Remember my thread on Detritus worms? It seems that there were organisms viler than detritus worms in my aquarium water. Let me take you a few weeks backwards.
Even after thoroughly cleaning my tank with potassium permanganate and rock salt, sterilizing all the filter media and treating my fish, the worms starting reappearing every week. When many of my neighbours approached me for the treatment of diarrhoea in a span of 48 hours, I grew suspicious and checked our water supply lines and was shocked to find the inlet valve compartment of my building filled with drainage water. After checking the drains, we found three compartments to be clogged up and the sewage water from these had made its way into the inlet valve compartment and through a leaky valve into the drinking water, which also happens to be the source of my aquarium water.
We got the drains cleaned up, the valves changed and the storage and loft tanks disinfected. I decided to wait for a few days before cleaning my tank, to let the chemicals pass.
I went to Bengaluru last week and then to Chennai and Pondy and thus was away for 8 days. 3 days back , my mom gave me a call regarding turbid water in the aquarium and the plecos and Adolf displaying strange behaviour. I allayed her concern and asked her to wait till I returned. I was so wrong.
I returned home yesterday evening to find a dead 14" Pleco and a lethargic Adolf, who was resting at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavily. There was a heavy milky growth on both of his pectorals and his nostrils and pectoral fin base showed obvious signs of internal bleeding. Memnoch and the other pleco seemed to be fine, except that none of them had eaten in the last 4 days. I removed the pleco, changed the water, removed the filter media and treated the water with metronidazole.
Even after thoroughly cleaning my tank with potassium permanganate and rock salt, sterilizing all the filter media and treating my fish, the worms starting reappearing every week. When many of my neighbours approached me for the treatment of diarrhoea in a span of 48 hours, I grew suspicious and checked our water supply lines and was shocked to find the inlet valve compartment of my building filled with drainage water. After checking the drains, we found three compartments to be clogged up and the sewage water from these had made its way into the inlet valve compartment and through a leaky valve into the drinking water, which also happens to be the source of my aquarium water.
We got the drains cleaned up, the valves changed and the storage and loft tanks disinfected. I decided to wait for a few days before cleaning my tank, to let the chemicals pass.
I went to Bengaluru last week and then to Chennai and Pondy and thus was away for 8 days. 3 days back , my mom gave me a call regarding turbid water in the aquarium and the plecos and Adolf displaying strange behaviour. I allayed her concern and asked her to wait till I returned. I was so wrong.
I returned home yesterday evening to find a dead 14" Pleco and a lethargic Adolf, who was resting at the bottom of the tank, breathing heavily. There was a heavy milky growth on both of his pectorals and his nostrils and pectoral fin base showed obvious signs of internal bleeding. Memnoch and the other pleco seemed to be fine, except that none of them had eaten in the last 4 days. I removed the pleco, changed the water, removed the filter media and treated the water with metronidazole.
Adolf was resting at the bottom all day and began tilting by night. There was obvious involvement of his swim bladder by way of either infection or haemorrhage. Today morning, Adolf was almost upside down, but still breathing. All this time, Memnoch was by his side like a true friend. I had a sinking feeling creep over me and felt no hope for the three of us. I had some urgent business to attend to and had to leave them in this state.
I returned at noon to find Adolf upside down, but still breathing, to my relief and memnoch trying to roll him over. From my past experience, one thing was sure - my Adolf wouldn't make it. But desperate times call for desperate measures. As I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts, there was this video on you tube of a certain Red Devil with Swim Bladder disease, who was operated upon and fitted with an external prosthetic swim bladder, cut out of styrofoam for a few weeks after which, the fish recovered. I didn't know if this would help Adolf, especially at the rate at which, the infection was progressing. But antibiotic coverage was already provided and I didn't want to wait till it was too late. "Anyway the fish seems like he won't make it, so why not give it a try". With this in mind, I went ahead and with the help of TheChannaGuy, I operated upon Adolf with all aseptic precautions and fitted a styrofoam bladder to the base of his Dorsal fin. I attached an extra piece for surface floatation as of now. Is his condition improves, this piece will be removed and only the base will be in place far a couple of weeks or so till the blocked swim bladder clears up. It took a little over 7 minutes. I wasn't able to record the procedure since our hands were full. He tolerated the procedure well. Unfortunately, I have to wait till evening to conduct a water change. Lets hope that he makes it through.
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