Sick Danio

[kjharve]

Hi,

I have 6 danios, 3 zebra, 3 leopard in a relatively new tank. They've been in there 24 hours. I've noticed in the last hour that one of the fish has developed a red tumor looking thing on its side, its only tiny so is difficult to see. He is also swimming around in circles rather than darting about like the others.

I'm not expert but I'd say that's not right!

I've tested my water and all seems fine. I have put it in a seperate tank to keep an eye on it. Does anyone have any idea what might be up with it and what I can do? Should I be worried about the other fish?

Any help appreciated!

Kev

 

[Miss Wiggle]

If you've only had them 24 hrs then it's most likely one of 3 things
a) your set up isn't right and the shock of the water changes have made it poorly
B) the fish had a disease before it came to you and it's just showing symptoms now, diseases don't always show immediately
c) the shock of transition to a new tank is too much for it, this is always going to happen, even the most experienced fishkeeper will occasionally loose a fish like this

OK, few questions to determine what it might be

Have you cycled it, and if so how?
Have you added dechlorinator to the water?
Did the other fish in the tank in the shop all look healthy, were there any dead fish, anyone darting around, white fluffy stuff on them, red patches like yours has, white spots, flicking or gasping for breath..... basically anything unusual?
Are any of the other fish in the tank showing symptoms as above?

 

[kjharve]

Tank has been set-up for 2 weeks. It has had about 20 snails in there along with plants - the plants were from a friends aquarium which is trouble-free. I also got lent some filter media.

Yes, I dechlorinated the water.

Fish seemed healthy in the shop. The other 5 fish seem fine too.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK, I'm not the expert on cycling (please someone correct me if I'm wrong), but I think if you add filter media from a mature filter then you should stock straight away, otherwise there's no waste to keep the filter bacteria colonies going, they may have started to die off and the filter could then be cycling again. What are your water stats?

Alternatively a red thing on it's side could be a bacterial infection, I'd get a bacterial med, if you don't mind waiting around for a few hrs Wilder is the fish health expert and normally she'll come on in the evenings, might be worth waiting for her opinion.

 

[WILDER]

Like to look at your water stats if its a new tank, in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, and ph, as the fish should not be darting about.
You will need a bacterial med for the red spot.

 

[Irf]

This is an interesting thread I found while searching for explanations about a problem I've had with my own danios. Of the original 8 I have had, I've now lost 3 to the same thing.

They grow weak and thin, and have a "wound" or "growth" somewhere on the body. One was on the back, another at the base of the caudal fin, and today's one was on the side of the belly.

I've checked all the parameters each time. The ammonia is always 0, nitrate 30ppm, nitrite 0, ph 8 (high, but that's what we get in London). Always dechlorinated, weekly 25% changes. Laso, water is quite hard, as you'd expect in London.

The first two losses occured within 2 weeks of each other. The latest loss was over a month after the others. No odd behaviour or symptoms until this one.

I was gonna take it in to the LFS but it died this morning before I could get there.

Any ideas?

Irf.