Blisters on a female Ancistrus

Hi all

As the Title states, on one of my female Ancistrus I found blisters, and lots of it. She is the only one afflicted with these blisters. All the other Ancistrus, Corry's, Betta's and Angels are doing just fine. I'm currently treating with Seachem ParaGuard as it is a broad spectrum, but at half the dose only. Tried to google this, found useless info here and there. Does anybody here have experience with this disease/afflition of blisters on Ancistrus/Catfish species. Please, I don't meen to be rude, far from it, but NO guesing it this or that. You know or you don't, simple as that.

General
Where do you stay? Pretoria
How long have you been keeping tropical fishes? 30 Years
How long has the tank been running before you added fish/this fish? About 2 years
What fish do you have in your Tank (type, number and size)? 2 x Large Scalare Angels, 6 x Albino Corry's, 30 x Betta's, 1 x L002, 4 x L104, 5 x BN Ancistrus
When did you last buy any new fish? No new fish was added in the last 3 months
Which food are you feeding and how often do you feed? PlecoWafer for herbivore's, Formula 2 Marine Garlic Flakes, TetraBits, Spirulina Flakes, Frozen BS & Bloodworms (x1 weekly). Feeding 2 x daily in small amounts a little of each food.


Disease
Describe the problem that the fish is having (behaviour, breathing, excretion (droppings), food intake, colour)? Blisters all over
Is the fish eating? Yes
Has the problem occurred before?: Never
Have you treated the problem and how? Quarentined her, using Seachem ParaGuard
Have you had any other problems in the past? None like this.
What were they? Bloat
Did you treat for these problems? Yes
How? Quarentine plus changed dieet.

Your aquarium & Maintenance
How big is the tank. (L x b x h)? Standard 4ft
How many litres of water? About 250l
What type of filter do you run? Sun Sun 304B BIO 2000l/h, 2 x Internal - 1 x 750l/h mechanical & 1 x 2000l/h mechanical
What is IN the filter? Matrix and sponge
How many litres per hour is the filter rated for? 750l/h, 2000l/h, 2000l/h
How often do you clean your tank? Every Saturday
How do you clean your tank? Gravel Vac, wipe of algae and water changes
How much water do you take out for Water change? 35%
Do you prepare your water for water changes? How and what do you add? Yes, Using 50/50 RO DI/ TAP. Adding Replenish to RO, Tap is aged 24hrs prior. Also adding Stability to water change amount.
What water do you use. (Tap, bore hole, RO)? RO and Tap 50/50
What substrate do you have? Normal Daro medium sized gravel
What else is in the tank (Rocks, plants, fake plants, shells, anything else)? Smooth rocks, Anubia's, Vallis Driftwood

Water parameters in your aquarium
Describe the water (smell and colour)? Normal fishtank smell, nothing out of the ordinary, smells the same as al my other tanks.
Temperature of the water? 28*C
General hardness (GH)? Did not test
Carbonate hardness (KH)? Did not test, but usually at about 5dKH
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite (No2-)? 0 ppm
Nitrate (No3-)? 25 ppm
pH? 6.8
How did you test these? Have you checked the expiry date on the test kits? Test kits and pH electronically

Lights
What light do you have? 1 x 20 000W Blue T5, 1 x PlantGrow T8
How long is the light on for? 12hrs
Do you have lots of plants in the tank (real or fake)? Odd 15 or so, all real
How do you fertilize the plants? None

Here are some pics

 

"Gas bubble disease:
Gas Bubble Disease is caused by a sudden dramatic change in gas pressure in the aquarium. This can happen by changing too much water at one time or by adding cold water to the fish tank. Gas bubbles form in the fins and skin of the fish. The bubbles look like blisters and are very easy to see. The skin will crackle if you run your finger across it. If not treated in time, gas bubbles in the bloodstream will kill the fish. The treatment is to add alot of aeration to the aquarium. Lights should be left off to minimize stress. If you see alot of bubbles that have already popped, consider adding a general antibiotic to guard against secondary infection" (Aquarium diseases)

 

This cannot be correct as @Charles WC routine is actually not that dramatic, I know of some people doing more than 50% WC and they do never had something like this...

Lets call an expert on this @azurekoi please help?

 

Hi

Thanks @Camcam, but as @hein24 stated, WC routine is not that dramatic. I also found sites saying it is GBD and what causes it. I don't think it is the case here. Then the other ancistrus should have looked the same as this female. No other fish in this tank is affected/infected. I have done the same maintanance on this tank for the past odd 2 years now. The ancistrus that is in this tank now, including the female in question was born in this tank. There must be some or other internal bacteria thing going on that maybe went secondary or caused secondary infection but is isolated to this female only for some or other reason. That is what I need to find out.

But thanks for the input.

 

Is it not a bad thing to treat with any medication at half the recommended dose - why are you not using as directed on the bottle - and maybe do what the bottle recommends and remove the fish and do a 1 hour dip. Hell man I hope you find the answer and that your fish is OK.

 

I've had a dwarf gourami male once that developed the same problem. You will probably find that this fish's whole body is swollen and that these "bubbles" are actually filled with fluid. Fresh water fish has to get rid of vast amounts of water all the time in order to maintain their osmotic balance. I suspected a bacterial infection in its kidneys, since it was obviously unable to get rid of the water in its body. I treated it with metronidazole for a couple of days and the "bubbles" disappeared, but as soon as I stopped the treatment it came back again. I treated it a second time with the same results and then decided that it might be kinder to put the fish to sleep as it had suffered quite a lot.

You will normally find Metronidazole only on prescription, but Seachem does have such a product that can be bought from your lfs, although somewhat expensive. Expect to pay in the region of at least R90 for 5g. I fear it might be too late for your fish to be helped, but do try. Good luck! I really hope she will be able to recover.

 

Agree, maybe try the Metronidazole, its worth a try even expensive though or take the fish to your Vet and get a prescription for Metron, much cheaper then but also is it worth stressing the fish out even more? Goodluck @Charles, really hope that girl recovers such a nice fish.
You will normally find Metronidazole only on prescription, but Seachem does have such a product that can be bought from your lfs, although somewhat expensive. Expect to pay in the region of at least R90 for 5g. I fear it might be too late for your fish to be helped, but do try. Good luck! I really hope she will be able to recover.

 

Hi all

@eros111, I found that with catfish like Ancistrus and Hypancistrus, full dose often kills them. Even for a simple thing like ich treatment. I might take a little longer to heal depending on the disease.
@AquaS, thanks for the info, I know Metronidazole very well, it now goes for R115.00 for 5g. You can use this together with Focus to bind the medicine to food as well. I will look into this for sure. The female has now stopped eating. I will try this, if there is no vissable improvement by Sunday... it will help her along humanly.
@hein24, thanks for the info. If I were to take her to a Vet to get Metron, it will be more expensive seeing that you must pay a consultation fee + the medicine, but thanks for the info.

 

Blisters on BN

Hi @Charles
Bogged down busy these days, good thing @dash and @eros111 directed me to your miserable BN..they BOTH contacted me by phone.
So you have a gang of caring pals here on tasa:noworry:

HTH ...I've seen and treated virtually same pathology in several different fish, and can peg it down to few related conditions.

Where do I start?
Can you show me the other side of your BN, is it similarly scuffed, with the scales lifted in the "Wrong" direction?

I notice distinct lateral scarring and abrasion...judging by the light tissue, OBVIOUSLY missing dermal denticles and scabby appearance where it should be dark brown, ore mottled

That shows physical injury, and wounds on several scattered areas.

Armoured bodies, covered by heavy scales while being of some defense , CAN and DO get breached .
That exposes underlying tissue to damage and subsequent infection.

Judging from proportions it's a sexually mature female.
What Gender are the remaining, unaffected BN?
An amorous male could have trapped her, OR expelled her rather roughly, IF her co-horts didn't corner her.
They and the remaining Loricariids can be feisty, stubborn and territorial at times...just saying, in case you didn't notice it until now.

Whilst 25ppm NO3 seems mild, instances where you have high stock levels of 38 Bulky fish in ~200L , it can easily influence disease resistance in susceptible individuals...Including injured, thus weakened and compromised fish.

Suggestions:
Provide extra cover.
Reduce nitrates, by smaller frequent water changes, to minimise stress due to larger differences in water quality and chemistry
Spot treat the wound with general antiseptic , daily for no less than 7-10 days. You can use dilute Paraguard, or StressGuard neat.
Continue with treating water for secondary, tertiary issues.
If the fish survives that long, it bodes well.
For now, it worries me that the wound has "exposed" dermal bony plates so denticles, dermis, epidermis, and subcutaneous layers of your Ancistrus are damaged, inflamed, and infected.
Couple that with struggle to osmoregulate, and you will have those blisters.

If you get a decent size +/=5L container to suspend in the same tank, to house the specimen, allowing for aeration and circulation..simple punched holes suffice
That Will make for easier capture and treatment . .instead of hunting the fish down daily, stressing it further, no?

However, I would also like to know when BN had "bloat" AND Can you speculate what caused that episode?
... Methinks she hasn't quite been in good strength to tie these 2 instances together.

FYI Wetwebmedia has a close-up of a pleco raw wound with edges ,scarring, infection and you can see similar vesicles at one end of the wound.
see here


:worried: Does this help? I hope so

 

Hi All

Sadly she died on Saturday. I still took some pics of her on Friday night to post here. She did look better to me on Friday and I thought she might just pull through, but sadly did not. Here are some pics I took on Friday night.

 

These were the last pics taken of her.... RIP my fishy. Most of the blister burst as you can see. Her stomache was also swollen about twice the size in the begining in relation with these last pics. I really thought she would pull through. It was quite sad when I went to her tank first thing on Saturday morning and found her dead. She looked so much better on Friday night.

 

Wow bud she did look much better than she was.. Pity she didn't make it:cry:

 

Yes it sure is a pitty.

 

sorry

 

Damn !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

What did you eventually treat her with?

 

Sorry Charles. Never seen something like it.