Not sure what ails my precious cichlid

Question
I have what I think is a South American cichlid. We were feeding it feed for a while and it really enjoyed the stalking and feeding process. One day the fish seemed to be hiding in a cave and very sluggish, when I was used to seeing it out and ready to yell at me through the glass. I changed the lighting to a florescent and within seconds my girlfriend who got me into the fish saw worms floating and wiggling around. She said it was probably from a batch of feeders. So we started with a food called pepso because we could not see any on the body of the fish. The fish seemed to respond well to that and in a day or so was back to himself. In the mean time we treated the water. well the visible worm were gone from the water for about 2 weeks. then I noticed him in the cave again and saw the worms. this cycle went again and I finally decided to take decisive action. We had read an article about a guy with the same problem who had taken the fish out and totally drained the tank and discarded the whole contents then bleached the tank and filter. He also removed the worms from his fish with tweezers, I don't see how that is possible but I did not have any visible outer worms attached to the fish. I took a small tank figuring the fish could sit in there for a day while I cleaned his tank thoroughly. When I say small it is about .5 gallon if that. My girl said to put some coppersafe in it, but only a drop. well more then a drop spilled in. I had the gravel in the small tank already and figured I would rinse a few times and then fill it and that should be good.  well I put the fish in the tank and it flipped out. I figured it was normal and went about emptying the big tank. about 5 min later I look over and hes upsidedown but moving I freak and run him to another tank I keep an african cichlid in. put him in there he swims around real weird and settles in the corner. all the color was gone in him except the tail still had some. I call my girl and she says to dump some stress enzyme in the water. about 10 min later he has his color back and is wedging his way into a cave. I put the other cichlid in a breeder thing in his own tank to keep him away from the sickie. Ok so a day goes by the tank is cleaned and been filtering I have everything new the water temp is 80 degrees and PH is good. I get a chlorine strip from the fish girl at Petco and make sure there is no lingering chlorine. My girl treated the water with 2 tablespoons of salt, 10 Gal. Tank, a tab of tetracycline and stress enzyme. Well the poor guy is swimming upside down and looks basically like a drunk, he is struggling to swim straight or at all. I don't know what to do and am afraid I poisoned him with coppersafe or caused brain damage from lack of oxygen. Please help

Bill

Answer
Hi Bill,
  Please stop putting chemicals in the water, that isn't helping him.  

  The number one thing a fish needs is clean water.  The best way to get that is by regular partial water changes of about 20% of the tank, once a week, every week.  No amount of chemicals or filtration can replace that.  

  The little white worms you had initially would have gone away had you done a bunch of water changes.  NEVER change all the water and bleach the tank.  All that does is kill all the good bacteria, essentially making your tank a sterile box of water which is very hard on a fish.  If you feel the need to change a LOT of water, change 20% one day, then 20% the next and so on, but don't change more than 50% at once or you are going to give your fish a real shock.  
Never bleach your gravel. If you figure your gravel is that bad, then get new gravel but bleaching it is a pretty sure way to ensure that a bunch of bleach is going to linger in the tank for a good while.  And bleach kills stuff -- that's what it is designed to do.

  I'm not sure if you are feeding your fish live feeders but if you are, stop immediately.  They are probably the source of all of your problems.  Feeders carry all sorts of diseases, most commonly ick and every week I get emails from people whose cichlids are dead or dying because they fed the fish with feeder goldfish.

  Stress enzyme is not going to do much.  I never use the stuff.  It will help neutralize a little chlorine etc but you should never need it unless your water has chloramine added to it.  If you only have chlorine in your water, leave it in a bucket for 24 hours and the chlorine will evaporate and all will be fine.  

 Do not add tetracycline "just in case".  Tetracycline is a powerful antibiotic and it is easy to make the things in your tank immune to it.  Only use it when you absolutely have to.  Same goes for coppersafe.  Coppersafe is hard on fish so use it very sparingly.  

Bottom line: ease up on the chemicals, increase the water changes and your fish will be happy and healthy.  I maintain somewhere around 100+ tanks in my lab and I use chemicals maybe once a year and that's usually on a new fish that I may have gotten that is carrying something nasty.  The rest of the time, I rely on lots of water changes.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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