Slime coat..... gone! (Long w/pic)

[Seepu]

Sorry this pic is so big, I wanted to be able to show this guys scales. I had a female in QT, with the same problem, she recovered, and is eating well, fins growing back nicely. Today, this guy is swimming rather stiffly, and I took a close look at him, and it looks like his slime coat is GONE. All of his scales are rough looking (not protruding like in Dropsey) All of his fins are tattered, and the spines are no longer in whats left of his fins.

The black dots on him is his normal pigmentation, and if he looks rather pink, well again, his normal pigmentation.

I upgraded last month from a 75g to a 125g, and had posted about one of my kenyi females seemingly eggbound (trying to spawn, nothing happening) she later died.

So this makes the third incident in the new tank. I have been keeping a watch on the water parameters, everything is in order, no ammo spike after I moved everything. Ph 7.8, 78-79 degrees. I know its not water quality, two fry moved with the adults, and are doing fine, and growing well.

No unusual aggression, the usual lull between spawnings, where everyone minds their own business.

No stringy poo, no cloudy eyes, only fish that is hiding some is the holding OB, and I think this is because one of her fry from a previous spawning, is becoming sexually mature, and is beginning to dominate her. Otherwise, she is healthy, taking small bits of flake in her mouth, nothing wrong with her fins....

I can't figure this out. Yesterday, this guy was fine, today, looks like he was hit with the sandpaper.

What can cause loss of slime coat to the extreme?

TIA

 

[Devilishturtles]

Sorta looks like a very mild case of Columnaris. The yellowish raised patch of scales near the fishs back fin is what makes me think that is what it is. The rapidness of the condition may indicate columnaris too. Some bacteria is probably swimming around in your water.

Since it seems to not be an isolated incident, I would treat your entire tank with antibiotics. Maracyn-2 would be a good one to start with. If it is Columnaris (or any other Flexibacter sp. bacteria) you'll want to get it out of your tank as soon as possible. It is not very fun to fool around with, and can wipe out tanks in days.

Otherwise, I've never seen anything quite like that before. This is just my best educated guess as to what is wrong. It definitley looks bacterial to me though, so the antibiotics would not hurt anything.

Make sure you keep an eye on your water parameters as well. Maracyn-2 has been known in the past to cause mini-cycles.

HTH

 

[Seepu]

He died, one of my favorites too... Thru the course of the day, he began bleeding from his fins and from between his scales. Before he was actually dead, he seemed to have some fuzzy stuff beginning to gather around the base of his anal fin, and on his tail. Perhaps a fungal infection was secondary to the bacterial infection?

I am going to do some research on the bacteria you mentioned, to see how this could have happened. It was a new tank, never used. No new fish has ever been introduced to this group.

Thanks for the response... hope others chime in as well.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Definitley was Columnaris then. Sorry Seepu.

I would go ahead and treat the rest of your tank, just to be safe. It really can wreack havoc on your system.

 

[Meredith]

Oh wow! I'm so sorry. I had an oto die recently that looked like it was bleeding on parts of its body. It was gross. I treated the tank with TriSulfa. So far no more losses.