Siamese algae eater has open wound

[Elisabeth83]

Well from previous posts you know I've been having troubles with my 26 gallon tank. Probably due to overcrowding which leads to poor water quality. Well the overcrowding has been solved with 6 guppies being moved to a new tank.

Anyways I bought 3 siamese algae eaters about a month ago..and about 2 weeks ago one of them developed a wound near the base of his tail...I wasn't sure what it was but my 5 month old swordtail fry had (still has) a whitish/clear patch on her right side..so I treated for fungas..which didn't help the algae eater or my swordtail. The other day from another topic I posted I found out I had too much gravel in the tank which wasn't good cause waste and food was getting stuck in it...so yesterday I took out about half a bucket of gravel which caused a lot of junk to be stirred up.

Now I just had a look in the tank and noticed the algae eaters eye sticking out which means he has pop-eye probably due to bad water conditions. I've been doing water changes quite often in that tank probably about 2-3 times a week for the last 2 weeks I change about 20-30% of the water trying to get my fish healthy again. I don't want to use any medication...so should I just try and stick this out and just continue the water changes and hope my algae eater and swordtail get better..or should I use something...and if so what should I use??

I've been reading up on pop-eye but there seems to be so many different causes..and I have no idea what one my algae eater has. I even read something about TB being linked to pop-eye and it worried me cause it said something about open wounds like ulcers which the wound he has might be that...I'm not sure. The wound has healed up somewhat but there is a whitish covering over it now.

Ugh please help.......

 

[Elisabeth83]

I tested the water 2 days ago and everything was great. The only thing my test kit doesn't test for is ammonia and I know that is like the most important one...I can't get my hands on one anytime soon cause my lfs doesn't carry them and the only other place is about 45 mins away.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I have just been having so many problems lately...I can't see a light at the end of the tunnel...I feel like giving up I'm so depressed about these fish

 

[squidlips]

are you using a gravel vac when you do water changes?wot filtration do you have?

 

[Elisabeth83]

yeah I am using a gravel vac when I do the changes...

the filter I have sits inside the tank and it has a sponge in it....

 

[Elisabeth83]

I just did a 30% water change/gravel vac...and there was a lot of waste in the gravel. A lot of this debri/waste though was from yesterday when I took out half the gravel and it settled back on top. The gravel is down to about an inch now. I am hoping that with these water changes/gravel vacs I am getting out all the bad stuff that was stuck in the gravel when it was about 2 or so inchs deep.

 

[wetwetwet]

Sorry to hear you're having problems E'83

Try and stick with it - many of us go through rough patches, but it'll be worth it in the end.

It sounds as though you are doing everything right - maybe try something like melafix which some have had great success with.

What are the actuall water readings?

The only other thing I'd question - especially considering the 'debrie' - would be whether you are overfeeding which can soon cause water quality problems...




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[Elisabeth83]

Hi wetwetwet,

Thanks for your support

They don't have melafix here in Sweden but I'm gonna look into ordering it from aquariumpros.

I can't remember the exact numbers but everything was good....I'm gonna do another test today or tomorrow so I'll post what the results are.

I believe I was overfeeding...I was feeding wafers almost everynight about 3-4 smaller pieces broken off from the big piece of wafer. I've compleatly cut down on that though and am only feeding 1-2 small pieces of wafer about 3 times a week. Also with having fry in the tank I was feeding them the crushed fry food about 3 times a day...but have cut back to just once a day after reading a similar post on here about someone asking how much they should feed their fry when they are in the main tank.

I'm gonna continue the water changes and pray everything sorts itself out. If things dont get better...and the algae eaters eye starts to get really bad...should I treat with a bacterial medication?

 

[wetwetwet]

You could try buying pure tee tree oil from a chemist or health food store and making your own as cfc does

CLICK HERE

If not then a broad spectrum anti bacterial should help...



hth



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[Elisabeth83]

Alright...I'm gonna try and make my own. Is tee tree oil basically what Melafix is??

What would the dosage be per US gallon?

The plus side with using this would be that it wouldn't destroy my benificial bacteria like the bacterial medication would right?