[hussain.bootwala1994]

Hi guys,

I bought a pair of blood parrots last week and I dont remember noticing any kind of marks on their body when I got them, but once I put them in the tank I could see one of them having a mark on one side of the body which looks like some kind of disease. Could someone please help me identify it. I am hoping its just scale damage but doesnt really look like scale damage,

Tank mates are some african cichlids and some american cihlids. I could see some agression towards the parrots in the beginning but i dont see any fights anymore.

Pictures below

do let me know if you need any more details

 

[Auballagh]

Looks like being placed in the new aquarium and that community environment, caused some stress on one/both of these Blood Parrots.
This stress in turn has caused what appears to be LYMPHOCYSTIS to emerge in your affected Blood Parrot.
This post may help to explain a bit more of what is happening,

Albino Oscar with bump on chin

My albino oscar in the last week has developed a bump on his chin and I'm not sure if it's an illness or from rubbing up against the glass or bumping into things. He is behaving normally and does eat still. I have another oscar and other fish in the tank and none show signs of similiar bumps...

www.cichlid-forum.com

You probably should check your water chemistry in this aquarium as well. If the measured Nitrate levels are rising in there, you will have to do more frequency and higher percentage water changes to dilute the Nitrates out, and bring the measured levels down to below 20 PPM in the aquarium.

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

Looks like being placed in the new aquarium and that community environment, caused some stress on one/both of these Blood Parrots.
This stress in turn has caused what appears to be LYMPHOCYSTIS to emerge in your affected Blood Parrot.
This post may help to explain a bit more of what is happening,

Albino Oscar with bump on chin

My albino oscar in the last week has developed a bump on his chin and I'm not sure if it's an illness or from rubbing up against the glass or bumping into things. He is behaving normally and does eat still. I have another oscar and other fish in the tank and none show signs of similiar bumps...

www.cichlid-forum.com

You probably should check your water chemistry in this aquarium as well. If the measured Nitrate levels are rising in there, you will have to do more frequency and higher percentage water changes to dilute the Nitrates out, and bring the measured levels down to below 20 PPM in the aquarium.

Thank for the quick response,

The fish were skittish at the beginning but they are now quite active and eating food properly so I hope the stress is down now,

Lets hope the cyst disappears but no matter she is still a beautiful fish 😃,

Is there anything I can do to increase the recovery rate?

Regards,

 

[Auballagh]

Hmmmmm....

Is there anything I can do to increase the recovery rate?

Pushing more water in higher percentage & higher frequency water changes, is definitely a good first step. Also, to boost up those immune systems, check your food. If you have anything older than 6 months in inventory, replace with fresher stuff, as the nutritional value of the older stuff will have dropped pretty low. Keep pellet and flake foods refrigerated for freshness. Purchase different types of foods for enhanced variety, with high-spirulina content (veggie-based) stuff served along with regular Cichlid fare. You should try feeding them fresh, peeled peas, along with rinsed out/chopped up spinach greens. I would avoid offering meatier things you normally feed Blood Parrots such as live earth worms, chopped up raw shrimp meat or black worms, because of the African Mbuna Cichlids you have in there.

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

Hmmmmm....

Pushing more water in higher percentage & higher frequency water changes, is definitely a good first step. Also, to boost up those immune systems, check your food. If you have anything older than 6 months in inventory, replace with fresher stuff, as the nutritional value of the older stuff will have dropped pretty low. Keep pellet and flake foods refrigerated for freshness. Purchase different types of foods for enhanced variety, with high-spirulina content (veggie-based) stuff served along with regular Cichlid fare. You should try feeding them fresh, peeled peas, along with rinsed out/chopped up spinach greens. I would avoid offering meatier things you normally feed Blood Parrots such as live earth worms, chopped up raw shrimp meat or black worms, because of the African Mbuna Cichlids you have in there.

Thanks a lot for taking the effort to help, the fish seems to be recovering well I think

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

Hmmmmm....

Pushing more water in higher percentage & higher frequency water changes, is definitely a good first step. Also, to boost up those immune systems, check your food. If you have anything older than 6 months in inventory, replace with fresher stuff, as the nutritional value of the older stuff will have dropped pretty low. Keep pellet and flake foods refrigerated for freshness. Purchase different types of foods for enhanced variety, with high-spirulina content (veggie-based) stuff served along with regular Cichlid fare. You should try feeding them fresh, peeled peas, along with rinsed out/chopped up spinach greens. I would avoid offering meatier things you normally feed Blood Parrots such as live earth worms, chopped up raw shrimp meat or black worms, because of the African Mbuna Cichlids you have in there.

Hey,

As I was observing the fish closely I realized there's some kind of holes/erosion on the head and lateral area which on googling I found is hole in the head/HLLE.

I am attaching some pics and it would be great if you could confirm if my analysis is correct and if and how I should be treating this

 

[Deeda]

@hussain.bootwala1994 , can you please post your water test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if possible KH and GH? If you don't have a test kit, I highly encourage you to purchase one.

It does appear the fish has some erosion going on or hole in the head which is usually related to water quality, food quality, stress and possibly spironucleus/hexamita. Does the blood parrot have white thready feces or is it normal food colored?

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

@hussain.bootwala1994 , can you please post your water test results for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and if possible KH and GH? If you don't have a test kit, I highly encourage you to purchase one.

It does appear the fish has some erosion going on or hole in the head which is usually related to water quality, food quality, stress and possibly spironucleus/hexamita. Does the blood parrot have white thready feces or is it normal food colored?

Hi Deeda,

I just bought the Parrots a week ago and they only started eating 2 days back as they just used to keep hiding, so maybe the fish came with the disease?

Actually I stay in India and the test kits are extremely expensive here.. I mean more expensive than the glass fish tank that I got made. All these are imported and are priced heavily.. Ill check if I can get something locally.

I haven't been able to see the fish poop actually. Ill observe to see what colour it is.

I have been feeding the below foods
Aquarium products India life aayuh
Wild elite bits discuss neutral spectrum
Freeze dried blood worms

I also got Hikari bio gold plus delivered today so I'll add that to the food I provide

I have tetra bits complete too but someone told me that it enhances red colour in all fish and hence I am not using it,

Regards,

 

[Deeda]

@hussain.bootwala1994 , I didn't realize that test kits were that expensive in India, even more expensive the having a tank built.

I would keep up with water changes for the time being especially since you seem to have quite a few fish in that tank from both Africa and Central America. What size is your aquarium?

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

@hussain.bootwala1994 , I didn't realize that test kits were that expensive in India, even more expensive the having a tank built.

I would keep up with water changes for the time being especially since you seem to have quite a few fish in that tank from both Africa and Central America. What size is your aquarium?

So this is a 36L*15b*18h tank, ill keep up with water changes, and ill keep observing the blood parrot for signs of improvement/deterioration,

Regards,

 

[Deeda]

That seems to be quite a few fish for that size tank. I counted some of the fish in your pics and got at least 13 different fish and some of them get too large in my opinion. You will probably need to do water changes every other day to keep it safe for your fish.

Can you post a full tank pic and what fish you have in there?

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

That seems to be quite a few fish for that size tank. I counted some of the fish in your pics and got at least 13 different fish and some of them get too large in my opinion. You will probably need to do water changes every other day to keep it safe for your fish.

Can you post a full tank pic and what fish you have in there?

Below are the fishes,
2 yellow labs
2 powder blue cichlids
2 Blood parots
7 mixed peacock cichlids
2 Salvini cichlids
1 pleco
2 Green terrors
1 Scat which is gonna be moved soon

I was told to keep the tank over crowded to handle the aggression and I do know that some fishes might get big and I am planning to either upgrade or give them away to friends once they get bigger,

I do know my tank is a little small but all the LFS guys here said you can easily have 25 to 30 fish in there and I knew I could not trust them hence I kept a little lesser. Let me know if there are too many coz I can do water changes only weekly and will have to give some away in that case,

 

[Deeda]

Thank you so much for posting the entire tank pic and your fish list!

Yes I am afraid you got very poor advice from your LFS, just remember they are in business to sell fish.

I forgot to ask but did you measure the tank in inches or metric? If you measured in inches, your tank is approximately 42 gallons or 160 liters.

What fish do you really want to keep and we can make some suggestions.

 

[hussain.bootwala1994]

Thank you so much for posting the entire tank pic and your fish list!

Yes I am afraid you got very poor advice from your LFS, just remember they are in business to sell fish.

I forgot to ask but did you measure the tank in inches or metric? If you measured in inches, your tank is approximately 42 gallons or 160 liters.

What fish do you really want to keep and we can make some suggestions.

The tank is measured in Inches,

I would like to keep the below,
2 yellow labs
2 powder blue cichlids
2 Blood parots
2 mixed peacock cichlids?
1 pleco
2 Green terrors

Would this work?

Regards,

 

[Auballagh]

If you have a common brown Pleco, it will easily grow past 14 inches long. Too big - it's gotta go.
And, if you wind up with a pair of Green Terrors? EVERYONE dies in that tank, (including one of your Green Terrors) - those get up to a foot in pretty heavy-bodied length. Those gotta go.
-
Keep the Blood Parrots.
One Salvini (The female)
Those Mbuna African Cichlids.
-
You'll be good.