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Hi, can anybody confirm or deny that frozen food (bloodworm, in this case) carries parasites?

And if so, what are the symptoms of internal parasites?

Thanks guys. Everything is falling apart at once on me here.

I dont think that there is any kind of parasite capable of withstanding freezing temperatures. I have never had a problem with this because i feed frozen bloodworms and frozen brineshrimp.

The kinds of parasites your talking about can survive freezing temperatures and have been know to infect fish via frozen foods. The only way to prevent this is by buying hikari brand frozen foods as they are triple sterilized and are 100% safe for fish.

If things are that bad for you I'll try and figure out where you're going wrong...

To do that I'll need some info.

Tank size.
Number of fish.
Type of filtration.
Test results for ammonia, nitrites,
nitrates, pH and temp.
Type of foods.
Frequency of water changes and how much.
Everything you dose to the water.

Take your time and answer exactly.

--garyroland.

I feed mine Hikari frozen Bloodworms & Brineshrimp without any problems.



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Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

I feed frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp with no problems.I have also started feeding live brine shrimp which have become available at my lfs, the fish go nuts.

Gibson SG you know you want one!!

15gallon long,
nitrite - 0.1 (barely dectecable pink?)
ammonia - 0
nitrate - unknown
pH - 7.2
AC150, yesterday added fresh carbon
steady 24oC

feed Warley tropical flakes, Wardley shrimp pellets, Wardley algae wafers, and recently Hikari frozen BW, defrosted in a cup of tank water and dumped in. I have been feeding sparingly every second day; because of the power outage the other week, I don't want to overload the filters.

hospital/q-tine tank, as of the past 2 weeks or so has been more quarantine rather than hospital.

14 young cories, 2 congo tetras, 1 female betta.
Healthy live plants.
Bare bottomed.

The congos & 4 peppered cories were purchased about 3 weeks ago from a less than healthy pet store.. the rainbows, in a separate tank with the emperors and cochu's, had ich, but are now recovering well.
The congos brought in fungus and the peppered cories just did not look well. I lost some congos, but no cories, until a couple days ago..

Up until then, all of my fish have started to look much better, no traces of fungus, disease, lethargy etc. I have just been treating with clean water and melafix, no meds.

The female betta, rather than at the top of the tank, was down on the bottom with her fins clamped. I didn't think too much of it, she's usually cranky. I looked at her in the sunlight today and she has a greyish slime in patches over her head & body, nothing else.

An albino cory is dead, unheard of because I have never seen such a healthy, robust, active bunch of fish. I got them 4-5 weeks ago, and they were purchased from a different location than the new sick arrivals. This cory was very skinny.

One of the new peppereds (which never looked as good as my albinos) was lying listless in the plants.. the airbubbles sticking to his body and face. I nudged him and he moved a bit, then started tailstanding. His fins are chewed a little bit at the edges, and it almost looks like he has little white/grey? barbs around his face, pectoral fins, gills, and a bit on his fins & body. Not like the fungus I've been dealing which (and I've seen ALOT of fungus lately )
Now that stuff has disappeared, but there is one that is always lying on his side, or tailstanding. I think he's dead but when I nudge him with the net he swims off.

Everybody was pretty lethargic, but perked up when I put the gravel vac in. I did a 6 gallon WC with reccommended salt dosage and fresh melafix. I have been doing this every day since and haven't lost anymore fish, although the symptoms are all still there.

Up until 3 days ago, when I found the cory, I had been changing 6 gallons of water every 4-5 days in this tank.

The same day I found the dead cory, my female angelfish died. If being 'eggbound' is a real phenomenon, then I would say that was the culprit..but she just died out of nowhere. Totally separate tank.


All other fish, even the other sick tank, seem to be doing very well. I have all of my larger fish (except for these sick cories & congos) in the 86 now and they are doing good.
I really appreciate the help.

And the plot thickens...

Are we talking about one tank or two tanks??

Are fish sick and dying in just one tank??

--garyroland.

The mystery death of the angelfish was one tank, where every other member is healthy and normal.The dying cories are in another, the cories and betta are affected, but the two congos are acting perfectly normal.

I would prefer that all tanks have a substrate...

Why??

Because good bacteria find a home in gravel and proliferate aiding in keeping a good cycle balance/water quality in tanks.

Except, of course a hospital/quarantine tank.

Also, I rather see you do one partial water change every two weeks in the smaller tanks with same temp and pH water as the host tank if the bio load is not large.

New water should be dechlorinated before adding to the tank.

Something is being done wrong, as you already know, to cause fish loss. I'll fill in the blanks piece by piece.

--garyroland.

Why one WC every two weeks? Wouldn't it be better to have clean, fresh water more often?
Generally I do one per week, depending on factors such as medication directions, and in this case power outages - I was starting to get some nitrite so upped the WCs.

Should I cut back again?

Also the cories seem to be flicking, but a little more active. Female betta still looks the same, grey slime and flicking..

A member of another forum was experiencing the same thing with his cories, and lost almost all of them, before somebody told him that cories often carry internal parasites. He treated with Jungle Parasite Clear and the symptoms subsided...
sounds promising but I'm not one to throw meds at unknown enemies.

Thank you for your help thus far Gary.

There are some hobbyists that insist on changing water, some as much as 50% or more, but that's more of a Discus approach than anything else...

Frequent water changes tend to dilute a good bacteria colony, especially in smaller tanks that may depend on all the good bacteria they can get.

It's true that tank water does not contain a lot of beneficial bacteria but in large tanks the hobbyist can get away with larger water changes because the good bacteria are occupying larger surfaces in the tank, larger substrate amounts, even the glass.

You should concentrate on keeping a perfect bacteria balance (cycle) even if you have to dose the "New Improved Cycle" which is an excellent product and a great fish saver.

Add your substrate to the tank after rinsing it real good and dose the bacteria starter. We'll see if that changes things.

Remember that extra clean tanks may look great, but super cleaning destroys the good bacteria required for a well balanced system.

Melafix, in my opinion, in many cases, causes more problems than it's worth. Hobbyists who praise the product after dosing for a problem, don't realize the fish may have gotten better without an anticeptic intervention if the water quality was top notch.

--garyroland.

I swear by N&I Cycle, it has pulled me through alot of bad luck. I'm using it now as well.

So aside from adding substrate and cutting back on water changes, what else do you advise?

Should I stop adding melafix and salt?

I would rethink the salt, cories aren't very tolerant of it, and it may be why your cories are flicking, if you see no signs of external parasites...

..then maybe it's internal?

The betta was flicking before I added the salt, and the cories didn't start until a day or two afterwards. I would've thought that had they disliked it they would've shown it immediately. Haven't lost another one since the salt was added either, good sign finally.

I've heard more accounts of cories being indifferent to salt than badly affected by it. Actually the 4 bronze in my main tank have been 'salted' recently too, and have improved

I appreciate the concern, but I think the problem is trickier than that..