1st experience & treatment - July to August 1999
Temp: 27° C
PH: 8.0 - 8.3
KH: 8 - 10
GH: 12 - 15
NO2: 0
No3: 25 mg/l
O2:8 mg/l
After I got my first Tropheus last beginning of June 1999 from Michael Mantel, I had no problems for one month, and then the mess started. The first fish showed signs of sickness whilst hiding behind plants and did not want to eat. I moved her out into a small tank and after 3 more hours she was dead. That time I assumed that this was due to aggressive attack from the other fish of the group. As you always have 1 or 2 inside a moorii group that will be attacked I felt bad but thought that the trouble was over.
3 weeks later I went on vacation and just the last day before I left, when I had changed water I found another one dead. No sign what had happened. So with a bad feeling but sure that everything I could do was done, I left for vacation. As I came back I had lost 6-7 more moorii.
Still there was no sign of a problem such as no envy for food of the whole group or white excrements. But I decided to go for treatment, when I found the first female looking like having bloat. I went for baktopur direct from Sera bath of 1/2 hour. And then gave bactopur direct into the tank. I lost one more fish and then everything went fine.
All in all I lost around 11 Tropheus from my first purchase. I still do not know what was the reason for this tank disease, but I guess it might have been due to wrong feeding.
2nd experience & treatment - February to March 2000
Temp: 27° CPH: 8.0
KH: 7
GH: 12
NO2: 0
No3: 25 mg/l
O2:8 mg/l
As my Tropheus group hat gotten too small to sustain without aggressive attacks I decided to purchase young ones from a breeder and mix them with the current group. I purchased 18 moorii with a max. size of 5cm in November and after 5 weeks of quarantine I moved 16 of them over into my big tank. 2 had jumped out of the quarantine tank before.
In late January I could see the first young one staying away from the group and having white long excrements hanging out. I waited one more day and then gave a medication called HEXA-ex from a company called Zoomedica Frickhinger. It is said that it treats Hexamita, which seemed to be the symptoms of the disease. 2 rounds of treatment with intermediate water changes did not help and more juveniles got sick. I finally tried again with baktopur direct and it seemed to work. None of the old group was infected this time.
I have lost 10 juveniles during this disease.
Conclusion
I seems to me that whenever moving moorii into a new environment they are weakened in their immune system and very responsive to parasites and diseases. I have a group of Duboisi and since moving in no signs of any infection, keep fingers crossed.
Every time i do medical treatment, that goes along with min. of 50% water change and after 3 days of medicine treatment at lest one day of interruption with 50% water change and filtering with active coal. Then if needed treatment is continued. I also reduce lighting hours and stop feeding for the time of treatment. Al mentioned medicine is killing the filter bacteria. So I change water more frequent like 2 times a week.
Another medicine I was advised to use which I have not used yet is AQUA FURAN from Aquarium Muenster Pahlsheimer GmbH. But as I am not willing to experiment with medicine like with food, I will only try it when I am 100% sure of the disease. Otherwise I will stay with baktopur direct.
I hope I have got some rest now and the group stays in good condition.