[Dr.Kenza]

Hi all…
My acei has been acting very strangely and has been showing too much scratching behavior…she has been with me for abt a year now…i did do a one week copper external parasitic treatment as externally there were a lot of patches etc…Aftr that i added her back to the main tank as she looked much better…but now shez at it again and this time she appears to be more stressed and started hiding also yesterday… Therefore i transfered her back to qt again with only a bit of aquarium salt and now in the morning she seems to act a bit more relaxed…No obvious agression from other fish was noted while in the tank…Parameters doesnt show any ammonia or nitrite with ph around 7.6
Qt is well cycled and running.
Here are some pics which seems to show the external symptoms which you guys could help me figure out…
I recently did a 2 cycle treatment with metrro for my whole tank along with metro in food for abt 8 days after i lost a couple of fish which most probably i suspect bloat looking at the symptoms…anyways now none of my fish show any signs of bloat and all seems to do well except this one which do eat and all but now along with the external scratching symptoms and recent hiding is also showing a little cloudy eye also in her right eye…
What do you guys think?

 

[dstuer]

Looks bacterial, and whether or not it is related to the previous deaths a few months back, would be hard to determine without swabs, and bacterial analysis.
Medications regimes are iffy, unless every last pathogen is wiped out during the initial treatment (impossible to know). Any surviving pathogens of the treatment may take time (often months)to build back up infectious populations.
Hard to know by a few photos, but resembles a disease called saddleback, a term used for certain variants of Columnaris bacteria (gram negative), that present as lesions on the head, and near the dorsal.
These bacteria is known to survive inert for long periods in a smudge of mud, or on surfaces, and can mutate to resist certain medications in those that survive initial treatments.
Under microscopy the infection appear columnar, hence the name
What are your average tank water nitrate levels?
Columnaris bacteria prefer pH levels in the 7.5 and above range, in the presence of even slightly elevated nitrate.
They also prefer water temps of 80'F and above, becoming most virulent above 82'F, although even a temp as low as 50'F does not halt its ability to infect.
If I suspect Columnaris, I usually euthanize all fish in the tank, and bleach everything the water has touched, or even splashed on.
The last time it came in on a new fish, I had 20 tanks, so my reaction was to protect all others from its spread, hence the drastic measures.
And the infected were in a my normal 3 month QT, all 3 fish in QT eventually died during a summer heat wave when tank water temps easily hit 82'F
I have heard reports of other aquarists controlling it by using a regime of strong gram neg antibiotics.

 

[Dr.Kenza]

Looks bacterial, and whether or not it is related to the previous deaths a few months back, would be hard to determine without swabs, and bacterial analysis.
Medications regimes are iffy, unless every last pathogen is wiped out during the initial treatment (impossible to know). Any surviving pathogens of the treatment may take time (often months)to build back up infectious populations.
Hard to know by a few photos, but resembles a disease called saddleback, a term used for certain variants of Columnaris bacteria (gram negative), that present as lesions on the head, and near the dorsal.
These bacteria is known to survive inert for long periods in a smudge of mud, or on surfaces, and can mutate to resist certain medications in those that survive initial treatments.
Under microscopy the infection appear columnar, hence the name
What are your average tank water nitrate levels?
Columnaris bacteria prefer pH levels in the 7.5 and above range, in the presence of even slightly elevated nitrate.
They also prefer water temps of 80'F and above, becoming most virulent above 82'F, although even a temp as low as 50'F does not halt its ability to infect.
If I suspect Columnaris, I usually euthanize all fish in the tank, and bleach everything the water has touched, or even splashed on.
The last time it came in on a new fish, I had 20 tanks, so my reaction was to protect all others from its spread, hence the drastic measures.
And the infected were in a my normal 3 month QT, all 3 fish in QT eventually died during a summer heat wave when tank water temps easily hit 82'F
I have heard reports of other aquarists controlling it by using a regime of strong gram neg antibiotics.

Ohh temperature is definitely around 84 degrees here at my place…My acei always had this itching kind of behaviour for a long time of mayb around 6 months but it was only occasional…my nitrates are definitely high….i have nitrayes in my well water…but anyways i will go for just melafix and salt treatmnent for a week and see for any changes…if i see worsening will resort to meds…Thankx for the info…concerned😥