[smoothvirus]

I've got a sick Blue Ram. He's got some kind of slimy, mucousy discharge coming from his anus, almost like there's a blockage there. Also, he's a little bit bloated up - he's getting a little bit of the "pinecone" look described with dropsy. Other than that he's active and seems to be hungry. I went ahead and took him out of the tank and put him in a 5 1/2 gallon hospital tank with a well seeded sponge filter.

Water parameters are normal and the other fish all seem fine.

I'm thinking it's either malwai bloat or dropsy.. ideas? Treatments?

 

[Dutch Dude]

Yep,..... Rams are often infected with flagellates. I suggest to start a treatment for Bloat as soon as possible. You can use metro or dimetronidazole. Both meds are effective on flagellates at the first stage of fish become ill. Once the stop feeding the chance of healing will be very small. You can dose the entire tank (preferable Q-tank) and soak some dry foods in a mix of tank water and meds to get the meds doing its work from the inside.

If the Bloat treatment doesn't work it can be intestinal worms. Those are les difficult to treat. Flubendazolle is quit save in use. DON'T ever use both meds at the same time!!!

 

[smoothvirus]

Thanks. I am following the regimen from this post: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=24132 and am on Day 3 now.

He was up and swimming around the quarantine tank this morning so I'm seeing a little improvement today.