Please Help

[Murk&Harry]

Hi, sorry to always be on here begging for help but my Ryukin has taken a turn for the worse.

Previously I thought I'd successfully treated him for an infection on his mouth but yesterday and today his scales seems a touch pronounced and I'm really scared it could be dropsey.

He and another Ryukin share a 90 litre tank with underwater filtration, I don't clean it as such but rinse off excess gunk in old tank water every other week and change the filter pads one at a time every month or so. I do at least 30 litre water changes weekly, sometimes a 45 litre change, I changed their water yesterday. Amonia is 0, Nitrite 0 and Nitrate is somewhere between 0 and 12.5 (hard to tell on chart), ph is higher than 7.5 but below 8 (again hard to tell on chart). I condition the water with easy-life fluid filter medium and I have been keeping the tank at 2% concentration of aquarium salt for the last two weeks to help Murk recover from his mouth infection and to minimise stress due to a house move last week. I treated him with Myxazin for a 5 day course which ended last Sunday and I began filtering the water using Carbon yesterday after the water change. I thought he began to look a bit strange yesterday but not very noticable.

He is in fine spirits, lively and hungrey and 'playing' with his tank mate, he looks completely normal except his scales are noticable from a distance and his body looks bumpy rather than smooth.

I am aware that the tank is a little to small for the two of them, I run two filters in there to keep it as clean as possible and keep a close eye on the water. I have a 220 litre tank cycling as we speak or them to move into, but it won't be ready for a week or two I wouldn't think.

Could it be something less sinister than dropsey? I read somewhere that the sex of fish can be told by changes to their scales when they are in season, could this be the case? My boyfriend says I've been staring at him so much today that it's probably mostly imagination but even he has to admit he can see the difference. If it is dropsey can it be treated?

Thanks

 

[saph.st24]

try feeding fresh peas jut in case its a digestion problem

if not try salt but dont use any salt that has anticaking agents in them so a safe bet is getting some from your local fish shop and following the instructions


or try a revitaliser tonic

 

[Murk&Harry]

Thanks for your reply, I fed them peas last night. Being Ryukins they both suffer with their digestion from time to time so I include veg in their regular diet. This morning he might be looking a little better, it's hard to say, certainly no worse.

Does aqauarium salt count for adding salt to his tank? I was thinking of increasing the doseage in there as a precaution.

I've had another look at the pH as I was so unclear last night and it appears to be up over 8.5! Wah! How do I bring this down?! I've tested my tap water and it's around 8 so clearly related, I'm off to my aqauatics shop later but if anyone has any recommendations it would really help, finding an assistant in my local is a struggle and a half!

 

[saph.st24]

you need some ph down then also use ph stabliser
if your already using salt then you shouldnt need extra

 

[Murk&Harry]

Thanks for helping. I've begun adding some "pH Minus" and it's creeping down but REALLY slowly, however it says I shouldn't add more than two doses a day as the stress of pH changes can be as harmful as high pH.

As my tap water is generally high does this mean I'll have to treat it before doing water changes? At mylast place I didn't have any problems so this is new to me. My new tank is super high too but as it's still cycling I'm just watching it for now.

The scales definatley seem flater today thankfully so my dropsey panic is over!

 

[saph.st24]

Thanks for helping. I've begun adding some "pH Minus" and it's creeping down but REALLY slowly, however it says I shouldn't add more than two doses a day as the stress of pH changes can be as harmful as high pH.

As my tap water is generally high does this mean I'll have to treat it before doing water changes? At mylast place I didn't have any problems so this is new to me. My new tank is super high too but as it's still cycling I'm just watching it for now.

The scales definatley seem flater today thankfully so my dropsey panic is over!

no problem
sounds like youve moved to a hard water area. i have the opposite problem very soft water ,my ph crashes very quickly but its easily sorted with crushed oyster shells

yes slowly does it, slower the better,
you could add the ph minus to the new water as you add it to the tank (mix it in a bucket)
dont forget to use the ph stabliser once you have the ph down to a reasonable level addd the stabliser it will keep the ph stable for longer till the next water change anyway

keep a close eye on the ph as high ph can make ammonia more toxic

 

[Murk&Harry]

Thank you, you've been a big help