red spots on rosy barb

[Centurion]

seems my 2 rosy barbs have come down with something. they have reddening on the scales and im not quite sure what it is. water parameters are good. no ammonia, no nitrites, nitrates at 5ppm, ph is 6.8. did a water change 3 days ago. would really like to not lose these fish! any help i can get is greatly appreciated. tia

 

[Punkymom]

It could just be the nature of the fish. I have 6 Neon Rosy Barbs and though they are slightly different than the regular Rosy Barbs, their colors vary greatly throughout the day. Sometimes their scales are all bright and "rosy" and sometimes (mainly during feeding time) their scales become outlined in black. Sometimes some of the scales' colors fade out and it looks like they're missing scales but they're not. I actually like to think of them as mood fish sometimes because their colors vary from this hour to the next. This is the same as my Tiger Barbs. When they're calm, their colors are normal, and then when they get excited, they get black around the scales and their red deepens. Maybe someone else has more experience with this kind of thing. HTH

 

[Centurion]

ive had them for ~4 months and theyve never looked like this. i think its a bacterial infection but im not sure. ive read something about QTing them and adding salt, but i dont know the whole story there, so im not going to try it. they are however headed into QT right now.

 

[Fruitbat]

Hmmmm....reddening on the scales. Do these resemble open sores in any way? If you look closely can you see tiny, thread-like things coming out of the reddened area?

 

[Centurion]

well... got one in the QT. by the time i netted the other, the first had already lost the fight. no threadyness. im afraid i may have to redzone the whole tank. no one else shows any redness yet. but the gold barb seems to be breathing quickly, but it may be due to being the only barb in the tank now. he could just be a little anxious.

 

[Centurion]

nevermind... #2 has also departed from this earthly realm. i hope they find each other in fishie heaven...

 

[Punkymom]

I'm so sorry you lost your fish.