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Really need help diagnosing/treating

ChubbyBetta

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San Mateo California
This is my female blue ram (queen of the tank). She's been sick for a few weeks now. Gills are open, rapid constant breathing, gills look swollen at the bottom, kinda like sagging. Very stressed, black line, and darkening in color.

First I tried kanaplex thinking it was a fungal/bacterial infection, no help. Then tried api general cure thinking gill flukes, that didn't help either. Not sure what else to do here, I did get some paraguard but kinda hesitant to dose another med.


Whatever it is, it's not spreading to the other fish. This all started after purchasing a small school of rummynose tetra that had ich. Fixed the ich problem, then this happened shortly after.

Parameters are normal, no ammonia or nitrites, nitrates between 5-10, PH 6.5, water is very soft. No I don't have a quarantine, there's just no space for even a 3 gallon.


Appreciate any advice!
 

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Kanaplex is an antibiotic (Kanamycin) and only treats some types of bacteria. It does not treat fungus even tho the company's website claims it does.

Antibiotics should only be used on known bacterial infections that haven't responded to normal treatments. Improper use and mis-use of antibiotics has lead to drug resistant bacteria that kill people, birds, animals, reptiles and fish.

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How long has the tank been set up for?
How long have you had the ram for?
Is the ram still eating?
What does the ram's poop look like?

How often do you do water changes and how much do you change?
Do you gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the aquarium?

What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?
Do you have carbon in the filter?
If yes, did you remove the carbon when treating?

What was the white spot medication you used?

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WHAT TO DO NOW?
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

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

Add some salt, (see directions below). If there's no improvement after a week with salt, stop using it.

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.
 

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