RachelG
Aquarium Advice Activist
I had some harlequin rasboras come down with something recently, and I'm not sure what it is. I thought it was columnaris or fungus, but the descriptions of those diseases didn't match what I was seeing. I was treating the tank with daily water changes and aquarium salt. I don't think this has helped.
I recently got a black harlequin rasbora to add to my school of 6 common red harlequin rasboras in my 20 gallon long aquarium. I haven't added a new fish to that tank in months and the harleys have been in there for about half a year. I put the new black harley into my ten gallon tank that until recently housed a large colony of cherry shrimp(The summer heat wiped out all but seven of them, unfortunately.) So this fish was supposed to stay in this tank for a while until I deemed it healthy enough to join the others. Then it came down with the symptoms that I'll list below, and died after three days. I accidentally used the gravel vacuum from the ten gallon in the twenty because I was lightheaded and not thinking correctly, and then very soon the harleys in the twenty started coming down with the symptoms, too! I moved all infected fish to the ten gallon with the cherry shrimp. This has only infected my harlequin rasboras. My four espei rasboras, one bolivian ram, one sparkling gourami, and five kuhli loaches all seem unaffected and healthy. I have two more harlequin rasboras who are not infected and are still in the 20 long, apparently healthy.
Five fish total have been affected so far, and three have died. The two remaining look pretty bad and I don't expect them to survive. Each fish that died has died within three days of showing the symptoms, and the last two are on their fourth day.
Physical symptoms:
Fins quickly turn opaque white and are clamped. Five fish had this symptom, but the fins they had it in varied. All affected fish had 1-4 of their fins white. Some had entire fins turn white, others just had the tips or edges. The white stuff hasn't really spread over other parts of the body. Two fish had a white dull, dusty look on their sides. I'm not sure if this was the white stuff spreading or if they were just turning pale from stress. One fish has damage on her dorsal fin, but I'm not sure if this is from the disease or from nipping. She only has one eye, so it's possible that another fish just ambushed her from her blind side and chomped on her fin. (I received this fish with only one eye, and she was healthy before this disease thing happened) Her fin turned white after it became shredded.
Behavior symptoms:
Fish appear to have trouble swimming, and occasionally are a little jittery. (I think their fins are hurting them.) Near death, they tended to point upwards and occasionally flip over as if they couldn't keep their balance.
Fish stay in one corner of the tank.
They won't eat. One exception is after two days of them showing no interest in food, my one-eyed harlequin rasbora eagerly ate flakes when I fed the sick fish tonight. She swam around the tank for a bit until settling back into the corner. The one other surviving fish still won't eat and looks worse.
Does this stuff sound familiar to anyone? I haven't found any disease photos or descriptions that match what my fish have. Also, it seems to be selectively affecting the harlequins.
I was planning on moving the espeis to the ten gallon when all was said and done with the black harlequin rasbora, but now that half of my harleys are either dead or almost dead, I think I'll just keep the espeis in the 20 and get a betta for the ten gallon when I'm sure it's disease-free.
I recently got a black harlequin rasbora to add to my school of 6 common red harlequin rasboras in my 20 gallon long aquarium. I haven't added a new fish to that tank in months and the harleys have been in there for about half a year. I put the new black harley into my ten gallon tank that until recently housed a large colony of cherry shrimp(The summer heat wiped out all but seven of them, unfortunately.) So this fish was supposed to stay in this tank for a while until I deemed it healthy enough to join the others. Then it came down with the symptoms that I'll list below, and died after three days. I accidentally used the gravel vacuum from the ten gallon in the twenty because I was lightheaded and not thinking correctly, and then very soon the harleys in the twenty started coming down with the symptoms, too! I moved all infected fish to the ten gallon with the cherry shrimp. This has only infected my harlequin rasboras. My four espei rasboras, one bolivian ram, one sparkling gourami, and five kuhli loaches all seem unaffected and healthy. I have two more harlequin rasboras who are not infected and are still in the 20 long, apparently healthy.
Five fish total have been affected so far, and three have died. The two remaining look pretty bad and I don't expect them to survive. Each fish that died has died within three days of showing the symptoms, and the last two are on their fourth day.
Physical symptoms:
Fins quickly turn opaque white and are clamped. Five fish had this symptom, but the fins they had it in varied. All affected fish had 1-4 of their fins white. Some had entire fins turn white, others just had the tips or edges. The white stuff hasn't really spread over other parts of the body. Two fish had a white dull, dusty look on their sides. I'm not sure if this was the white stuff spreading or if they were just turning pale from stress. One fish has damage on her dorsal fin, but I'm not sure if this is from the disease or from nipping. She only has one eye, so it's possible that another fish just ambushed her from her blind side and chomped on her fin. (I received this fish with only one eye, and she was healthy before this disease thing happened) Her fin turned white after it became shredded.
Behavior symptoms:
Fish appear to have trouble swimming, and occasionally are a little jittery. (I think their fins are hurting them.) Near death, they tended to point upwards and occasionally flip over as if they couldn't keep their balance.
Fish stay in one corner of the tank.
They won't eat. One exception is after two days of them showing no interest in food, my one-eyed harlequin rasbora eagerly ate flakes when I fed the sick fish tonight. She swam around the tank for a bit until settling back into the corner. The one other surviving fish still won't eat and looks worse.
Does this stuff sound familiar to anyone? I haven't found any disease photos or descriptions that match what my fish have. Also, it seems to be selectively affecting the harlequins.
I was planning on moving the espeis to the ten gallon when all was said and done with the black harlequin rasbora, but now that half of my harleys are either dead or almost dead, I think I'll just keep the espeis in the 20 and get a betta for the ten gallon when I'm sure it's disease-free.
