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Please help me, I've now had two cories die of gas-bubble disease and one more is on the way out (he does not have gas-bubble though). All of my fish are red around the gills and seem pretty agitated.

Can someone please tell me what's wrong with my fish before I lose my whole tank!?

[EDIT] I am unsure whether they have gill flukes or not, because it seems like all the symptoms point to that, but I do not see any parasites trailing off of the fish. Are gill flukes too small to see?[/EDIT]


Last edited by plasmax000 at 28-Apr-2005 20:04

Redness around the gills could in fact be a sign of a bacterial infection. Try raising the temperature of your tank to at least 80,do a partial water change and treat with an antibotic such as Maracyn II as directed. However usually one of the easiest ways to prevent infections is by doing weekly or bi weekly water changes of at least 20% insurring that your fish have a healthy living environment. Also, How long has the tank been up?Is it fully cycled,what other fish do have in the tank? Can you also if possible give the water parameters of the tank?

Last edited by Cichlid Keeper at 28-Apr-2005 20:34

The tank has been up since for ever, I do bi-weekly water changes (going to weekly for a while right now though), and you can see my profile for what else is in there.

As for parameters, next time I go to the store to test it I'll tell you, but the last time I checked everything was fine except for nitrates, which were 20 ppm.

Can I use Maracyn on such a huge tank? I thought you usually only used those tablets in hospital tanks with clearly sick fish.

Last edited by plasmax000 at 29-Apr-2005 13:30

My guess is that your nitrates being at 20 ppm probably explains your problem. When nitrate levels become to high(at a toxic level),it causes the fish's organs to work harder thus stressing out the fish and resulting in the inability to fight off any diseases.
Try doing about a 5 gallon water change each day in the tank for the next few days and try to slowly bring the nitrates down to a safe level. This should work better instead of doing a large water change all at once.
You also wrote that all signs pointed toward gill flukes. Have you also noticed your fish gasping at the surface or their gills moving rapidly. If so then my guess is you are probably right about it being gill flukes.
You should also have no problem using either maracyn or maracyn II in your tank. But if you do in fact have a quarantine tank I do recommend moving the infected fish into it and treating them there. Good luck and hopefully your fish will be alright.

Actually, they haven't been gasping at all, or breathing hard. Maybe I don't have gill flukes after all.

Anyways, I just did a water change the other day and woke up to find my serpaes breeding. Odd thing to happen when I was so concerned about their health, but I'll keep doing small changes and see if that fixes it.

Thanks for your help.

Another alternative to using maracyn would be pimafix for treating the bacterial infection. Also you could try using something like AmQuel+ to help lower you nitrates.

Nitrates being a 20ppm should not be the problem. 20ppm is a pretty good number. I would suspect nitrites if the gills are reddened. It could be gill flukes.

Stupid me I got 20 ppm confused with 200 ppm. DUHHH!

Boy I'm feeling silly right now.

So once I was out of school (Amen!) I started doing more water changes and what happens!? My serpae tetras, who have redder gills than anyone, start breeding.

Except for my gourami, who's skittish only when he sees people near the tank (at night he swims all around and struts his stuff), all the fish seemed too content and healthy to be ill.

I decided to look up pictures of serpae tetras, and what do I find? They ALL have darker red around their gills than anywhere else, so either all those serpaes have gill flukes or my serpaes, who are the ones that spawned this crisis, are fine.

Boy do I feel silly right now.

Thanks for all your help though guys, and I'll keep an eye out just in case.

Last edited by plasmax000 at 11-May-2005 09:04