Neon rainbowfish mouths

Noticed a few of my rainbows have tiny white spec's on their lips. Is this normal?

Acting and eating normal and water readings all coming out fine.

It's quite common on new rainbowfish who bump into the glass and other objects in the tank. Monitor the fish and if it spreads to the top lip quickly (within 24-48 Hours), then it is probably Columnaris. But at this stage there is nothing major to worry about.

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Make sure you have a picture on the back of the tank. Let algae grow on the sides of the tank so the fish know something is there. Have floating plants like Duckweed in the tank to give them something to eat and provide some protection from the light.

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Add some salt to the tank. You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

Thanks Colin,

Sorry just to make sure, am i to add salt to the tank to help now or if it gets worst in the next 24-48 hrs? I have some corys in the tank with them so i will have to dose lightly if so.

Back ground come with tank (its like a thin blue form) ive planted some corkscrew vallis to help cover this up. I have some frogbit on the surface to help protect from light.

Add the salt now. Use 1-2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons). Keep the salt in the water for 2 weeks.

Rainbowfish need plant matter in their diet and frogbit is a bit big for them. Duckweed is smaller and easier for them to eat.

If you don't want to grow Duckweed, then feed the fish a vege flake or goldfish flake, both of which have more plant matter in than normal tropical fish food.

Colin_T said:

Add the salt now. Use 1-2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons). Keep the salt in the water for 2 weeks.

Rainbowfish need plant matter in their diet and frogbit is a bit big for them. Duckweed is smaller and easier for them to eat.

If you don't want to grow Duckweed, then feed the fish a vege flake or goldfish flake, both of which have more plant matter in than normal tropical fish food.

Click to expand...

Thank you

Colin_T said:

Add the salt now. Use 1-2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres (5 gallons). Keep the salt in the water for 2 weeks.

Rainbowfish need plant matter in their diet and frogbit is a bit big for them. Duckweed is smaller and easier for them to eat.

If you don't want to grow Duckweed, then feed the fish a vege flake or goldfish flake, both of which have more plant matter in than normal tropical fish food.

Click to expand...

Sorry Colin,

1 more thing before i add the salt...will my zebra snails be ok with the salt water?

The salt levels I put down are fine for snails, shrimp, corydoras, eels, tetras, discus, and every other freshwater fish.

Hi Colin,
Sorry to bother you

Just feed my rainbows some frozen bloodworms. (not alot) One just flipped upside and lost all motion of movement and sunk to the bottom of the tank?

Any ideas

It's either had a stroke, heart attack or fit. Protozoan or bacterial infections in the brain can cause it too.

Give the fish a couple of hours and if it's not swimming around normally, euthanise it.

Check your water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Rainbows are more prone to freaking out in acid water (pH below 7.0), or if there is ammonia or nitrite in the water.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate if you haven't done one in the last week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
Add salt to the new water.

Did a water change 3 days ago and clean filter. water quality also all come out fine with ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc. Ill check this again now.

Im dosing the water with salt at the moment so if i did another big water change could i put more salt in? Only put some in yestetday?

Think hes already gone. Not moving at all.

Just swam upside down then to the ground head point downwards with tail in the air. Wasnt sure if it was bladder disease


Edit: results of water quality all good. 0 nitrite 0 ammonia nitrate 5-10ppm ph 7.4

Colin_T said:

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that.

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Hi Colin, had salt in tank for nearly 2 weeks now and happy with the rainbows progress.

Was wondering if i could remove the salt from water by doing bigger water changes instead of small amounts each day?

Cheers

Try to do small water changes for at least the first week. If you remove too much salt water and replace it with fresh water suddenly, the fish can have problems with the salt levels in their body and die. It sounds worse than it is and most fish don't die but it can mess them up. So 10-20% for the first week then bigger water changes after that. But don't do a 50% water change or anything like that until you have done at least 10 smaller water changes.

Colin_T said:

Try to do small water changes for at least the first week. If you remove too much salt water and replace it with fresh water suddenly, the fish can have problems with the salt levels in their body and die. It sounds worse than it is and most fish don't die but it can mess them up. So 10-20% for the first week then bigger water changes after that. But don't do a 50% water change or anything like that until you have done at least 10 smaller water changes.

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Okey dokey...understood!

Thanks for your help Colin