Dying Demosoni - need help please

[new2ovas]

I have a demosoni that is roughly 2 inches in size.  He was in my large 90 gal tank up until a few weeks ago when he was looking sick, always at the top of hte tank, no more color, patchyness on the skin and fins as well as a few bite marks from other fish.  So I decided to move him to a 30 gal hospital tank I have (all the other fish are perfectly fine).  I gave him some general medication as prescribed but that did not work.  He still has his energy and is eating very well as usual but it almost looks like he has a flexheating disease.  every time I look at him he has a bit more skin missing, he now has a hole in his tail and so on.

Please anyone with some advice that would be greatly appreciated.  As well if you can let me know if the tail pieces and other pieces of his fins will eventually grow back once I cure this thing that would be great.

much appreciated

cheers
Alex

[RoxyDog]

Hi, his fins will usually grow back if you find the right thing to treat him with.  What "general" medication did you try and was it for fungus, bacteria, etc?

[Brent Shaver]

Did you quarintine him before letting him into the big tank when you got him?

Also Demosoni's tend to be the more aggressive of the cichlids, for him to have bites means he hasnt been well for a while.

I havent run into the problem you have mentioned with any of my cichilds but I am sure someone here could help.

Is it possible for you to post a picture, might be easier to help if we could see what you are discribing.

[Demasonian]

Hi Alex - From what I can remember of your previous posts, this poor little guy has had a rough year!

As RoxyDog says, his fins and tail can grow back provided they aren't taken down right to the bone. Doing what you're doing is great...in a hospital tank, lots of water changes, good O2 exchange and see if he recovers.

I've used melafix in the past to help injured fish but have read horror stories from others using the same drug (do a little googling before trying this one). On his injuries, did the hole in the tail appear after the move to the hospital tank?

Despite their reputation, Demasoni are not usually an aggressive fish towards tankmates, save their own kind, and can indeed be victims of aggression from larger, more aggressive mbuna. This could be particularly bad if they resemble any of your other fish (some zebra complex fish, kenyi, etc.). Fish that are beaten up / regularly chased / stressed can quickly fall victim to secondary infections and disease.

Hope he hangs in there for you,

S.

[ordi260]

The only bad thing i would say about melafix is that it sort of mess up the water - gaz exchange...aerate the water and treat it with it its a natural remedy...if used properly it should help

[dan2x38]

You might want to add some aquarium salt to the hospital tank. You can add 1 tspn/5 gal. Mix the salt in a couple cups of the tank water. Then slowly over several hours add a little until it is all mixed in. This will help with the stress, breathing and makes the water harder which is more like African water conditions in lake Malwai.

IMO I would do as mentioned and stay on top of the changes. Replace the ratio of salt removed by the changes. Hope he pulls through.

Dan

[new2ovas]

Thanks all for the advice, I am doing as many water changes as I can and am trying to salt as well.  He does not seem to be stabalizing or getting better yet - hopefully this will change soon though.  His condition when I removed him from the large tank was just general lathargy, staying in the corner, stress and that kind of thing.  the hole was very small in his tail form the big tank.  once he got in the hospital tank, he got his energy back and has this flesh eating thing that is just eating chunks out of his body.  there are whole sections on his side that are no longer purple or black but rather white - almost to the bone.  I feel really bad for this guy, but it does not seem to be aecting him in terms of energy, apetite or anything like that.  I would almost put him back in the big tank, but not knowing what it is I am very hesitant to do that.

I will keep trying the water changes and salt and see what happens,

cheers

Alex

[ordi260]

Hi!

Sorry to hear its not going better for him...I would personnaly keep it in the QT tank until recovery...just in case its an infection...you don't want to spread that in your display tank!

Keep up the good efforts

al

[Fishnut]

There's a disease that affected one of my koi last year that sounds a lot like what you're describing.  It could be bacterial ulcers.  Salt and water changes are not going to help too much if that's the case, unfortunately.  I say this because that's the first thing I tried with my koi.

What happened was that the fish had flukes.  The infestation of flukes managed to create an opening for bacteria, which cichlid aggression might have done to your fish.  That bacteria took hold and started to eat away at my koi's flesh.  The only thing I found that worked to cure it was a product called Tricide-Neo.  It's a bath.  You dilute this expensive packet of medicine in a specific amount  de-mineralized water and dip the fish every 12 hours for (I think) 5 days, re-using the same bath.  It worked like a charm!!  Unfortunately, I had tried everything else to try to treat it before the dip and the ulcer got really big.  The fish is alive and quite well, but slightly deformed where the ulcer was.

I got the medication from a koi place in Toronto Clark Koi Ponds (http://www.clarkekoi.com/HomePage.html) and they were happy to ship it to me.  It was the size of a tea bag so shipping was not too expensive .  From what I remember, the medication is safe for most fish, but koi and goldfish are more susceptible to it for some reason...which is why I found it in a koi shop .  This pic is extreme but as an illustration, it's accurate.

http://www.fbas.co.uk/Ulcers.html

Cheers