Need identification of the disease

[Satya1982]

Now for several weeks my convict male in my 6/2/2 feet tank is having issues on one side of its body.

1. Eye is cloudy
2. Scales are rough
3. Heavy breathing
4. Some scales are dropping of
5. Occasionally sit at the top facing the bottom.
6. It's only able to see with one eye.
7. It is active moving around the tank sometimes interacting with female. Both are a breeding pair.
8. Eats without hesitation.(tetrabits)

If any one know to which disease these these symptoms belong to. Kindly let me know.

 

[deeda]

How long has this tank been set up and can you post your water test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH?

Do you add any water conditioner or dechlorinator product when doing a water change?

Are these the only 2 fish in the tank and if not, post your full stock of fish?

 

[Satya1982]

This tank is operational since 4+ years. Regarding readings I can't give you because these kits are not available locally. But I can tell you that water was bad so changed water by 80% last week.

Besides having these two convicts I have 2 full sized featherfins, 1 jaguar 5 inches, 1 bumblebee catfish SA and 1 regular pleco.

Gravel is sand. External filter Ehiemclassic 600.

I use water straight from tank which is filled from ground water.

Also all others are doing great.

I need to know which disease it is so I can start of some medication.

 

[deeda]

Thanks for the info!

I don't know if this is a disease so I won't recommend any medications.

Where are you located that you can't get some type of aquarium test kit? Usually if they aren't available locally you should still be able to get them via mail order.

You mentioned the water was bad and you changed 80% last week, was the Convict looking poorly before you changed the water?

 

[skjl47]

I can't give you because these kits are not available locally. But I can tell you that water was bad so changed water by 80% last week.

Hello; That the water quality was bad enough for you to be able to know without a test kit is a strong clue. Water can look and smell fine to our senses and already be bad in some ways so your being able to tell may mean the water was very bad.

Gravel is sand.

Hello; how deep is the sand in thickness?

which disease it is so I can start of some medication.

Hello; My first guess based on limited information is the fish does not have a "disease" so much as damage from the water conditions. Bear in mind this is only a guess. It is also possible that there was damage from the water conditions and an opportunistic secondary infection is also involved.

Something you can do that at least should not hurt anything is a series of large water changes (WC) for a while. Say two or three times a week at first and maybe one a week later on. This may help unless the source water itself has some problems. has the source water ever been tested in any way?

 

[Satya1982]

D deeda I am located in India and the kit is pretty much costly for me to buy online and locally they are not available because of no demand.

Yes convict was looking bad before water change. Hence the changed water.

S skjl47 Your observation regarding water quality is correct.

Gravel is about 1inch deep it's a combination of sand and small quantity of pebbles of size .5inches.


One other thing I was out of town for 1 month, i told my parents to fill in water when ever the level goes down. By the time I came back this is what has happened.

This is the first issue I am seeing in my tank since I moved to 6 feet tank from the last 4 years. Also previously I had 9 inch Oscar, 8 inch Green Texas and 4 Firemouths which I gave away. Never had any issues with water.

Update: Her scales are getting better. They look a little softer today. Hopefully she will do better. But am worried about her breathing heavily. Wish I could do something soon.

 

[skjl47]

to fill in water when ever the level goes down[/QUOTE
Hello; I think this is known as topping off, just adding more water. I did it for a time when I first started keeping tanks. Over time this is a poor practice for some real reasons. First being when water evaporates it leaves behind minerals, salts and other things dissolved in the water. With only topping off over time these things build up in concentration.
Another thing that happens is the biological waste material from the fish, other living things and the decay of organics goes thru what we call a "cycle" that ends up with the formation of compounds we call nitrates. These nitrates are not good when concentrated.
To deal with these "topping off" issues I suggest more often WC at a volume of water greater than the amount that evaporates. If you lose 3 inches a week from a tank to evaporation then do a WC of 6 inches or more each week.

Wish I could do something soon

hello; As I think your main issue is water quality I still suggest a series of large WC for a couple of weeks.
Beyond this there may be some benefit to filter maintainance. This is a bit tricky as the media in a filter is usually the place where much of the "good" bacteria live. We call these bacteria the beneficial bacteria (bb) and they are needed for proper water quality.
There are two fairly safe ways to clean a filter. One is to change the media out in sections and not all at the same time. This is what I do. I replace some of the filter media but not all at one time and then the rest a few weeks later.

Note - there are often two types of filter media. The type I am talking about replacing is the stuff designed as a detritus trapping media. The stuff that gets loaded with fish poo, excess food and other bits of tank junk.

Another guess is that you may be overfeeding. Most all of us do that for a time. This adds to water quality problems. You might try reducing the amount and/or frequency of feeding.

These are things you can do right away that should help.