hi
I am very worried about my fish, I have noticed a few unusual things over the past week and am conserned that something serious is going wrong - I want to act quickly to try and help the fish and hopefully not loose any.
Here are the details:
I have around 20/25 smaller fish (about 1 inch or less) mostly platys and mollies and I also have a gold severum.
I have tested the water and the reading are as follows:
Ammonia 0 to 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20/40
PH 8.8
Temp 26 C
The tank is 240 litres and has been set up for more than 1 year. I have a filter and good water agitation. I do a partial water change once a week and clean the filter every 2 week (only one part at a time). I use the gravel vac every week but usually only clean half the tank each time (this was last done at the weekend).
Here is the issues:
The first thing I noticed was about a week ago when I saw what looked like white poo coming from one of the fish - I though this looked a bit strange but I havent seen any more of this. The next thing I have noticed is that over the last couple of days the severum has been swimming a little strangly, leaning to one side a little and also swimming a bit vertically with his nose upwards - he seems to be able to swim ok and does swim normally as well but this seems strange to me and is not his normal behaviour. Then today I noticed a couple of the smaller fish flicking and rubbing on the rocks - they were only doing this a little but again this is not normal. This prompted me to take a very close look at the fish and I cannot see any parasites at all apart from some very small white bits in the side fins of the severum. There seems to be one on one side and 2/3 on the otherside. They are very small and it is very hard to tell if it is ich or more like a cotton wool type growth or nothing at all.
I am obviously now very concerned - I have been watching the fish for the last half an hour and the severum is definatly swimming strangly - I think he is trying to rub on the plants.
I want to do everything I can to try and help the fish and hopefully if I act quickly I wont loose any - I have some aquarium salt and some ich treatment. I am thinking of doing a partial water change and adding these treatments, can anyone tell me if this is the right thing to do? How much water should I change? How much salt can I safely add? and is it safe/should I add the ich treatment also?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Risso
I am very worried about my fish, I have noticed a few unusual things over the past week and am conserned that something serious is going wrong - I want to act quickly to try and help the fish and hopefully not loose any.
Here are the details:
I have around 20/25 smaller fish (about 1 inch or less) mostly platys and mollies and I also have a gold severum.
I have tested the water and the reading are as follows:
Ammonia 0 to 0.25
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 20/40
PH 8.8
Temp 26 C
The tank is 240 litres and has been set up for more than 1 year. I have a filter and good water agitation. I do a partial water change once a week and clean the filter every 2 week (only one part at a time). I use the gravel vac every week but usually only clean half the tank each time (this was last done at the weekend).
Here is the issues:
The first thing I noticed was about a week ago when I saw what looked like white poo coming from one of the fish - I though this looked a bit strange but I havent seen any more of this. The next thing I have noticed is that over the last couple of days the severum has been swimming a little strangly, leaning to one side a little and also swimming a bit vertically with his nose upwards - he seems to be able to swim ok and does swim normally as well but this seems strange to me and is not his normal behaviour. Then today I noticed a couple of the smaller fish flicking and rubbing on the rocks - they were only doing this a little but again this is not normal. This prompted me to take a very close look at the fish and I cannot see any parasites at all apart from some very small white bits in the side fins of the severum. There seems to be one on one side and 2/3 on the otherside. They are very small and it is very hard to tell if it is ich or more like a cotton wool type growth or nothing at all.
I am obviously now very concerned - I have been watching the fish for the last half an hour and the severum is definatly swimming strangly - I think he is trying to rub on the plants.
I want to do everything I can to try and help the fish and hopefully if I act quickly I wont loose any - I have some aquarium salt and some ich treatment. I am thinking of doing a partial water change and adding these treatments, can anyone tell me if this is the right thing to do? How much water should I change? How much salt can I safely add? and is it safe/should I add the ich treatment also?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Risso
