Is This Velvet Or White Spot On Butterfly Fish Maybe?

[Alex Brown]

Hi can you help me to detect what might be wrong with my fish please. He has had it for a few days now, had in tank for one week.

he is thin, maybe im under feeding, was feeding once a day at first, then increased to 2, as from today he will be fed mixed diet 3 times a day - brine shrimp and sea veggies.

increasing scratching on rocks as from last night. tends to be less infection in morning. still eating fine.

inverts in tank. 3x humbugs in tank.

250l tank
s.g 1.023
ph 8
nitrite 0.05
nitrate 0
ammonia 0.011
alkalinity 2.7

these readings were 3 nights ago. pictures taken tonight.

 

[Alex Brown]

Pictures added.

 

[ally--19]

i would get rid of the ammonia and nitrite and get the ph up to 8.3 thats why you are getting spots on your fish

 

[Alex Brown]

could you tell me the best way to do this safe and quickly? thanks.

 

[humpy_the_humphead_wrasse]

water changes LOLs. did u set the tank up like a day ago? it looks like it by ur stats

 

[ally--19]

grab a bucket and take out 2 buckets off the dirty saltwater and change it with fresh water and add some salt in to the bucket then add it

 

[Alex Brown]

OK water change, thats good that its not a disease.

I will do a 50-70% water change first thing in the morning. I do one every week or two, but I think I was ment to do one massive change after my system finished maturing right? I missed that bit!

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[ally--19]

50/70% ur kidding how big is ur tank and if i was you i would only take out 4" and see how you get on there and you also need a nitrate so your system is not fully mature and a water change is not a disease

 

[Alex Brown]

my tank cycled about 2 months ago and nitrates disapeared about 2 weeks ago. I have a 250l tank, can water change no problem. i did a 20l (around 10%) water change at the weekend and it didnt make the fish any better.

 

[ally--19]

no wonder you still have the ammonia and nitrite you have to get rid of that

 

[Alex Brown]

im looking for advise buddy, what are you on about?

 

[westiemarble]

Hi,
Your water stats show you have Amonia and Nitrite levels above zero - this is bad and could be causing your problems since your fish will be stressed due to the ammonia and nitrites.

I'm new to this game but wouldn't have thought that water changes would directly solve the problem, they will dilute the ammonia and nitrite levels but the underlying reason for them being there will still remain. Any idea why your levels have just started to rise?

 

[ally--19]

because you have beendoing so many big water changes the tank has re cycled so what you have to do is keep doing water changes untill the ammo and nitrite has gone and test it like every second day so keep doing water changes untill its gone do you have a skimmer in the tank and was you like rock cured or uncured

 

[westiemarble]

because you have beendoing so many big water changes the tank has back cycled so what you have to do is keep doing water changes untill the ammo and nitrite has gone and test it like every second day so keep doing water changes untill its gone do you have a skimmer in the tank and was you like rock cured or uncured

Can you explain what you mean by 'the tank has back cycled' - this is a term I have not heard of before.
Also, if this guy's tank cycled two months ago and he has only been left with nitrates to get down, what's wrong with doing 50% weekly water changes? Surely the new water is full of all the trace elements the tank needs and can only be beneficial. Or are you saying that this is not the case and that it has actually caused the Nitrite and Ammonia levels to start to rise again - if so I'd be interested to know how and why since I also do this type of water change and obviously don't want to cause myself the same problem.

Cheers

 

[Alex Brown]

I have never done a 50% water change, only this one time to replace a large amount of the water which could be harming my fish. I useually do a 10% water change every other week or so.

There are now traces of nitrate again, along with low traces of nitrie and ammonia.

FFish is still looking beat up, but it has reduced in scratching alot.