Praecox rainbows.. what is going on!?

[jammedfool]

Oh dear that will be a sad time if that's the solution...

Firstly I need to say my water this evening is 0/0 having just checked.
Unfortunately today I came back from work to find I have lost the other rainbow with the lump on its side, the one with the black head is still about though.
Bit strange seeing as the black head is the one moping about, this one was swimming free and eating fine. It was sucked up against the wavemaker and definitely dead as I switched off the wavemaker to make sure it wasn't just stuck.


The little lump was not visible on the deceased fish which was worrying, then I saw one of the x-ray tetras with something too big for its mouth, like a huge underbite. It spat out a white thing several times. Decided I needed to stop that case a) it choked and b) the lump is infectious.

Finally cornered the little guy with a net and he spat out the white thing only for me to lose it on my sand. So now I'm concerned...

Pictures of the deceased...

Spoiler!

At least it doesn't seem this one suffered.. possibly whatever it was burst suddenly? Hopefully not infecting the rest of the tank...

[plankton]

Sorry for your loss, hope everyone else is ok.
I had trouble with dwarf neons when I tried to keep them as well, I had one female last about a year, all the others went before.....

[jammedfool]

I had a sudden realisation that there was a med I haven't tried yet.. sterazin.
Originally I used the Esha gdex in case it was flukes. But what if this is a parasite?
Reason I say this is because the male rainbow just had WSP. Although it could be something completely harmless, what chances are that the one med I haven't tried stops the spread? Lumpy is still alive but miserable...

[WinterRose73]

@jammedfool So sorry to read this, you seem to be having about as much luck with your rainbows as I'm having with my diamonds

[plankton]

You could try the Sterazin.

[jammedfool]

New symptom... Red blotch in one eye... Any help?
I haven't tried the sterazin yet but have some on the way

Edit: extra new symptom on looking closer... similar looking to the lymphocystis coming from the tail bulge

Considering qtank and trying all the meds I have again one by one in case I under dosed or something... Starting with internal bacteria as that comes up most often with the various searches.
If it is mycobacterium then at least it'll be quarantined

[plankton]

I've a horrible suspicion that a lot of the praecox coming in during the last few years have their own type of iridovirus, but I haven't been able to find out about the farms they come from.

[jammedfool]

If you're right, it may be the very reason this fish is now looking a little lumpy...
Right pectoral and tail fin (shaft bit)






None of the other species of fish have been affected so far.
I had one cherry barb death which was due to my own stupidity/fish stupidity in the tank backfilling into the bucket and one barb getting sucked sideways.

So I've had 2 rainbow deaths. One was quite quick and unexpected, the other more prolonged. Now I have a sick one that hangs on its own all day and this male which is active but starting to show similar signs..

Decision to quarantine? I have 3 rainbows so is it worth quarantining all 3 and blasting with every treatment until something works?

And... Here you see the extent of the hair algae problem

[Staffylover]

Gosh it really sounds like the rainbows are giving you a hard time, I can relate to this as I went through the same but not with rainbows they always did well for me but with Danio's that are supposed to be easy and hardy, but they had the same kind of issue usually behind the gills but not always, tried many different treatments which went on for about 6 months, it definatley put me off ever getting more danios it's just so frustrating when no treatment seems to help, I really hope you can find a solution, hair algae is usually because of too much light you could try a blackout for a couple of days to help you get on top of it, I'm not sure about black beard algae though I've not had that before I don't think.

[plankton]

The q-tank is a good idea, but I have no idea what you can try to treat with.
You could start with Esha 2000 as that can sometimes have an effect against lymphocystis (but not always) and is a general all-spectrum med. Maybe you could combine it with Esha Exit as the both together cover most "common" pathogens.