Oh no, one platy down, another not looking good.

[Talisman]

Ok we got some extra fish on thursday, 6 neons, 2 silver sharks 1 spotted bulldog plec and two apple snails.

when we got home 1 neon looked grim, and prompty died the next day. all else looked good. the apple snails ate 5 plants and so we took them back, swapped for 2 more neons, (and as one died straight away the LFS guy replaced it) bringing them up to 8.

yesterday a platy look miserable, it had no tell tail signs apart from not using one fin much so i bagged it straight away ( i have to emergency/hospital tank). it was dead this morning.

just came home and another platy was at the top of the tank but had a bit of a white mouth, doesnt look like a fungus just looks white. so ive bagged him and added one drop of a fugus treatment (one drop per ltr it says).

all the other fish look good (so did this guy yesterday) levels have been real good lately to. ammonia 0 nitrIte 0 and nitrAte between 12 mg/l and 25mg/l (its 25mg/l fresh from the tap).

any suggestions please!!

 

[babyfish]

You can't put a sick fish in a bag with medication and expect it to live. The fish probably died of oxygen deprivation as wel as hypothermia.

Medications will cut down the amount of oxygen in water and a bag will only hold enough to keep the fish alive for about 2-3 hours.

You really need to invest in a small tank for hospital/quarantine purposes.

In an emergency even a bucket with a heater and airstone will do as a hospital tank.
The airstone is important to keep the water oxygenated.

 

[Talisman]

bummer, was gonna just keep changing the water.


ok ive noticed that one on my danios keep rubbing against rocks and leaves which cant be good and......

do they have little like barbels, coz im sure one minute i saw a fine barbel type thing either side of its mouth, equal lenght going down and backwards, then when i look harder cant see anything.

im starting to worry now.

 

[babyfish]

Flashing against rocks is a sign of bad water or parasite infection....may well be ich, easily passed from fish to fish....check it carefully to see if it has whitespots about the size of a grain of salt on it's body.

no point in removing the fish from your tank now as all other fish will have been exposed to whatever's attacking your danio.
If you do notice whitespots start to slowly raise the water temperature to about 80 deg....this will help to speed up the lifecycle of the ich. You will need to treat with a medication to kill the parasite.

Not certain about the barbels on a danio...never kept them myself.... maybe it had just picked up a very fine piece of root and was deciding whether it was edible.

 

[Talisman]

i dont think its ick. (the fish in the bag is still in the tank (just floating the bag) but yes i agree ive just put it back.

now im thinking its a fugus infection as i just seen a neon with a bit of white on its top lip too, yet the danios show no sign of it. maybe that barbel type thing is gill flukes

oh i dont know im panicing now. im hoping my ick/fungus treatment would do gill flukes too, coz if so whatever is in the tank this should help.

 

[babyfish]

If it was gill flukes then the fish would be gasping for air..... don't add medication to a tank until you know exactly what you are treating. You can do the fish far more harm than good.

If it is fungus it will have a cotton wool look to it.....until you get medication for the fungus simply do a water change, around 30%.
Fungal spores are in every tank....usually the fish are healthy enough to resist infection... however new fish are already stressed anyway so tend to be more susceptible.

Do the water change and then sit back and look at your fish to make sure they have got fungus/and /or whitespot

 

[WILDER]

Mouth fungus is columnaris, and you will need to treat the tank with anti internal bacteria med and add some salt, also the desease hates salt so maybe I would advise a salt bath.

 

[Talisman]

thanks babyfish, i have medication (protozin) for fungus/whitespot/velvet etc etc

and one (myxazin) for fin rot ulcers, other bacterial infections.

ive turned the temp up and just checked my levels again.

ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrAte 12.5 - 25 mg/l.

the platy lookin bad doesnt appear to be able to open its mouth and the scales are coming away around its mouth and it appears white. doesnt look cottony though, just off colour towards white, the neon again looks like it has a bit of white on its top lip.

i wonder it the platy had this and it had rubbed itself alot to bring the scales off and made its mouth to sore to open.

 

[Talisman]

how much salt would u put in a 260ltr tank. and is this normal salt???

ok and a salt bath ??? i take the fish out and dunk it in a salt solution, again how much??

by the way thanks for all the help so far.

 

[WILDER]

Here is a link to columnaris mouth fungus.http/www.flippersandfins.net/flexibacter.htm

 

[Talisman]

ok Wilder. Thats what it looks like on my sik platys mouth, and reading that it seems Myxazin is the one i need.

weird though i would have put in the Protozin which is the fungus cure, but that site tates the other.

ill give it a go.

 

[WILDER]

Antibiotics for columnaris, alot of people think you use a fungus med and you don't., good luck.

 

[Talisman]

Well thanks for all the advice. Ive stuck in 18ml of Myxazin. And ill do it for 5 days as it says on the bottle.

Looking at the tank now the baby platies, platies & danios are flicking against leaves and rocks (well anything really), although cant see anything wrong with the danios.

I did mention the other day on here that they had red gills and wondered if it was normal, but they were not flickin then and everyone seemed happy. this all seems to have happened since Thurs when the new fish were added.

I just hope this platy survives and the rest dont get infected (or worse if they are).

 

[WILDER]

Red gill can indicate hign nitrites, gill parasites, the gill look inflamed, gasping at the surface or breathing heavily,and flicking and rubbing against objects.

 

[Talisman]

yeah everyone else said this, but nitrites are 0, and they werent gasping at the surface or breathing rapidly, werent even flicking.

they are now though, but not gasping or rapid breathing still, just flicking