# Severum: experienced aquarist help with disease diagnosis



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

I just brought this gorgeous gold severum home to my 55 gal tank 4 days ago. He/She was decently beaten up from shipping stress (frayed anal and dorsal fins, pectoral fins stubbed) but had great color and seemed alert enough. After acclimating to the tank and tank mates the severum readily accepted food. I have however noticed that although not a lot of time has passed and the other tank mates are not harassing to the severum at all, there has been no improvement in the regeneration of the fins (I take pride in maintaining high water quality) and a few days ago i noticed small punctate-like white spots on the frayed fins as well as scattered throughout the severum's head. He/she hasn't been flashing at all and is still eating readily. I was wondering if any experienced aquarists would be able to help diagnose this disease or have any suggestions about treatment.

I have a 55 gal "S. american cichlid tank" (1.5" female convicts x4, 3" JD, bristlenose pleco, synodontis cat, stripped raphael cat, giant danios x 5) and no other fish have developed frayed fins, white spots, or are flashing at all. I don't have a hospital tank and was wondering about possible detrimental effects of treating for ich (if that's what it is )in the whole aquarium (especially with a scaleless cat like my synodontis)

Thank you so much for your time and suggestions in advance!
Joe


----------



## bboyspook (Aug 14, 2009)

My JD had spots on his fins like that. I read somewhere that it was a bacterial/parasite infection. I could be wrong.. could someone give a 2nd opinion?


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

went to the LFS and the other golden severum they got in with the one I purchased has full blown Ich, looks like he's just about done. I guess i would attribute the decrease in severity of the one I took home to the increase in water quality and decrease in stress.

I guess I learned my lesson about buying fish without a quarantine/hospital tank set up. I am guessing I should treat the whole tank (55gal) for ich since he's been in there for a whole potential Ich life cycle rather than trying to isolate the severum.

Does anyone have any suggestions regarding how many teaspoons of salt/5gallons that would be safe for:

stock= Jack Dempsey, African Synodontis cat fish, convicts, pleco, raphael cat fish (and the severum)

I am going to raise the temp in the tank from 80degreesF to 86degreesF and treat with salt for like 10 days with frequent water changes.

any suggestions/comments would be much appreciated!!
thanks
Joe


----------



## rockerdude (Feb 8, 2005)

I actually just had a problem with ich and my severum seems to have a problem. I treated my whole tank with formalin and malachite green formulation. Aquarium salt and did recommended water changes. The treatments did not effect my rays or synodontis though I used 2/3 the recommended dosage. I used "quickcure"


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Joe,

If you're doing heat and salt: 
2-3 tablespoons salt/five gallons; dissolve it first and add it slowly
temp: 80-82

Just salt: 
4-5 tablespoons per five gallons

Just heat:
86

The more frequent water changes and gravel siphonings will help by removing some, (not all) of the parasites. Not a cure but it does help

And we've all erred on the side of not quarantining. Sometimes you get away with it, sometimes you don't. Luckily if caught early Ich is pretty easy to get rid of.

Good luck

Robin


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

Thanks Robin!!

My tank is at 84 right now which I think should be ok since the tank is well oxygenated and I have added a little extra surface agitation. I am slowly increasing the salt conc. (I am calculating the dose of salt for 45 gallons as an estimated compensation for substrate and decor displacement) to reach 2 Tablespoons/5gal by 48hrs-post treatment initiation. I am going to stay conservative on the salt for my synodontis cat.

The number of white cysts on the severum (pictured above) are already decreasing so hopefully the treatment will start breaking the parasite's life cycle. If this doesn't work I'll try using a half conc. chemical treatment.

I will continue the temp/salt treatment for another 7 days and post the results.

Thank you all for the advice!!


----------



## bigdaddy67 (Sep 5, 2009)

I have found that the heat needs to be at least 86f to start killing the ich. your fish can tolerate higher temps thatn 86 if you raise the temp slowly (no more than 1 deg per hr).

--DAve


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

Any specific drawbacks to raising the temp to 86 degrees in combination with salt treatment
with these types of fish?


----------



## bigdaddy67 (Sep 5, 2009)

There is no problem with using salt with heat. Just be careful when raising the temp in combination with ich medications as the meds tend to lower the oxygen level of the water. Raising the temp will also lower the oxygen level in the tank so the combination of heat and meds can be dangerous. If you use heat and salt, make sure the water has plenty of surface agitation to maximize the oxygen level.

take care,
--Dave


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

Thanks!

I am at about 2 tbsp salt/5gal and will prob. raise the temp another 2 degrees tonight to make it over the 85degC mark.


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

The normal temperature (80degF) and no salt conditions have been increased to around 86.6degF and 2tbs aquarium salt (straight NaCl)/5 gallons for around 48 hours with increased surface agitation and oxygenation.

My large Jack Dempsey is acting a bit unusual: slightly reduced appetite (accepts around half of normal feedings), and seems a bit more shy and a bit "twitchy", occasionally displaying what I would call mild spasms.

The juvenile gold severum is not showing any more signs of the characteristic white cysts indicative of the Ich feeding stage, but is occasionally swimming side ways, however unlabored (never owned a severum before...normal?).

The convicts are more or less behaving like convicts as are the giant danios.

I assume these symptoms could be attributed to mild stress associated with a combination of the increase in temperature, specific gravity, or light schedule as well as potential skin/gill irritation that might be associated with a suspected increase in Ich organisms introduced from the severum.

I am going to watching the behavior closely and continue with my 7 day treatment plan with a 3 day post treatment 40 percent partial water change (supplemented with fresh salt/water conditioners) and longer periods of dark.

Thanks,
Joe


----------



## joecellco2 (Mar 24, 2009)

My Large Jack Dempsey does NOT look good.

It has been about 5 days at 86degF and 2tbs/5gal NaCl and I did about a 35% water change 2 days ago.

Especially after the water change, my large Jack dempsey is exhibiting uncoordinated swimming, occasionally bumping into the aquarium walls and decor. He is spending most of the time resting on the subtrate with clamped, motionless fins. When he does swim around he is often jerking around twitching, roaming listlessly around the tank before before settling down on the substrate. He is now also completely unresponsive to his tank mates which he would normally kindly nudge out of the way when they invade his space. I normally feed him a mixed diet of an average of 6-8 medium sized food pellets per feeding that he readily accepts consecutively over about 2-5 min. He will now maybe accept 1 or 2 pellets (if presented directly to him) before completely ignoring them. Just last night i had also noticed just a few (maybe 3-4 total) potential white cysts on the body and dorsal fin from the Ich.

The other aquarium stock are all behaving healthily and do not show any signs of severe stress or white cysts (including the severum now).

I am really getting frustrated as I do not want to stop my temp/salt treatment b/c it is likely the Ich is still present in the tank, but I am worried I will lose my Jack Dempsey either from the treatment or the parasite.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!


----------

