Oto not looking so hot

[Laughncat]

Hi all,

It appears the newest addition to my trio of fish tanks has taken ill. As this is the first time I've actually had to deal with a health issue concerning my fish, I'm highly concerned.

Anyway, the problem lies with the otocinculas (spelling?) that I got about a month ago. It currently resides in a five gallon tank with two yellow guppies (1 male, 1 female). The PH in the tank crashed recently, but I used some PH buffer to get it back up and overall the tank is running at about 7.5 PH. Today when I was checking on the fish, I noticed that the oto which ws hanging peaceful from the fron glass was looking lopsided. Upon closer inspection, I could see a red spot on it's left side with a slightly fuzzy greenish lump next to the spot. The left fin also looks a little funky like it's stuck out at an angle. The red spot kind looks like a gash, but the little guy is so small and he got shy on me so I didn't get as good a look as I would like. The fuzzy lump part next to it doesn't look like ich to me because it seems to be the wrong color and I don't see any of the tell-tell white spots on the oto. Granted I'm new to the hobby and haven't actually experianced an outbreak of ich in my tansk, but I've seen it more then a few times in some of my LFS

I really concerned about the little guy and I don't really know what to do. If it's a gash, it could be possible that one of the guppies had a run at him, but I just don't really see that happening. My guppies are peaceful gluttons, not fighters. I don't really know what to do. I don't have a tank available to quarantine him in. I could move the guppies to another tank, but I'm worried that they may have something if it turns out to be a disease of some sort. I've got a spare bare tank available, but no filter or anything to go with it. The best I could do is hook an air pump up and drop an airstone in it too the water to help aerate the tank

I wish I could post a picture, but I don't have a camera available to me. My roomate might have one, but I think it's pitiful quality...

 

[Laughncat]

Although, know one has had a chance to reply, I wanted to add an update.

The red spot on the oto looks worse and and the fuzz seems even more pronounced. It's like the poor things flesh is just come loose or something.

I was reading in the other forum about common fish diseases and I was wondering it this sounds like it might be be a fungal infection? If so what can I do? I don't have any medicine on hand, and I literally won't have any free time till tomorrow at the earliest if I need to get medicine (Just got home from work, have to get some sleep before I go to work at my part time job and then head to my full time job from there). I feel terrible not being able to do soemthing...

Also if it is a fungal infection, would it be safe to move the guppies to a nearby tank that's housing to celebese or should I just leave them with oto? I don't want my guppies to get ill too. They were the first fish I ever bought at the same time I don't want to spread contagion to healthy fish...

I'll check back in a bought an hour to see if I got any replies before I go to sleep. Hopefully someone will have some advice for me

 

[Debo]

I would treat the otto along woith the guppies for fungus. I have had good luck with Melafix. I did have a cory about 2 months sgo that has a funny looking fuzzy thing that started to trun reddish. I treated him for 3-4 weeks and he didn't get any better. I ended up having to put him down. I felt so bad for him. he was really cute.
Good luck.
Deb

 

[Laughncat]

*sniff*

Poor little bugger. Poor, poor little bugger.

When I got up around three in the afternoon, the poor little otto was floating at the top, dead as a door nail.

*sniff*

I feel like such a bad parent. I fished (no pun) his body out of the tank and disposed of it. I'm going to go to the LFS on Monday and talk with the lady who runs the fish department. She has been exceedingly helpful in the past and perhaps she can help me take the proper precautions to avoid this in the future.

I still can't beleive how quickly this destroyed my oto. First sign I had that anything was wrong was late Friday night and the fish was knocking on death's door by 9 saturday morning (actually admittance occurred a few hours later apparently)

For my fish to have passed on this quickly, I don't know if even having the right medicine on hand would have saved it in time....