Black Moor-Slime Coat?

[lailaanderson]

Hi all! New to the fish tank world so please got easy on me!

I got some fish for my new tank. I have a two black moor goldfish; General Fin and Gill-Bert. GF is a fantail and Gill-Bert is a single tail. They share a tank with three Cory Catfish.

I’ve been doing tank changes once a week to once every two weeks. I scrub their tank decor and try to “vaccum” my gravel as often as possible. They are fed once a day and use regular goldfish flakes, they also like to nibble on the algae pellets for my little Cory’s.

I just did a tank change on 2/2 and didn’t deviate from my normal routine. I made sure the template of my water matched my tank water, I added a smidgen of quick start, and adjusted my ph barely. GF & G were completely fine and scavenging around the bottom of the tank as usual.

However, I noticed today, that they were a little more sluggish than normal, they were hanging out at the top of the tank for awhile but moved to the bottom after a bit. I put the tiniest bit of food in there thinking maybe they were hungry. I read that sometimes they will do that. They usually notice the food RIGHT away and gobble it up like thanksgiving dinner. However, my little guys didn’t notice the food.

That’s when I noticed that it looks like their slime coat is thicker and kind of peeling off? I’m not sure what to do, or what I even did. The Cory catfish are swimming around like usual, so I’m not thinking the water quality is an issue. None of the fish are aggressive when it comes to food.

Any help is GREATLY appreciated.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Please take a read through the "unhealthy fish" sticky and answer all the questions as thoroughly as possibly.

Before posting about unhealthy fish, read this!

Answer these Qs to ensure we have as much information as possible about your ailing fish and its environment: 1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.). 2~What are your tank...

www.aquariumadvice.com

If you don't know the answer, don't skip it, say "i don't know", so we can investigate further or advise on how to find out.

Slime coat is usually a response to something in the water, so although you say you don't think its that, water quality is the most likely issue, so testing your water with a reliable test kit is important.

Most corys are tropical water fish and black moors are temperate water fish. If you have set the aquarium for one, it wont suit the other. Goldfish tend to do better in more neutral pH and corys at higher pH. The black moor will grow to a size where it sees smaller corys as food too. These fish aren't good tankmates.

 

[lailaanderson]

1~What type of fish is afflicted? In addition, please describe what is wrong with the fish to the best of your ability (i.e. cotton like growth, bloated, etc.).
Black Moor. It looks like their slim coat is coming off and they are not eating.
2~What are your tank parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, temp, pH)? Please give exact values.
Temp is set at 72 Fahrenheit. ph ranges from 6.8-7.2, (last I checked it was 6.8) nitrates are at 0, Gh is 0, Nitrites are 0. KH is at 40.
3~ How large is the tank? How long has the tank been set up?
tank is 37 Gallons and has been set up since January 1st. I let it cycle 1 week before adding fish.
4~What type of filtration are you using? Please give the name and number (i.e. Fluval 304) and amount of gph if known.
I use the Top Fin Silenstream system. Not sure what the GPH is.
5~How many fish are in the tank? What kinds of fish are they and what are their current sizes?
the only fish I have in the tank are three Cory and the two Black Moor. The Cory are no more than an inch. The black moor are about 2 inches, maybe a little over.
6~When is the last time you did a water change and vacuum the gravel? How often do you do this? How much water do you remove at a time?
Two days ago on 2/2. I removed about half the water. Which is a little more than I usually do but that’s because the water and gravel were pretty grimy. I do a tank clean once every 1-2 weeks.
7~How long have you had the fish? If the fish is new, how did you acclimate it/them?
the fish have been mine for about 3 weeks. I added some api quick start, stress coat and I left them in their bags from petco& rested them in the water so they could get used to the temp before fully adding them in.
8~Have you added anything new to the tank--decor, new dechlorinator, new substrate, etc.?
the only thing I changed was adding some Alage Fix because I had an uptick of algae in the tank.
9~What kind of food have you been feeding your fish, have you changed their diet recently?

Tetrafin goldfish flakes. They some times will nibble on the Alage Pellets for the Cory’s.

 

[lailaanderson]

This is the type of test strips I have. I need to use something different please give me suggestions

 

[Aiken Drum]

You arent cycled and will be suffering from water quality issues. Cycling an aquarium typically takes a couple of months, and there is a process. What did you do precisely during that week cycling you mention?

Your test kit has a couple of issues.

• Test strips are notoriously not reliable. They might be accurate, they might not. You just can't trust them.
• Those multiple tests strips don't include the ammonia test, which is the most important test as that's the first parameter to be off. You have to buy the ammonia test separately.

So first up you need a good reliable test kit that tests for pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Liquid test kits are more reliable, and long run cheaper. API Freshwater Master Test Kit is a good one to go for.

But for now let's take your test results as accurate. The nitrogen cycle turns ammonia into nitrite and then nitrite into nitrate. As nitrate is the end product of the nitrogen cycle a cycled aquarium should see zero ammonia + nitrite, and nitrate should steadily be rising between water changes. You are reporting zero nitrate, so you arent cycled. You are also reporting zero nitrite, so your cycle hasn't even started yet. Your ammonia could be very high and causing the kind of symptoms you are seeing, and currently you have no way to test for ammonia.

In an uncycled aquarium you need to be doing much more frequent water changes than every 1 to 2 weeks. Possibly even 1 or 2 water changes per day are needed until your cycle establishes.

What to do? First up, take a sample of water to test later when you get your new test kit. Then change 50% of the water today and change 50% of the water every day until you get that new test kit. Once your test kit arrives, test the sample you just took, so we can see how bad things got before the water changes, and then test your water after the water changes so we can see what improvement the daily water changes have achieved.

Report back and we can look at cycling the aquarium.

 

[lailaanderson]

I actually have a petco near me that carries that type of water testing kit. So I will be testing as soon as I am back in town from out of state.