Neon Has White Spec On Fin

[smmetz]

One of my neons has a single white spot on the tip of a fin. It is the very small fin on top, between the tail and the larger fin on top. Anyway, it just looks like a white spec. Nothing like that is on any of the other fish. Their fins all look fine, and no white specs anywhere I can see. I am guessing it coule possibly be ich, since I read it looks like grains of salt on the fish. This kind of looks like 1 grain of salt on the fin I suppose.

For those interested, since I'll probably be asked, tank stats / history:
20 gallons
set up 7 months ago
0 amonia, 0 nitrite, 10 nitrate, temp 77 ph 7.6
sand substrate
5 platy
4 neons
5 zebra danio
1 bristlenose plec.

New additions: bristlenose plec was transfered from a tank at home early last week.
driftwood added 2 weeks ago

just changed filters from whisper 60 to Aquaclear 50 on Tuesday (2 days ago). Some old media is in the new filter. Testing for amonia daily with API kit, none yet.

3 months ago, had an amonia spike, a month later lost 3 neons to suspected NTD. Had them isolated in different tank as soon as symptoms appeared. Other neons have been fine since.

EDIT: amonia has gone from 0 yesterday to 0.25 today. I just did a 25% water change this morning too. I guess I'll do another one this evening

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[WILDER]

If you had ntd it still could be going on, on my neons who had ntd it started off as a spot them started to look bleached out.
Any of the fish flicking and rubbing on objects.

 

[smmetz]

Wilder to the rescue again! Thanks for helping so many people with troubled fish on these forums.

Anyway, no flicking has been observed.

The danios are chasing eachother, zipping around that tank. That is pretty normal for zebra danios though. I don't see them flicking on objects.

Question: The township here uses chloromine instead of chlorine in tap water. I heard something about chloromine being part amonia and part chlorine? I treat the tap water with a double dose of API "Stress Coat", which says it treats both chlorine and chloromine. Could the amonia in my tank be from the chloromine in the tap water - introduced when I did a 25% water change this morning?

 

[WILDER]

Tolak the one for this question on water in the states.
I would hold off with the whitespot or ich med for now, see how it goes tomorrow, could slightly turn temp up if you have enough aeration in the tank.
Pm tolak he very nice and won't mind.

 

[Tolak]

Check out this link for a review of water conditioners; http/www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm

Stresscoat will remove chloramine, by splitting it into it's components of chlorine & ammonia, and dealing with the chlorine leaving you with ammonia. Many times a mature cycled tank can deal with this little bit of ammonia as long as the water hasn't been heavily treated. If you are cycling in a new filter this may pose a problem.

Tetra AquaSafe or Seachem Prime will deal with most anything in your water, it's advisable to use one of them.

 

[smmetz]

Thanks for the advice. Considering what Tolak said, I will assume the problem of the amonia in that tank is from a combination of the 2 day old filter, and the 25% water change I did in the morning.

I decided against the additional water change this evening, and I'm glad I did. I'll re-test the tank tomorrow. If there is still amonia present, I'll add some Amquel I have that is supposed to take care of it.

Hopefully the Amquel wont interfere with the cycle, it says on the bottle it wont, we'll see.

 

[smmetz]

Well, the amonia is very close to 0 today, much better than the 0.25 from yesterday. I now believe the amonia is from the chloromine in the water change. I am not in the habit of testing for amonia after a water change. This one tank is at my work, which has a different water supply than my home.

I talked to a lfs owner today. He discovered that ever since this township switched from chlorine to chloromine, he has to use a double dose of "Amquel" to remove all the amonia. Aq single dose would break down the chloromine, take care of the resulting chlorine, but only take care of some of the resulting amonia. He had the town water dept coming in after loosing almost $1000 worth of fish stock due to amonia poisoning accross all his tanks. (which are each isolated from eachother, not a common filter)

 

[WILDER]

Has the white spec gone now.

 

[Tolak]

Well, the amonia is very close to 0 today, much better than the 0.25 from yesterday. I now believe the amonia is from the chloromine in the water change. I am not in the habit of testing for amonia after a water change. This one tank is at my work, which has a different water supply than my home.

I talked to a lfs owner today. He discovered that ever since this township switched from chlorine to chloromine, he has to use a double dose of "Amquel" to remove all the amonia. Aq single dose would break down the chloromine, take care of the resulting chlorine, but only take care of some of the resulting amonia. He had the town water dept coming in after loosing almost $1000 worth of fish stock due to amonia poisoning accross all his tanks. (which are each isolated from eachother, not a common filter)

Municipal water companies main comcern is the health of humans, not fish. They will err on the side of caution and add extra chlorine, chloramine & other additives if a situation calls for it. This happens on a regular basis with my water supply, I keep a close eye on weather conditions as this affects my water.

The more you can learn about your water provider the better, this will help you to undertand what they do when & why. You can then treat your water accordingly.