unknown sores/holes ??? HELP

hi everyone some of my larger bristlenose have holes/sores on them .... its not just in one tank either .... ive checked all water conditions but there all fine so its got me worried ..... heres a pics to help



any help would be great ... the are 6 adult bn in the tank thats 48x12x18 and 3 albino corys and 1 sucking loach

It looks like some kind of bacterial infection to me I would treat it with something like eSHa 2000 or myxazin and hope you've caught it early enough.

where would i find eSHa 2000 or myxazin as never even heard of them before ?

Most good LFS should stock them, there is also ebay but you need them ASAP.

Product Info for eSHa 2000 and Myxazin .

If you can't get hold of them two then look for a medicine that is a broad spectrum bactericide.

There are some posts HERE about which meds people use.

thanks as all ive got is king british profesional fungus and fin rot treatment ... thats anything close to those 2 treatments you mentioned
i get paid tomorrow so will have to try n get some sent to me asap

Melafix but i would go for ESHA 2000...if you can get hold of it....but as jim says you need to do this a.s.a.p....doesnt look good atol mate good luck with them....

Melafix is more for prevention, i.e. if you see a scratch on a fish you add melafix and/or pimafix to prevent infection. This looks to be a full blown infection and needs treatment. Any of the medications mentioned before would be excellent. Although as mentioned before asap is the key here!

cheers guys ive now got hold of some Melafix from lfs but couldnt find the ESHA 2000 anywhere localy ... only there test strips so ..... water changes and treatments today to get this sorted .... thanks for the advice and will keep upto date on how there getting on

Good news, I hope they respond well to the treatment.

Would wonder what exactly the sucking loach is mentioned in original post. Could it possibly be Chinese algae eater?
Not a very nice fish by most accounts and could possibly inflict such wounds.
In absence of antibacterial med,I might consider twice weekly water changes of 50 percent for a few weeks to help with healing and removal of excess organics.
Maracyn,Maracyn ll would be my choice for medication.

yes it is a Chinese algae eater ... he maybe the problem then .... i fort it wierd that it has only effected one pair in that tank

i know algae eaters can be dominant and territorial but I have three tanks with one in each and non have done this to any of my breeding pair
in the tanks. You know it may be strange but there seems to be alot of people about the forums having Bristlenose with sores and ulcers lately...

hope mine never get any thing like this

good luck Peter...

peterclarke666 wrote:

yes it is a Chinese algae eater ... he maybe the problem then .... i fort it wierd that it has only effected one pair in that tank

Might remove the Chinese algae eater and along with water changes, the fish may heal in a couple weeks time without meds.
Chinese algae eater's are poor alage eater's as they mature, and once they develop a taste for the slime coating of fishes ,they can be more trouble than they are worth.
Many report similar problems with this fish and it's propensity for harrasing other fishes .

1077 wrote:

Would wonder what exactly the sucking loach is mentioned in original post. Could it possibly be Chinese algae eater?
Not a very nice fish by most accounts and could possibly inflict such wounds.
In absence of antibacterial med,I might consider twice weekly water changes of 50 percent for a few weeks to help with healing and removal of excess organics.
Maracyn,Maracyn ll would be my choice for medication.

The algae eater was mine and lived without causing any problems with other fish, also from first post the affected fish aren't just in one tank so doubt this is the cause.Do you irrigate the sand to stop it compacting and becoming a breeding ground for bacteria? Have the fish been moved about recently? How about what swaps you've done lately,could they have passed anything on when you got 'new' fish? I wish you luck Peter, keep us informed,Yvette

hardly much sand in the tank to compact tbh yvette ... happening in my main tank aswel and thats got uv sterilizer onit ... so would kill all bacteria .... but not sure about swaps as ... mainly been getting rid of the fish i did have ... but other than that the browns havnt been moved atal since i got them and in main tank those lot have been in there since before i got the discus ..... but theres been no new fish in main tank

these look like they have bacterial problems you need to treat immediately and plenty of water changes im suprised they are still alive the mess they are in it could be your uv your running or sand compacting causing flatspots and high nitrates poisoning your fish plenty of tlc treatment and lots of good water changes then if very lucky they may survive but i very much doubt it mate.

you just told him you think his fish is going to die and then put two smiley faces after it...

well ive had my water tested thats spot on .... uv is on different tank to these and about 1/4 inch of sand if that in with this pair ... which is freely spred about by the 3 pairs in the tank and corys ..... but treating atm .... done water change today aswel 50% so fingers crossed

sorry peter and doug i hit wrong emoticons sorry guys never ment to upset anyone just trying to help .

Peter, can you think of ANYTHING you'fve done differently in the affected tanks at all? It may be so simple/minor that you don't even realise you did it! lol. It seems strange to happen in more than one tank with no cross over of fish, I'm really sorry I cannot think what else it can be.You only have bn in with the discus don't you, and discus wouldn't 'attack' bn.Has the algae eater been in there?

Yvette wrote:

Peter, can you think of ANYTHING you'fve done differently in the affected tanks at all? It may be so simple/minor that you don't even realise you did it! lol. It seems strange to happen in more than one tank with no cross over of fish, I'm really sorry I cannot think what else it can be.You only have bn in with the discus don't you, and discus wouldn't 'attack' bn.Has the algae eater been in there?

no algae eaters only been in 4x1x18 as thats where i had the hair algae .... but no not realy done much apart from catching fish for those who brought them

That's a crying shame - how are they doing today? Just another thought, did all the bn with the sores come from the same source? If so, maybe the problem was there before you had them? I'm grasping at straws here trying to think of a reason for it, which would help avoid it happening again. How many tanks are affected? First thing you do when you move is to get a Q tank set up

well trying to get rid of 200 jaguar cichlids so i can then have the q tank ... proving difficult ... but no all of my bn i get from different localtions to keep the blood lines strong ... but is only the 2 tank effected .... all other fish are perfect even discus ... which i wouldve fort if there was something wrong they would be effected 1st

have you being running any meds? If you have nothing else i would be dosing the tank with the melafix and full dose. its not really powerful enough to harm the fish but might at least slow down the infection.

If not you really need to get some more powerful meds. even if you get them online and pay for some fater shipment.

Yvette wrote:

1077 wrote:

Would wonder what exactly the sucking loach is mentioned in original post. Could it possibly be Chinese algae eater?
Not a very nice fish by most accounts and could possibly inflict such wounds.
In absence of antibacterial med,I might consider twice weekly water changes of 50 percent for a few weeks to help with healing and removal of excess organics.
Maracyn,Maracyn ll would be my choice for medication.

The algae eater was mine and lived without causing any problems with other fish, also from first post the affected fish aren't just in one tank so doubt this is the cause.Do you irrigate the sand to stop it compacting and becoming a breeding ground for bacteria? Have the fish been moved about recently? How about what swaps you've done lately,could they have passed anything on when you got 'new' fish? I wish you luck Peter, keep us informed,Yvette

Oops,I completely missed that problem was not confined to one tank , my apologies. As for the chinese algae eater's ,, the fact that they are capable of causing such damage would be enough reason for me to remove this possible threat to my other fishes.Can't GIVE these fish away in my neck of the woods, and forums are littered with post's reporting problems with this fish.
Hope treatmet and water changes help, and might consider lowering the temp a bit to slow progression of possible bacterial pathogen.
Might take care to rinse any veggies offered lest residual from pesticides still remain on skin of said veggies.(any new foods offered lately?)
If it were just one tank, I might consider removing fish and let the tank run without fish for a couple weeks. Many parasites ,bacterial pathogens, can't survive more than a week or two without a host fish to infect.
Hope things turn around.