Hello all,
I have been lurking this forum for a while since I finally got my act together and delved into the aquarium hobby. I know its good manners to post and get involved more first before posting a thread but I am very worried about one of my fish and cant figure out a diagnosis.
This is my red tailed shark, I have had him for probably around 2 months and he has always been very active except for recently. It seems like he has a whitish grayish film on a bit of his head. Before I noticed this he had been swimming sideways a bit between the filter intake and the little waterfall part. I didnt think this was strange at first because I have some long bubble stones buried that he used to swim against all the time
My water parameters are all close to zero (ammonia, nitrate and nitrite) The nitrite had been hovering around 3 or less for a while but has been consistently close to zero the past few days. I keep the temperature around 76-78 but increased it a bit once I noticed him not doing so good..
My tank is 20 gallon community. I have a pleco, mystery snail, 3 cory catfish, a guarami, swordtail and a rainbow shark and 5 loaches. Since my tank has just about finished cycling I had been doing water changes (20%) about every day to keep nitrites low while things evened out. He has been in my tank since the beginning and has always been really lively. The only things I have changed with the tank recently were the addition of a amazon sword plant and a marimo moss ball, a carpet type plant that I cant remember the name of, and three of the total 5 loaches.
None of the other fish seem worse for wear at all and seem to be doing great. As I am typing this it seems like whatever was on him has receded somewhat but it had done that the day before, the other day his eyes looked a little milky as well but that did not last long either.
I am not too familiar with fish diseases and it does not look like Ich or any other things I have looked up. One disease that seems like it fits one of the symptoms, the whitish grayish film, Columnaris (Cotton Wool Disease) sounds like it could be that but none of the other nasty noticeable symptoms for that are evident and it does not look like a fungus or cotton or anything.
Does anyone have any experience with this weird symptom that is afflicting my fishy?? I have had no casualties in this tank yet aside from a few ghost shrimp but I am pretty certain they got eaten.
I have attached a close up of my shark and another of the whole tank in case that helps.
Any help at all would be extremely appreciated!! I know its bad to have favorites but I gotta say this guy is one of my favs! (his name is Beauregard)
I have been lurking this forum for a while since I finally got my act together and delved into the aquarium hobby. I know its good manners to post and get involved more first before posting a thread but I am very worried about one of my fish and cant figure out a diagnosis.
This is my red tailed shark, I have had him for probably around 2 months and he has always been very active except for recently. It seems like he has a whitish grayish film on a bit of his head. Before I noticed this he had been swimming sideways a bit between the filter intake and the little waterfall part. I didnt think this was strange at first because I have some long bubble stones buried that he used to swim against all the time
My water parameters are all close to zero (ammonia, nitrate and nitrite) The nitrite had been hovering around 3 or less for a while but has been consistently close to zero the past few days. I keep the temperature around 76-78 but increased it a bit once I noticed him not doing so good..
My tank is 20 gallon community. I have a pleco, mystery snail, 3 cory catfish, a guarami, swordtail and a rainbow shark and 5 loaches. Since my tank has just about finished cycling I had been doing water changes (20%) about every day to keep nitrites low while things evened out. He has been in my tank since the beginning and has always been really lively. The only things I have changed with the tank recently were the addition of a amazon sword plant and a marimo moss ball, a carpet type plant that I cant remember the name of, and three of the total 5 loaches.
None of the other fish seem worse for wear at all and seem to be doing great. As I am typing this it seems like whatever was on him has receded somewhat but it had done that the day before, the other day his eyes looked a little milky as well but that did not last long either.
I am not too familiar with fish diseases and it does not look like Ich or any other things I have looked up. One disease that seems like it fits one of the symptoms, the whitish grayish film, Columnaris (Cotton Wool Disease) sounds like it could be that but none of the other nasty noticeable symptoms for that are evident and it does not look like a fungus or cotton or anything.
Does anyone have any experience with this weird symptom that is afflicting my fishy?? I have had no casualties in this tank yet aside from a few ghost shrimp but I am pretty certain they got eaten.
I have attached a close up of my shark and another of the whole tank in case that helps.
Any help at all would be extremely appreciated!! I know its bad to have favorites but I gotta say this guy is one of my favs! (his name is Beauregard)
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