venustus emergency

Question
hi,
i went away for a few days for new years and i have come back to a very sick venustus.
he has a lot of excess slime(?) hanging from him, and very large spots of this on his cheeks and hanging from his fins.
i am not sure what to do, he also seems to be having problems staying at the bottom of the tank, and floating back up to the surface tail first.
i have cleaned the gravel and done a semi water change a few hours ago - the spots seem to be bigger, but there is more colour coming back through now - but he's still having problems swimming - i am really worried about him, he is my favorite fish and i will do whatever i can to save him!
although i am not sure he is going to make it through the night to get medication - is there anything i can do to help him in the meantime?!

please help me.

Answer
Hi Angela;

Did someone feed your fish while you were gone? If so, they may have overfed and polluted the tank as well as causing constipation. Keep changing the water, 25% daily as long as he is sick, and don't feed him at all for a couple of days. Try feeding cooked, peeled peas after that and hopefully his gut will clear and he will be swimming properly again.

Does the filter seem to be working okay? If it has slowed down in flow it may have caused toxins to rise. I would test the water right away for the presence of ammonia and nitrites. If either are high, change 25% of the water every day until they go down and stay down.

If there are no toxins present in the water and he wasn't overfed I would suspect parasites. Here is a link to info about Chilodonella;

http://tinyurl.com/2d9qoj

Or, it could be Costia or Hexamita;

http://tinyurl.com/2d9qoj

Check those out and see what you think. I hope he feels better soon...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins