# peacock twitching suspeted flukes



## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

i just got a new peacock about a week ago and he is twitching moveing his head and twitching his dorsal fin and clamping all his fins..

now a 4 days later my yellow lab and my rusty is doing the same thing.

there all rubbing on objects...

i moved them from the other fish..

i am thing flukes but have no idea the all eat great. no gasping nothing else

its a 55 gallon tank i have been slacking on water changes. nitrates are 10 to 20 everthing else is 0

temp 78 to 80 ph 8

help


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

whats ure full stocking and size of the tank?......Do a water change...u cant slack thats when things can go terribly wrong.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

3 Labidochromis caeruleus "Yellow Lab"
2 Iodotropheus sprengerae "Rusty"
1 Cyrtocara moorii "Blue Dolphin"
1 Placidochromis electra "Deep Water Hap"
1 Sciaenochromis fryeri "Electric Blue Hap"
1 Protomelas taeniolatus "Red Empress"
1 Dimidiochromis compressiceps "Malawi Eye Biter"
1 Aulonocara baenschi Malari island "Benga Peacock"
1 Aulonocara jacobfreibergi Eureka "Eureka Peacock"
2 Nimbochromis venustus "Giraffe Cichlid"
1 trout cichlid
1 tawinee reef

so 15 fish in a 55 gal i just did a water change


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

well due to ure stocking one of the possibilities is that the mbuna are stressing the peacocks or being territorial......alot of the fish u have picked will outgrow that 55G tank including the 1 Cyrtocara moorii "Blue Dolphin", 1 Dimidiochromis compressiceps "Malawi Eye Biter" , 2 Nimbochromis venustus "Giraffe Cichlid" and maybe a few of the other peacocks im not too familiar whith the ones u have.....i think this may be a sign of problems to come due to stocking and tank size or the lack of proper routine water changes....keep looking for any other signs of illness or stress....and i would consider a different stocking list for the near future.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

While I agree that your stocking for this tank isn't the best, that's not what is causing the twitching.

I take it you added the new peacock without quarantine?

It does sound parasitic, and if you aren't seeing anything externally, it may be gill flukes, probably introduced by the new peacock. They are very difficult to get rid of.

I would do a large water change and substrate vacuuming (nitrates not that bad until they start to go over 20) and treat the tank with a med that contains praziquantel - continue treatment along with frequent water changes for one full month, regardless of what the directions say.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

cichlidaholic said:


> While I agree that your stocking for this tank isn't the best, that's not what is causing the twitching.
> 
> I take it you added the new peacock without quarantine?
> 
> ...


I was hoping you would input.

no i did not quarantine

ok i put 3 of the sick ones in my quaratine and threated them with quick cure.. its the second day now.

i call the petstore and they have a 4ox bottel of the stuff hikary makes so i will go get that.

but i thought praziquantel does not help with internal and external parasites???

thansk for the help Guys


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

i picked up clout idk maby i should return it and get the other stuff???

i dont feel like killing my bacteria and making my silicone blue


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Praziquantel seems to work really well for gill flukes.

Any redness in the gill area? Is the flashing focused on the gill area?

Are you seeing any salt like spots on the body of the fish?

I would try to find some PraziPro, or Jungle Parasite Clear. If this is gill flukes, you're really, really going to need to treat the main tank.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

cichlidaholic said:


> Is the flashing focused on the gill area?


can u elaborate on that. Do u mean the gills are pushed out? extruding from the body?
If so then yes.

there is no white spots its not ich i had that before not these fish..

I have started clout its the 3rd day the fish do not seem to be getting better or worse they all want food i tryed to give them some jungle med food that i got for parasites but they would not eat it just the flavor or some ****.

should i stay with clout for a week or just switch to jungle

walmart has jungle parasite clear i am goin to try that

thanks for the reply's


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

Pics of some of the sick

clamped fins, and the gills kind of popping out










































































































the rusty, peacock, and lab are rly the only 3 showing symptoms

they shake there fins and heads mostly and rubbing on stuff idk help


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

u cant tell much by the pics....i cant anyways....have u started treatment?


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

By "flashing" I mean rubbing against the substrate or objects in the tank.

I can't really tell much from the pics. Usually with gill flukes there will be some irritation in the gill area - redness...Not always, though, and not necessarily early.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

ok i feel that the problem is only in the early stages....

yea i have been treating for 3 days now

I have a question is it ok to treat clout, jugle parasite clear and quick cure all at the same time??

i am currently treat with clout and quick cure.

i would also like to treat with jungle is it safe to mix all of them

btw its all at full strength is that to harsh on the fish after i mixed quick cure and clout the all

start flashing alot!!!

thanks


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

ok i have started to treat with JPC like u said.

its only been one day but i did a duble dose

i think its some sort of external parasite flukes, lice etc some thing that i can not see!!

should i treat with clout and quick cure aswell???


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Don't overload the tank with meds...

Use one at a time, and see what kind of progress you make. IMO, Clout is a bit harsh if you can use something else.

JPC has metronidazole and praziquantel in it, so it's pretty good stuff when you don't really know what you're up against.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

ok jpc its is then

i was looking over my fish and my large rusty has a white spot on it looks like ich but its just the one fish

i will post a pic tonight. i looks like a external parisite i think


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

You're going to see more than one white spot with ich. :wink:

Keep an eye on things. It may be that the twitching was an early indicator of something else.


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

thanks

will do ill report back in a couple days.

thanks for all the help


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## Brandrcm (Feb 25, 2008)

I was thinking I had something similar in my tank after adding some new fish. The fish would flash and scrape focusing on their cheeks. I added jungle parasite clear at its directed dose and I've seen improvement. I also used medicated food. The yellow lab in the photo looked like mine did when it was stressed. It turns black and looks like it was rolling around in the mud.

I'm never a fan of medications, I only used JPC due to the fact that increased heat and salt did not seem to work. If it were me I would not mix medications from multiple manufacturers, but that is just my beliefs.


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## BRANT13 (Feb 18, 2009)

and good belief to go by IMO overloading with meds may cause more problems than good


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

yea i am just going to stick to jpc.,,

there has been a vast improvement....

but it has not been eradicated

will up date in a week

thanks


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## Malawi King (Apr 10, 2009)

update....

i have 2 tanks one has been getting JPC and the other Quick cure

all the fish have clamped fins and are flashing, and twitching head some of the fish have gotten a pimple white like ich but just one and i about three days it popped they have all had it at different times.

my hap has one on his fin right now large and white i will post a pic tonight..

nothing seems to be working well...

help


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