Harlequin problems

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Palex79

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 27, 2013
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3
I introduced 5 harlequin rasboras into my tank about a month ago. 1 looked very white recently, like a faded colour, and within a day had died. I now have another with whiteish patches. Could it be finrot or ich? It is a 90 gallon tank with guppy, danio, neons a Siamese and a plec. Water is clean and regularly changed. I will post pics that hopefully help. Pretty new to this so hope someone can help please. Thanks :)
 

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No replies? Oh well, doesn't matter now guys. Poor little guy is a gonna :(
If anyone would like to give a diagnosis it would still help to avoid in the future.
 

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Sorry to hear about your fish, I don't really know loads about these fish but before you put them in did you treat them with meds in a separate tank?

If not I'm guessing one of them may have brought the infection into the tank, could of been a number of things, if there fins were rotting and ripping then it would of been fin rot, but with the white swell it would probably have been ich too
 
If you had ich, you'd have seen tiny white dots, sort of look like grains of salt, on fins or body. If one fish had ich, they would all end up with ich. From the pics I can't see any ich.

Fungal problems can happen, if there is a wound, or around the mouth area, but you'd have noticed fluffy whitish or greyish areas that would stick out from the fish body.

From the pic it appears the fish has clamped it's fins, which is a sign that it's feeling really unwell. May have been some internal parasite, may have been ammonia or nitrite spiking.

Do you test the water ? Do you know what the water parameters are ?

Harlequins are usually fairly hardy, being rasboras, but they may have brought some sort of infection with them. This is why quarantining new fish for at least six weeks is a very good idea. Sorry for the loss, I'd keep a close eye on the rest of them, and if you see any signs, if you take the fish out and put into a quarantine tank, might be able to save it. Post pics and describe symptoms and maybe there's something someone can suggest.

Of course if it happens very quickly, might not be time to do this.

Sad but true, we often never learn why some fish get sick and die.
 
White patches on the skin can indicate external parasites such as chilodonella or costia (yes, there are other things than 'Ich' people!) The white is actually excess mucus, produced by the fish to try and rid itself of the parasites.

Chilo is easily killed off with a salt dip 15 to 25 g per litre, dipping the fish for up to 15 minutes - although a harlequin probably won't tolerate it for that long. Always remove the fish at the first signs of serious stress... also a good idea to start tat the lower end of the salt solution. Costiasis is usually treated with white spot treatments, often copper or malachite and formalin based.

Could also be a bacterial infection, but looks very much like costiasis to me - also known as slimy skin disease - due to the white patches, clamped fins and some fin damage.

Sad you lost your fish, but they were obviously quite sick and such small fish deteriorate quickly.
 
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