Rainbow fish curved back

[mmarx339]

Tap water can have a high pH because bleach/ chlorine is alkaline and water companies add things to the water to keep the pH above 7.0 to stop pipes rusting.

You can have very soft water with 0 GH and a pH above 8.

The pH has nothing to do with this issue and captive bred rainbowfish are fine in water with a pH over 8.5. Melanotaenia boesemani actually come from a lake with a high pH.

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Melanotaenia lacustris (turquoise rainbow) go dark at night time and can look black in the morning when you first turn the room light on. This is normal nocturnal colouration for the fish. Many other fish change colour when it's dark.

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The M. lacustris is sick. He has flared gills, clamped fins, excess mucous and gunk on his mouth.

This is caused by poor water quality, chemicals in the water, or external protozoan infections. The flared gills are usually caused by poor water quality or gill flukes.

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The best treatment for rainbowfish is salt.
Add 2 heaped tablespoons of rock salt, sea salt, or swimming pool salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water. Keep the salt in the tank for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks.

If there is no improvement after a couple of days with salt, increase the dose rate to 4 heaped tablespoons of salt for every 20 litres of water.

If you do water changes, add salt to the new water before adding it to the tank so the salinity (salt level) in the tank remains stable.

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Increase aeration/ surface turbulence to maximise oxygen levels in the water.

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If you have an established filter (from the 20 gallon tank), move some of the filter media into the filter on the big tank (55 gallon). This will give you a cycled filter on the big tank.

Put all the rainbowfish in the big tank and treat them with salt.

Put the female Bettas in the 20 gallon with the Corydoras and some plants.

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Rainbowfish and other fishes do better with bigger water changes. In future I would recommend doing a 75% water change and gravel cleaning the substrate once a week. Removing a large volume of water will help to dilute disease organisms more effectively and reduce the chance of disease outbreaks like this, which I reckon is an external protozoan infection and gill flukes.

Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Rainbowfish are sensitive to chemicals and chlorine/ chloramine can kill them if they are exposed to it.

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If you want rainbowfish, try to have even numbers of males (eg: 2 males, 4 males, 6 males, etc). Make sure the males are the same size to prevent bigger males bullying the smaller males.

Try to have a similar number of females to males.

Update am treating him with salt currently. Keeping him in isolation tank.

 

[mmarx339]

Update am treating him with salt currently. Keeping him in isolation tank.

Also bought new air pump for 55 gal so i can move the 20 gallon pump back over there for aeration and surface movement.

 

[mmarx339]

Today updates fin rot evident more white around mouth and under chin area top and bottom fins ripping apart.

 

[Colin_T]

It's excess mucous being produced by the fish because it is sick and stressed. Keep the salt treatment going and hope for the best.

You should treat all the fish too because if one fish is sick, the disease organisms will be in the other tank/s.

 

[mmarx339]

It's excess mucous being produced by the fish because it is sick and stressed. Keep the salt treatment going and hope for the best.

You should treat all the fish too because if one fish is sick, the disease organisms will be in the other tank/s.

Is this okay even though it just got set up? Does the salt kill my good bacteria on the filters? Will this reset my cycle?

 

[Colin_T]

the salt won't affect the beneficial filter bacteria.

 

[mmarx339]

the salt won't affect the beneficial filter bacteria.

Okay thank you very much man im just praying now hoping he gets good enough that he can eat before he starves i guess... this is really depressing I don’t know why the store didnt tell me about the male rainbows fighting she just said it would be fine and now my second fish i ever had is dying because i didn't notice what happening soon enough.

 

[mmarx339]

the salt won't affect the beneficial filter bacteria.

Large and small now treated. Should i re treat big tank at water change for equivalent of the water i took out to return to same concentration, or just slowly pull it out with the changes?

 

[Colin_T]

treat all tanks for at least 2 weeks, and that includes adding salt to new water when you do water changes during that time.

 

[mmarx339]

treat all tanks for at least 2 weeks, and that includes adding salt to new water when you do water changes during that time.

Then after two weeks slowly pull it out slowly with water changes?

 

[mmarx339]

He passed.

 

[JuiceBox52]

I'm sorry

 

[mmarx339]

treat all tanks for at least 2 weeks, and that includes adding salt to new water when you do water changes during that time.

So he passed. What should i do as far as cleaning the tank he was in.

 

[mmarx339]

So he passed. What should i do as far as cleaning the tank he was in.

And can you give me advice on how to complete my schools of rainbows and corys in the least stressful way possible. (On the plus side everything else is babies still nothing full grown yet)

 

[Colin_T]

So he passed. What should i do as far as cleaning the tank he was in.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
Add salt and keep salt in the tank for 2 weeks.

Basically treat the tanks as if the sick fish is still alive because the parasites that affected the M. lacustris will still be in the tank.

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If you want rainbowfish, try to have even numbers of males (eg: 2 males, 4 males, 6 males, etc). Make sure the males are the same size to prevent bigger males bullying the smaller males.

Try to have a similar number of females to males.

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Keep Corydoras in groups of 6 or more.

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Do not add any new fish for a month. Let everything settle down and if there have been no more problems during the next month, then you can get some more fish.

If you get more fish, try to quarantine them for a month before adding them to the main display tanks.​