Sick or brooding?

[flixxx]

Over the weekend I had a Royal Gramma die due to what appeared to be "Fluke".

The next day I noticed one of my Banggai Cardinal fish breathing heavily (Gills opening and closing), in the corner angled in a downard position and completely stopped eating. I panicked and thought fluke got to him also.

I bought Prazipro to treat the tank and fearing that the banggai was pretty well advanced into the symptoms, I gave it a freshwater dip. The only thing is that I didn't notice any white dots onto it's body like the Gramma had.

I've been researching online and I've read that the Banggai is possibly brooding if I notice the mouth open and close often, tucked away in a corner and stopped eating. That's exactly what I notice but now I'm so paranoid, I'm wondering if I'm just reading what I "want to hear" rather than what is actually going on.

Here's a video of him breathing/opening & closing his mouth.
Also notice a "string" of something hanging from the bottom of him.

Banggai Cardinalfish

 

[Deinonych]

Flukes can attack the gills as well as the skin. I would suspect internal parasites (worms) based on the stringy poo. The prazi should take care of it - make sure to do two treatments 5-7 days apart. Follow the directions on the bottle and don't run your skimmer or carbon during treatment.

 

[flixxx]

Thanks, I added the first treatment yesterday, will do so again in 4 days (bottle recommend to retreat at least 3 days apart). One thing I found odd was during the Freshwater dip, the parasites did not come out or even appear on the Banggai like it did on the Gramma.

I did some more research and it might also be Indovirus, what are the odds of me coming across 2 sicknesses in 1 week with my first fish ever...

My Skimmer is off, no carbon. Any specific parameters to keep an eye out for without the skimmer running now?

The tank is about 5 weeks old, LR, Sand bed, sump. It cycled rather quickly because the LR came from my LFS that has been in their tank for weeks, CUC was first introduced and the 3 fish (2 Banggai's and one Gramma) were added about a week ago. (Unfortunately, not quarantined. I learnt the hard way).

When my LFS found out my Gramma died he offered to take in the cardinals and treat them for a few weeks. He also offered anything that dies will be replaced when i'm ready.

 

[Deinonych]

There's no test for praziquantel without using a spectrophotometer. What are the parameters for your tank currently? At 5 weeks old, you have a really new tank, and something could be out of whack.

 

[flixxx]

I ran parameters yesterday morning:

Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate = 0 (I did a water change on Saturday, nitrate was only at 0.5ppm) - The water change was due to an emergency QT i had to setup to try and save the Gramma, i took the DT water since i had no seeded sponge.

Ph 8
Salinity 1.025
Phosphate with Hanna 0.003 (I might have added too many zeroes there)

I really don't know what else to test. I was going to wait a month to cycle, but during the process green hair algae took over my tank within 2 weeks and when i posted on here most people said the cycle went quick because the LR was cured from my LFS. When i brought it from my LFS, the LR was in water so i barely had any die off.

My tank is still full of white spots on the glass (Pods?), the snails, shrimp all have a big appetite so in terms of bioload I think everything is fine.

I only introduced the 3 fish last week (Only fish introduced. One gramma died, the Banggai shown on the video is not doing to well and the third seems really good and healthy.

 

[flixxx]

He's just about dead. Poor guy can't even swim on his own, he was stuck on the powerhead. I put him in the corner of the tank right now to help him as much as i can.

I didn't know what to do, i tried another FW dip but still no white dots on him... I have no idea what it is.

Anything I can do after he dies to confirm what he might have?

Edit: I also just noticed my electric blue hermit crabs are dead... I am so sad.

 

[kouma]

Prazipro shouldnt kill your hermits, its odd that they died. What type of water did you use to fill your tank?

Btw, the white stringy poop on the Banggai's shows infection and possibly worms.

 

[flixxx]

Its rodi water, i checked the parameters yesterday agaon and everything still checks out
.. Not sure what to make of it. As long as it's not ich, I'm debating whether I should Qt my last fish, treat it for ich just to be sure and run the DT fishless for the next 8 weeks.