Sick serpae tetra

[somecallmedaniel16]

Hello, all!

I have one sick fish. It is a serpae tetra and I cannot seem to find a diagnosis on it online. For a long time it has had small dark/black marks on different parts of the body, but not anywhere in particular. Recently, however, some small white, slightly protruding white spots have appeared on around its fins and gils. I have removed my carbon filter and started using ich/protozoan prevention medication, with no success. Here are my water parameters:

Nitrate: approx. 20 ppm (I had plants in my tank before they were uprooted when transferring some fish back into my brother's tank. This is probably the cause of the higher levels, though my fish had the black marks and white spots on it before the plants were removed)

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Total Hardness: approx. 100 ppm

Alkalinity: approx. 70 ppm

pH: 6.4

These readings were just taken, but these test strips are about a year old. Maybe I shouldn't trust these? Nevertheless, what do I do?

 

[thatmagicguy]

You said you cannot find a diagnosis but you started ich treatment.

Yes the strips are probably useless.

You did not mention what the ammonia was.

Hardness and pH are insignificant in this case.

You did not state what other fish you have in the tank and if they are showing any symptoms.

There is no way for anyone to accurately diagnose, or even speculate, what is wrong with this one fish.

A picture might help if you can swing that.

Disrupting the environment by moving fish and uprooting plants will aggravate the fish's immune response to anything it has.

You said you used the ich medication with no success. What kind of medication and how long did you use it for?

When there is a problem and you need the advice of other aquarists on a board to accurately try and help you it is imperative to paint an accurate picture of the course of events that lead to a problem. And also to paint a picture of what is going on at the present moment.

If you have a tank full of fish and one fish appears to have an ich infestation you and the other fish would be better served by checking the ammonia and nitrItes, and making sure the tank is stable. Ich is able to infest fish only when the fish have becomed stressed for a particular reason.

It is important to figure out that reason and correct it.

More often than not, if you tweak the water parameters, raise the temp up a bit slowly, you should not have to medicate. I do concede that there are times when certain chemical treatments of ich may be indicated.

I would do your best to stabilize the environment. This will prevent any infestation on the other fish. It may be too late for that, if any ich has settled on the bottom and is in the "cyst' stage then in a few days there will be hundreds of new swimmers in the water.

If you are opting to use ich medication it is imperative to treat until the spots disappear from the fish and then continue treating.

But like I said, I am not a fan of using these meds when one little fish has a few spots.

I'm sure more input will follow.

Bill

 

[somecallmedaniel16]

*Edit*

I just got some ammonia test strips and the test reads .5 ppm. The test says that this amount can cause a level of stress in the fish. What should I do about this? Could this be a reason for my fish's disease/ailment?

I currently have four serpae tetras, 5 neon tetras, 5 zebra danios, and a golden algae eater in my tank. No other species has shown the same symptoms; they are all healthy. Perhaps my tank is over-crowded? Nevertheless, one other serpae tetra is beginning to show black marks on his head. Keep in mind these marks are not specks, they are closer to the size of the black mark on all serpae tetras.

I started ich treatment because it says "Fast relief for ick and protozoan parasites", and I speculated as to whether or not the fish had parasites, after some research. The brand is QuIck Cure, by Aquarium Products. I have been using it for about a week now with no apparent changes in the fishes.

I should have been more precise earlier; the marks are closer to the fins and on the head. The fishes are not inactive, they still swim with the small school and eat, and do not appear to have much difficulty in breathing. Maybe this would change any ideas?

I recently removed my plants from my tank because I had to move my brother's fish back into his 10-gallon tank, and I could not catch them without uprooting the plants. There is much debris left from my hornwort and anachris. They are messy plants. I plan on doing a water change tomorrow and cleaning out much of the debris from my earlier plants. I have considered that remaining, decaying debris/leaves from plants can cause stress on the fish. Is this not a good idea to change the water?

A woman at a local pet store recommended some other parasite treatment and raising the salinity of my water in order to boost the immune system of the fish.

I would post a picture of my sick fish but I cannot get the fish to stay still and the camera to get a clear picture. I will post one as soon as I can get a clear picture.

 

[mom2reds]

one don't add salt
doing a PWC always helps don't treat if you don't know what it is you could do more harm than good with meds.
How often are you doing PWC and what size tank do you have. I would also suggest getting rid of the test strips and getting a API master test kit so that you have more accurate readings. Test strips are not very dependable.

Also if you can quarentine the sick fish away from the others it would be better.

 

[somecallmedaniel16]

one don't add salt
doing a PWC always helps don't treat if you don't know what it is you could do more harm than good with meds.
How often are you doing PWC and what size tank do you have. I would also suggest getting rid of the test strips and getting a API master test kit so that you have more accurate readings. Test strips are not very dependable.

Also if you can quarentine the sick fish away from the others it would be better.

I do a water change every 3 weeks or so, about 30% of the water. my tank is a 20-gal high. I will look into getting the master kit. why not add salt? I have always been told it boosts the immune system by adding electrolytes.

 

[mom2reds]

imo salt does not really due much at all. It will be really bad for your plants and some fish like loaches are really sensitive to it. Most of us on here do and suggest that you do PWC once a week and most of the time 50% water changes, this helps keep diseases down in your tank and keep things in more of a balance.

Good luck, i hope everything works out quickly for you. if you have a petsmart up there you might go online and look at there API master test kit if the price is lower than what it is in the store print off a copy and take it to the syore they are supposed to price match thereon line prices.

 

[somecallmedaniel16]

imo salt does not really due much at all. It will be really bad for your plants and some fish like loaches are really sensitive to it. Most of us on here do and suggest that you do PWC once a week and most of the time 50% water changes, this helps keep diseases down in your tank and keep things in more of a balance.

Good luck, i hope everything works out quickly for you. if you have a petsmart up there you might go online and look at there API master test kit if the price is lower than what it is in the store print off a copy and take it to the syore they are supposed to price match thereon line prices.

What is the P in PWC? I assume WC is water change. When you have a heavily planted tank do you just clean around the roots? Sorry, I'm not quite down on the lingo yet. And I did do a 30-40% water change. The water is clear and in fact the fish seems to be a little bit better.

I'll buy the API master test kit next chance I get. Thanks for the advice!

 

[BigMike75]

Partial Water Change. I think that is spelled right. It may be parcial.

 

[mom2reds]

Partial Water Change. I think that is spelled right. It may be parcial.

right ,

I am glad your fish are doing better. when vacuming the gravel around roots you can just wave the vac around to stir up any detris on the top of the gravel.

 

[somecallmedaniel16]

Oh. I couldn't think of a word that would fit there. I guess it doesn't really matter though. Thanks.