Help... fish looks like he has lint on him (parasites)

You're right, it's not a great pic...

It almost looks as if this guy got hung up in some rocks and scraped himself.

My only other concern would be that it could be Columnaris, which is a bacterial infection.

Any flashing? Twitchy behaviour? Are any of the other fish affected?

Just in case it is something like Columnaris, I would lower the tank temp to about 76 slowly in an effort to slow the spread.

Clown loaches are very sensitive to many meds, since they are scaleless. I'm not sure if PraziPro has a warning about this or not, but you might check with the manufacturer. Did it start after you added the PraziPro? Any other clown loaches in the tank? Are they affected?

Kim

guess I'm not allowed to edit the above post, so...

He still eats happily and chases the barbs around. He's just breathing super fast. Ever since you put columnaris into my head I'm really worried about leaving him overnight but I don't know what to do. But if it was columnaris I'd expect the barbs to have it. I have lost tankfuls of barbs to columnaris in the past, they were the first to get it. In a warm tank (83 right now) I'd expect it to have spread all over if that was the case, but it hasn't.

But the last time I had a distichodus breathing this quickly it died within 2 hours (though that was a totally separate O2-related accident that was completely my own fault). Guess that has made me paranoid. This little guy was a very expensive replacement for the original and it'd really suck if anything happened to him. My girlfriend would probably want to give up on the tanks

After seeing the better pics, I really don't think it's Columnaris. (That's one disease that makes me paranoid!)

It honestly just looks like it may be skin irritation from the PraziPro. There are so very few meds we can use on scaleless fish, and I think what you're seeing is somewhat of a "burn", for lack of a better way to put it.

The heavy breathing could also be a reaction to the meds.

Of course, there is no way to know for sure, but that is my guess.

I think I would do a large water change and remove the skinny one and treat him alone in a hospital tank, if the others don't appear to be wasting.

Kim

Kim, you seem to be the expert here so I'm not going to bother with a new thread, but here's the new issue today:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=146374

I'm so stressed out and wish I could just cancel this wedding trip. Would've saved so much money and stress to just decline and mail them some cash. I won't be able to relax on sunday either because I'll be worried about these fish.

In the rainbow's case I'm hoping it's just a bit of an infection on an existing wound (they always play with each other and get a nip here and there, plus the redhead geophagus male nips at them when they get into the breeding territory) and that a broad antibiotic like melafix will be sufficient. But I'm really paranoid at this point. And so afraid that tomorrow I'm going to wake up and the distichodus will be dead... I've never seen a fish hyperventilating this way for this long. And he's just a baby so it's not like he's super resilient.

At noon tomorrow when the LFS opens I'm tempted to just bag up these fish and take them in for a diagnosis. But I'm not convinced that they know any more than I do, and they tend to just prescribe nitrofurazone for everything.

Melafix isn't an antibiotic. It's just a preventative for bacterial infection, in fact, it's basically just tea tree oil.

I'm not sure that they don't need an antibiotic, but at the same time, if what you were initially seeing on the loach was chemical burn from the PraziPro, the antibiotic might not help. And, chemical burn doesn't make alot of sense if the other scaleless fish aren't affected.

It's always hit or miss diagnosing a tank. You just have to gather as many facts as possible and go with it, whether it's your tank or someone else's. Since you're going to be away this weekend, it's really hard to tell you what to do, because you won't be able to "re-route" if things go wrong.

I think at this point, since the rainbowfish seems to be showing signs of a bacterial infection, I would replace the carbon in my filtration for a few hours, and treat with some sort of antibiotic, either erythromycin or sulfa.

How's the water movement in the tank? Do you have an aerator running? If not, this might help with the heavy breathing.

Kim

There is no specific aeration but given my previous lost distichoduses I am making sure that this one gets a lot - the AC110, which has a pretty substantial output, is splashing down a full inch. It creates a current some of the fish can't compete with, so I know it's getting plenty.

That's not a loach, btw, it's a young distichodus - but I can see how all the talk of loaches made you say that. He does have scales though, and the fact that it seemed to get a bit worse last night after a big WC has me unsure now if it was chemical. (However, the fact that the Prazi is a milky liquid that was denser than the water indicates that it could very well have just been that he swam right through it when I put it in the tank... though this is also true of the rainbows.)

I don't have any carbon in there right now so that's no problem. Is erythromycin better as an antibiotic than nitrofurazone? I've been told (again, by the LFS though) that it's the best against gram-negative stuff. I am pretty sure they don't sell eryth, nor do the petsmarts/cos unless I'm just not aware of what products use that as their ingredient.

This morning the distichodus is alive but still breathing fast, and the rainbow is swimming around as if nothing had happened, and the sore almost looks like a wound that is scabbing. The light is off so I'll need to look again to get a better idea though.

Maracyn is erythromycin...It treats gram positive bacteria. It's made by Mardel and most LFS carry it, even Petsmart.

IME, it's best to treat with dual antibiotics, although it can really cloud your water. Using one for gram positive and one for gram negative kind of covers more bases, and helps prevent secondary infections. Maracyn and Maracyn II make a good combo, but they are daily doses, so I'm not sure how effective it would be to start it today. Would you be able to dose in the a.m.? Will you be home Sunday night?

I meant that you should replace the carbon or add some carbon to remove the PraziPro before adding other meds. (It might be okay not to do this, but it's not a chance I would take!)

Sorry about the loach confusion...That's what happens when you're dealing with too many things at once. :-?

Kim