share it here. You can post photos that are less than 1mb here on the forum, or upload them to flickr and share them here.....

Or, since there is a lot going on, it you are on facebook, you can join our sister group there by the same name Rainbowfish Live and it might be easier to share photos and video since you can upload them right to facebook.

Other info that is helpful for us to know: water parameters--GH, KH, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, size of tank, frequency of water changes, a list of all the tankmates, what you are feeding, and how long the problems with the other fish have been going on. The straight up and down swimmers.....he said they've been like that since he got them--but how long ago was that? There's not enough info to speculate on anything yet.

~Lori

Oh my. Those fish are sick. Don't put any of the fish in your 300 gallon until they've been thoroughly quarantined. You quarantine tank is fine. Just keep the water clean with large daily water changes. The GH and KH are both important long term, so you know the water hardness. I was asking because sometimes if fish go from really hard to really soft water, it can cause problems....but this is definitely not that. Your pH is kinda high, but rainbows are adaptable to a wide range....usually more alkaline water is less of a problem that acidic water.

The lacustris are emaciated. Probably an internal parasite. Do you see anything sticking out of the anus, or inflammation around their vent? I doubt they were like that their entire lives. They look like they were healthy at some point, and have been slowly starving. I do not think recovery is likely for the lacustris, even with treatment. Their swim bladders are obviously affected, and they are struggling.

Personally, I would euthanize the fish and then do a necropsy on them to see if I could identify the parasite. Meanwhile, I'd order some Levamisole to treat the other fish. The others look healthy, but they have been exposed to whatever is killing the lacustris. If it's something like camallanus worms, it's just a matter of time until all the fish become sick and die without treatment. Good Job on quarantining the fish. It would be terrible to introduce disease to your big tank.

Here's a quick article on treating fish with Levamisole. You end up treating 3 times, spaced over about a 6 week time frame, so you have plenty of time to get your big tank up and running.

rainbowfish.live/thread/141/levamisole-camallanus-worms-nematode-infestations

Hi Lori. I have a lot to unpack for this. First, the parkinsoni just passed away this evening. The guy never specified what happened to his mouth, just that it happened and he supposedly started him on antibiotics. He never specified the type of meds or length of time that he was on meds. His mouth was destroyed: completely split in half and just flopping about to and fro. I ended up purchasing General Cure to start them on something, as I couldn't find anything else in the store and I was so desperate this morning as he was just looked horrible.I also purchased a powerhead and am going to hook up an ayirstone now. They have been gilling that way since I brought them home though. I wish I knew what to look for or if my fish were doing well. Levimasole is on its way but I am worried now that they won't survive, if you think they look so bad. The video is when they were first home and she had that hanging out when I put her in, so no, it definitely isn't a bloodworm. Maybe he fed them bloodworms? I am not really sure, can't get in contact with the guy now.

I will order a test kit for water hardness, for sure. I currently have rainbow fish in my 75 gallon doing so well so I didn't think about the water hardness and always assumed that they were one of the fish that could handle our higher pH.

I will also purchase clove oil and euthanize the lacustris. I can't stand to watch them in this condition anymore. I am just fuming that they weren't properly taken care of and that I got bamboozled and now have to watch them as they die and are ill. I actually have not feed them today at all, so I guess it is an internal parasite. I have fed bloodworms to them before but only once. I hope they will stay strong until I can get these meds in the mail and start treatment. Will Levamisole help with any gill issues or should i get another medication for that?

I will post a video of the parkinsoni after a feeding a few days ago, so you can see just how bad his poor mouth was.

This sucks. I'd be pissed. Seems like the guy just pawned off his sick fish on you. That jaw injury on the parkinsoni was weird.....I wonder if he had them housed with an aggressive fish that did that? Or, who knows....

Don't lose hope for the other fish yet.

Before I forget again--snails. They are part of the life cycle of many parasites. Now your snails are contaminated, and can bring disease to your puffer. Sometimes levamisole can kill snails. I don't remember if mystery snails are one that can handle it or not. Either way, I wouldn't feed anymore of those snails to your puffer unless or until you can get this straightened out. It is probably best to separate the snails and the sick bows....that'll help break the life cycle and reinfection from snails to fish to snails, round and round it goes.

Do you still have the body of the parkinsoni? If so, take a look at the gills. In a healthy fish, even after death; they should still be fairly pink and firm, the structures well defined....look for signs of gill flukes or if the gills are pale and/or mushy. What would also be great is if you could do a little mini-necropsy and see what his internal organs look like and if there's any signs of internal parasites.

For now, I wouldn't put any other meds in the tank. Just do like 80% water changes everyday and vacuum the substrate to remove as many pathogens as possible and give the fish lots of nice clean water to allow them to heal. This should also help avoid any ammonia or nitrite spikes which would be stressful to them since they are already having trouble with their gills. Make sure you do not overdose the dechlorinator, as that can cause them more problems. When the levamisole comes in, you can treat the tank and time it with your water changes....try to keep it in the water for at least 24 hours. It Usually works pretty quickly, so that 1st dose can be shorter to keep in time with the daily water changes.

Bloodworms don't come out the same way they go in. lol. But, they could cause redish poo. But, really not like what is sticking out of the incisus female. Camallanus worms also typically do not look like that--they usually look like little red or tan needles sticking out of the fish. But, in bad infestations, I've seen that sort of larger red stuff hanging out of the fish....could be internal bleeding leading to big red poo, or sometimes part of the intestine prolapses.

I don't know if you saw or read the article I linked in the levamisole post....here it is just incase. It has some really great info and goes more indepth:

www.loaches.com/Members/shari2/levamisole-hydrochloride-1

In that article, there's a link to this one, which has other great info:

edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/FA/FA09100.pdf

Don't worry about your pH right now. Your other tank of bows is doing well, and that is something we can talk about long term. Rainbows come from a wide range of water types, and most are very adaptable to whatever water we put them in. These species of bows are pretty tolerant to just about any types of water--which is one reason why they are so popular; because they are hardy.

I don't know what other types of rainbows you have in your other tank, but you can take a look here. This site is the BEST for rainbow info. You can look up the fish you have and see where they came from:

rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Melano.htm

Good morning! I will take the powerhead out. It is rated for a 30 gallon, so it could be too much current. Just wasn’t sure if having no flow would stress them? You’re totally right though, it could cause a lot more struggle and it’s unnecessary.

Yes. His mouth was awful and I just can’t fathom what could’ve possibly done that since I only saw the rainbows in a tank with one false julii corydora. Irrelevant now as he “didn’t know” but honestly, I think it was because he didn’t give a crap about their welfare. I do have his body and will check it out this afternoon and see what the heck was going on. Poor guy suffered and didn’t need to.

I did read most of that article last night and it is fascinating. Will finish it today and am glad you shared that as it’s nice to know how/what/where about Levamisole. Not very excited to see gross worms being ejected via fish backend but I sure hope it helps and makes them feel better.

I definitely will not feed the snails to my puffer. Thank you for the heads up on that. The snails are extra from when my mysteries decided to make lots and lots and lots and lots of babies. We originally had them going to a home of a friend, who’s wife adores lots of snails but that fell through. I need to think of where they’d go as they came from my 75 and were partitioned into my 20 long, the 30, some of my MIL’s tanks and fed to the puffer. I clearly don’t want them to play tag with the worms so I’ll figure something out.

I cannot thank you enough for all the help and advice. You’ll have saved my fish and I am so grateful for your knowledge.