Flerfnoodle
New Member
Hi folks,
I recently took took up fish keeping again and went the 'safe route' by starting with livebearers ... but now one of my platys has a strange spot/bump on his head that isn't going away. At first I panicked thinking that it was columnaris (since the spot is pretty large for ick), but it hasn't spread to his tank mates. His behavior hasn't changed either (appetite and energy seem good, no hiding or sulking) and he's not really 'flashing' that I've seen. This is a new tank (less than a month old) so it's still cycling, and my HOB filter crapped out last night so I had to do an emergency changeover to a spare canister filter (150 GPH) I had sitting around, so I'm starting over yet again. I use the API freshwater master test kit daily to keep an eye on water chemistry, and the API gH/kH kit to test as needed. Just to be safe (and because I have both live plants and inverts in his home tank) I moved him to a 2 gal quarantine tank for the time being so that I can medicate him if necessary.
Tank size: 10 gallon
pH: 7.4
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 - 0.25 ppm (as stated above, tank is still cycling; when I get a non-zero reading I do a 25% water change)
nitrate: 10 - 20 ppm
kH: ~50 ppm
gH: ~50 ppm
tank temp: 79 F
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): raised grayish-white lesion on right side of head about midway between the eye and the dorsal fin, slightly smaller in size than the fish's eye (<2 mm diameter, roughly circular spot with irregular margins)
Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% water change whenever nitrites read 0.25 ppm or more; generally every day or every other day as the tank is still cycling
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: My first attempt to treat included aquarium salt at 1 tsp/gal; SeaChem Prime per label instructions when doing water changes, ParaGuard per label instructions
Tank inhabitants: 2 mickey mouse platys, 2 green lantern platys, 1 balloon molly, 4 ghost shrimp; several live plants
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): everything (tank is less than a month old)
Exposure to chemicals: other than what I've added, nothing?
Digital photo (include if possible):
I recently took took up fish keeping again and went the 'safe route' by starting with livebearers ... but now one of my platys has a strange spot/bump on his head that isn't going away. At first I panicked thinking that it was columnaris (since the spot is pretty large for ick), but it hasn't spread to his tank mates. His behavior hasn't changed either (appetite and energy seem good, no hiding or sulking) and he's not really 'flashing' that I've seen. This is a new tank (less than a month old) so it's still cycling, and my HOB filter crapped out last night so I had to do an emergency changeover to a spare canister filter (150 GPH) I had sitting around, so I'm starting over yet again. I use the API freshwater master test kit daily to keep an eye on water chemistry, and the API gH/kH kit to test as needed. Just to be safe (and because I have both live plants and inverts in his home tank) I moved him to a 2 gal quarantine tank for the time being so that I can medicate him if necessary.
Tank size: 10 gallon
pH: 7.4
ammonia: 0 ppm
nitrite: 0 - 0.25 ppm (as stated above, tank is still cycling; when I get a non-zero reading I do a 25% water change)
nitrate: 10 - 20 ppm
kH: ~50 ppm
gH: ~50 ppm
tank temp: 79 F
Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): raised grayish-white lesion on right side of head about midway between the eye and the dorsal fin, slightly smaller in size than the fish's eye (<2 mm diameter, roughly circular spot with irregular margins)
Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% water change whenever nitrites read 0.25 ppm or more; generally every day or every other day as the tank is still cycling
Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: My first attempt to treat included aquarium salt at 1 tsp/gal; SeaChem Prime per label instructions when doing water changes, ParaGuard per label instructions
Tank inhabitants: 2 mickey mouse platys, 2 green lantern platys, 1 balloon molly, 4 ghost shrimp; several live plants
Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): everything (tank is less than a month old)
Exposure to chemicals: other than what I've added, nothing?
Digital photo (include if possible):
