Plec With Large Bubbley Things

[annie.m]

Hi guys
I have a 2.5 inch albino bristlenose plec in my 160 lt tank with 7inch plec, 2 Angels, Lima shovelnose, Sengal Birchir, 3 Dollers, 2 Silver Sharks & ghost knife fish. This is a newish (approx month) old tank but transfered water etc from my old well established tank. New tank had problems at first which I expected might happen, my leverls went daft nitrates went sky high but are nearly normal again everything else is fine but ph is low at about 6.4. Was doing freq water changes to get levelos back to normal last water change was on Saturday when I noticed my plec had a bubble like lump either side of its head covering its sticky out bristles (sorry don't know tech term). The next day I couldn't see it in its usual spot & thought it had been eaten by the Birchir. It has made a re-appearence today still with lumpy things but after closer inspection it seems like it has air under its skin just before its eyes. Was wondering if it has dropsy as it does look a little swollen but surely it would have died by now. It still is swimming around but not as much as usual. I did put whitespot treatment in when 1st set up this tank as my sharks got stressed & got slight whitespot. Any help much appreciated, have tried attaching a photo but i'm "not permitted to upload this type of file".

 

[WILDER]

Air under the skin can be gas bubble desease.
[URL="http/www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm"]http/www.flippersandfins.net/pop-eye.htm[/URL]

Taken from the link.




Gas Bubble Disease is a result of supersaturation (excess levels) of the water with the gas, nitrogen. Supersaturation occurs whenever the pressure of a gas in the water is higher than the pressure of the same gas in the surrounding atmosphere. When there is this difference between gas pressures, the gas gets pulled too quickly out of the bloodstream, leaving gas bubbles behind. This is what happens to SCUBA divers who ascend too quickly and create a big difference in gas pressures, which leads to the diver getting gas bubble formation or the “bends”. In fish, gas bubbles can accumulate behind the eye, making it bulge outward.

Water in a newly filled tank will be supersaturated with gases and you will see the gas bubbles covering the inside of the tank. The more that the water is agitated as you are pouring it in for the first time, the less supersaturation you will have. Agitation of water releases gas from it. Normal aeration will speed up the time that it takes for this excess gas to leave the water. When the bubbles on the tank disappear, then it is safe to put your fish into the new water.

High-powered powerheads, that shoot streams of air into your tank’s water, can lead to nitrogen supersaturation. Treatment in this circumstance would be to turn down the powerhead water stream adjustment to its’ lowest setting and allow the air pump to be the only source of air. For the next few days, observe your fish. If the pop-eye starts to go away, then it was due to nitrogen supersaturation. If there is no change or the condition worsens, then the pop-eye is most likely due to an infectious cause and probably a bacterial one.

An excess of nitrogen gas can also occur as a result of a large build-up of nitrites and nitrates in the water and has been seen in deep wells and frozen-over ponds and lakes, but probably does not happen to a significant degree in the aquarium. It is always important however to maintain excellent water quality for your fish. Under normal circumstances, there should be no measurable nitrites and the nitrates should be kept at 20 ppm or lower for all but the most sensitive species.

 

[annie.m]

Already thought that but no bubbles stuck to glass or plants but it does sit next to the bubbler but dont really want to remove that from tank, I might reposition it tho. Definately look like bubbles both same either side of the head. All the other fish seem fine. Any ideas how to treat it if its the bacteria cause? Thankyou for the superfast response.

 

[WILDER]

If the bubbles are beneath the skin check water stats, and turn pump down.

 

[annie.m]

Just turned airator really low Carbonate Hardness are low between 0-3 PH is 6.4-6.8 both low & Nitrate is still a bit on high side at 50-100 so have put some Tetra NitrateMinus in, i'l do a partial water change tomorrow after getting something for PH levels. I'l let you know the outcome in a few days.
Many thanx
Annie

 

[WILDER]

Do you use ph adjusters as there not worth the trouble.
If you do large water changes it can be bad as the tap ph to tank can be to much of a ph swing.

 

[annie.m]

Never needed to bother with PH as always been fine but always on the low side, there are a lot more plants and new monapi wood that has gone into this tank though so wether thats effected PH, has been lower though in this new tank than the old, also was doing water changes earlier on of about 15lts but use Nutrafin Aqua Plus & also the Cycle on each change.

 

[WILDER]

Not sure about the wood you have in the tank, but some woods can lower ph like bogwood.
What is your tap nitrate reading.
When did you last squeeze a filter sponge in old tank water.

 

[annie.m]

Never over the years had I thought to ever check that, just over 10 for Nitrate, General Hardness is 16 but Carbonate Hardness is not even 0, & PH is 6.4 both of them are worse than the tank. Have started to feed the birchir & shovelnose smelt & wondering now if that would be making a difference too.
The filter sponge was done on Saturday, do it each water change & in old tank water too, thats been mankier than what the old filter in old tank used to be so since Saturday I have cut down on the feeding.

 

[WILDER]

Ok, thats fine then.
Good luck.