I've been running into a problem lately with my cardinals.
I had one that had a lump on the side with a squigly line inside the lump. I took it to the LFS and was told it was some type of "boring" worm. I treated the tank at the recommended dosage with PraziPro per their recommendation for a week, did the water change, and then treated again at full strength for another week just to try and make sure I got it.
All seemed fine, but I noticed yesterday that two more cardinals had the problem. They were culled as well and I'm dosing the tank again. So far ONLY cardinals have been afflicted. No corys, ottos, embers, glolites, or discus have gotten this. I'll probably end up dosing this tank for a month or longer at this point to try and make sure I get the full life cycle of whatever the heck this critter is.
The obvious answer is better quarantine, but all the fish in that tank have been quarantined for 6 weeks or more. I had recently moved the embers out of quarantine. I didn't move any of the shrimp out of that QT tank and I haven't seen any issues with the remaining neons or ottos in the QT tank.
I'm fairly stumped as it seems to be the "older" cardinals that are getting it, the ones that I've had in there for months. The newest batch do seem to have some odd patchy dark blotches on them, but nothing seemed to come of it. As of now I'm going to be stuck moving this tank to another room instead of emptying and selling it to help pay for the new big tank. I also don't want to have to dose the big tank with something that may cause deaths with any inverts I throw in there later if it leaches into the substrate and/or silicone. I can't move them back to QT to dose them as I've got shrimp in there but I might have a smaller 15 Gallon I can put all the cardinals in, but that's a lot of cardinals to stuff in there and I have no idea who has what when it comes to any worm eggs/larvae/whatever so I'm stuck medicating the whole tank.
All the fish in the tank seem well fed and have rounded tummys. I haven't noticed anything else that's odd about their behavior and other than the lumpy growth, there isn't anything different about the swimming or schooling or eating patterns.
I've attempted to add some photos. I apologize for the blurry pics, the blackberry isn't all that good, and the cardinals don't like to sit still. One shows the lump with the worm in it. The other photo shows the "new" blotchy cardinal with an "older" cardinal behind it for reference. You could also compare to the one with the worm as all the "old" cardinals have the nice even blue/red/silver colors.
Thoughts?
-
S
I've updated the photos finally.
I had one that had a lump on the side with a squigly line inside the lump. I took it to the LFS and was told it was some type of "boring" worm. I treated the tank at the recommended dosage with PraziPro per their recommendation for a week, did the water change, and then treated again at full strength for another week just to try and make sure I got it.
All seemed fine, but I noticed yesterday that two more cardinals had the problem. They were culled as well and I'm dosing the tank again. So far ONLY cardinals have been afflicted. No corys, ottos, embers, glolites, or discus have gotten this. I'll probably end up dosing this tank for a month or longer at this point to try and make sure I get the full life cycle of whatever the heck this critter is.
The obvious answer is better quarantine, but all the fish in that tank have been quarantined for 6 weeks or more. I had recently moved the embers out of quarantine. I didn't move any of the shrimp out of that QT tank and I haven't seen any issues with the remaining neons or ottos in the QT tank.
I'm fairly stumped as it seems to be the "older" cardinals that are getting it, the ones that I've had in there for months. The newest batch do seem to have some odd patchy dark blotches on them, but nothing seemed to come of it. As of now I'm going to be stuck moving this tank to another room instead of emptying and selling it to help pay for the new big tank. I also don't want to have to dose the big tank with something that may cause deaths with any inverts I throw in there later if it leaches into the substrate and/or silicone. I can't move them back to QT to dose them as I've got shrimp in there but I might have a smaller 15 Gallon I can put all the cardinals in, but that's a lot of cardinals to stuff in there and I have no idea who has what when it comes to any worm eggs/larvae/whatever so I'm stuck medicating the whole tank.
All the fish in the tank seem well fed and have rounded tummys. I haven't noticed anything else that's odd about their behavior and other than the lumpy growth, there isn't anything different about the swimming or schooling or eating patterns.
I've attempted to add some photos. I apologize for the blurry pics, the blackberry isn't all that good, and the cardinals don't like to sit still. One shows the lump with the worm in it. The other photo shows the "new" blotchy cardinal with an "older" cardinal behind it for reference. You could also compare to the one with the worm as all the "old" cardinals have the nice even blue/red/silver colors.
Thoughts?
-
S
I've updated the photos finally.
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