Sick gold severum

Question
For about a week now my 7 year old severum has been ailing. Goldie is listless, not eating even his favorite treats, has a whitish film on both eyes. I originally thought that this white slimey stuff I found on the strainer to my canister filter was sloughed off skin but it turns out that it is fecal matter. His abdomen looks a little bloated, also. Goldie lives in a 46 gallon bow front tank with a pleco, two loaches and a jeweled cichlid (all of which have lived in harmony for about 5 years). I filter with a magnum 350 canister filter attached to an 8 watt UV sterilizer, an undergravel filter that has one tube on an air pump and another tube with a penguin 550 power head. All the other fish seem fine. Can you give me an idea of what the problem is and how to make him feel better?  

Answer
Dear Marilyn,
Sorry about your severum.  Have you recently checked your water parameters?  Sometiimes with an undergravel filter waste can get trapped and become toxic to fish.  I know your other fish are not sick but sometimes one will be a little weaker or stressed and become sick.  Check your water and make sure you are doing frequent water changes and that your substrate is clean.  Be sure to use a really good water conditioner that helps eliminate ammonia, nitrite and nitrates.  Some conditioners don't do that--they only neutralize chlorine and chloramine.  It is possible that Goldie has a bacterial infection or possibly some type of fungus infection.  If so she would need some type of medication.  Your local fish store will have various brands of medication to treat this.  Choose the one that you feel fits the description of how your fish looks and acts.  Sometimes, fish will improve without any medication just by frequent large water changes and cleaning filters and gravel.  What I mean by cleaning is either rinsing the filter in aquarium water or replacing filters that are too dirty to clean. Vacuuming the gravel to remove any possible waste and if the undergravel filter is causing waste to be trapped under it you may need to remove the under gravel filter and just vacuum the gravel regulary and only use your canister filter for filtration. It is possible that your fish are producing more waste than you realize and for some reason Goldie is suffering from it. Check your water quality and be sure to do a large water change--if you can't do a fairly large water change then vacuum really well and do several smaller water changes over the next few days to see if things improve. If it has been quite a while since you have cleaned the gravel and done a water change it would be better to do several small water changes so the ph won't change too quickly.  I am one that likes to do alot of water changes just to try to prevent any problems with my fish. I know Goldie is a beautiful fish and is probably large. I have a severum that is huge.  They do produce alot of waste and hopefully with checking your water and water changes Goldie will improve without medication.  If not here is a website that list different illnesses and some of the brands of medication to treat them with. I hope this will help. http://badmanstropicalfish.com/medication.html Best of luck with Goldie!
Karen