I think it's velvet...help please

[Torrean]

My girls tank is not doing so well. Her pictus died this morning and her gold danios are very lethargic (a very bad sign) I think it's velvet but I'm not sure. Take a look at these pics and see what you think.

Oh and the blue gourami has a spot on his forehead.

Notice the red gill. The fact that I could get a pic of him so easily is a very bad sign.

Hard to see but he wasn't willing to pose for a better shot

Best pic I could get. Do you see the gold flecks behind his gills. And his cloudy eyes. I didn't get a chance to look at him before he died but she said his eyes were cloudy last night.

Another shot of pictus.

Please help I don't want her to lose that danios, she really loves them. Pictus was her favorite fish so she's not too happy right now.

EDIT: sorry I forgot the rules of emergencies forum. I'll post all that stuff in just a minute.

edit edit: 1. AMMO=0 nI=0 nA=50 (I did a water change today so should be lower) PH 6.3 (I know it's low I'm working on raising it with water changes (I started out with 100% distilled water, I know I know...now)
2. The danios are sitting at the top or bottom of the tank, not swimming much. Pictus was very lethargic too. He tipped on his side once last night and my girl found him this morning. Blue gourami is acting very normal.
3. I do water changes once every two weeks 25%
4. I only add stress coat and I used melafix about a month ago because the sharks had fin rot.
5. check my profile for tank mates. I'll be removing at least three of the sharks because they are starting to show a lot of aggression and I will not be able to rehome them soon enough to prevent major problems.

 

[fishwatcher]

Let me warn you first off that I'm not a long-time tank keeper, so this is just my opinions/things that happened to me.
I don't know about the cloudy eyes, but I had a few fish with red gills and they ended up having gill flukes. I treated with meds and it cleared up fine. I used Parasite Clear fizzy tabs by Jungle.
Also, how quickly has your ph changed? Maybe it's changing too quick and they're going into shock. I had a problem with that one time bc I have soft water and added an airstone. The extra sir caused the ph to jump up way to quick. After a few water changes and turning off the airstone though it all straightened out. I would just a few small water changes throughout the next few days and hopefully that will help.
I hope this helps!

 

[daudy_dojo]

pictud catfish are the worst! they always get sick.. i stoped keeping them cause of them! they require some good water!

 

[Torrean]

I do 25% water changes bi weekly with 7.5 water. I take out 1/4 of the water and add the new water over several hours. This is similair to the acclimation method used when transporting fish so I don't think a ph jump is the problem. It just so happens that I have some of the jungle parasite tabs. What will happen if I add the jungle tabs and the fish aren't infested in the first place. will it have an adverse reaction?

BTW I have 2 airstones going full blast and my ph is still really low.

 

[Squishiebabe]

I've used the tabs before, and they were okay.
I just suspected bacterial infection, because one died from it, and they showed no symptoms, but i still gave it anyway, just to be sure. Nothing really happened, the water got a tad cloudy white, but its really hot lately, and it cleared up by the next morning. I would give one a try, my guppies didnt show any effects at all.

 

[fishwatcher]

There were only 2 of my fish that were sick, and the others were perfectly fine after I gave the meds. No side-effects. Even the cory cats were ok.
Good luck!

Edit: Also, Fungus Clear tabs will help with the cloudy eyes and velvet (if it is that). You can also use both meds together. (I emailed the company once before and made sure.)

 

[Kerryk]

Hi Torrean, I don't really know much about velvet, though the gourami's white spot looks like a small cut. I had a snake skin gourami that constantly banged his head on rocks and on the feeding ring, and they healed quickly (they seem to be twitchy fish) just keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't get infected stress coat or water conditioner with aloe in it seems to help as well. Good Luck!!

 

[Torrean]

Thanks very much guys. I got some parasite fizz stuff today. I forgot but I gave the remainder of my package to my sis so I got some more. I will get the fungus clear too. I hope they pull through. My GF says thanks aswell..

BTW we have maracide by mardel. It's supposed to treat velvet. Anybody know anything about it?

 

[Torrean]

I have looked into parasite clear and fungus clear and now own both. Parasite clear says that it clears velvet and flukes. How will the fungus clear help with the velvet? I'm just going to use the parasite clear until I can get a few more opinions on this.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

Velvet is a lot like ich, Maracide is good for treating both. I don't know about the parasite clear that you got. I am using Nox-Ich right now to treat velvet on my angel. I am on day 6 of treatment(the bottle said 3 days but I never listen). It seems to be working.

EDIT: I don't know if what you are battling is velvet, I can't tell from the pics, but one of my gold danios started to look like that one day. He was frantically swimming in laps around the top of my tank. I looked closely at him and it appeared his mouth was stuck open. I decided to put him out of his misery. Right after that columnaris broke out in that same tank. I don't know if the two are related.

 

[Torrean]

I have maracide. I'd use it except I think the danio has gill flukes and I don't know if maracide can take care of flukes. Anybody know? And what about the fungus clear? What was that supposed to be used for cause I have some if it is really needed. Tommorrow I'm going to go to my gf's and pull her carbon and throw in the parasite clear unless I get a couple people advising me otherwise. Hopefully things will clear up after that.

EDIT: my danios are doing the complete oposite, They are very lethargic and one died this morning.

 

[reg2k2]

I wouldn't medicate at this point.

I would go along w/ the water changes, bringing the tank more in line w/ the tap.
Given the water the fish started in, I wouldn't be surprised if the pH was experiencing some fluc's....and I don't think I'd be surprised if it had an effect on the gills.

Focus on bringing the water back....then see how the fish are doing, and whether you think they might be afflicted w/ something else.

jmo

 

[fishwatcher]

The Fungus Clear I suggested for the cloudy eyes... it says it will heal/cure that.
I think maybe you should re-test again, and be sure your ph is still ok (along with the other water params). Also, what kind of test kit do you use? I used to have to test strips, and thought they worked just great. Then I bought a liquid master kit ( I ran out and that's all they had), and I found out the strips actually were not so accurate. Just about everything was different, not much, but enough to make a difference. Anyway, you might want to test again to be sure.

 

[Torrean]

I use the liquid test kits. I have been trying for three months to bring the PH to a reasonable level. I put in the parasite clear and if I see any more cloudy eyes i will use the fungus clear on saturday. I will be doing a water change on saturday, and probably another on monday, so my PH should be more reasonable with all the water changes that go along with the medication. I lost another Danio today. I looked at some pics of velvet and I'm pretty sure that's what pictus had. One of the danios' that died had what looked like a bit of it too. It's hard to tell with there natural coloration though.

Thanks reg2k but I've already started with the medication. I think I'll follow through with that and then concentrate on the PH. It is too low. I tested it again and it was down to 6 (as low as it goes). I think I may add a few seashells to increase the buffering capacity of the water.

 

[reg2k2]

Suggest testing the KH...tap as well as tank. This way you'll be able to see what effect the shells are having.
If the tap reads low itself, water changes alone, w/out added buffering, may only lead to more bounce.
If however, the KH in tap is where it should be, I'd be curious as to why a difference in tank.

Hope they're doing well?