Sick fish? What's wrong?

[glctsc]

Sorry, I updated the notepad instead of the signature the first time...

Hi,
One of our Neon Rainbow fish keeps swimming with his head just below the surface. He's been doing it for approx 5 days now and he hasn't eaten in that time. We added 3 Boesemani Rainbow fish 2 weeks ago that developed ich the day after we added them. We raised our temp to over 86 degrees for 10 days and that seemed to take care of the problem. A couple of days after we lowered the temp, we decided to add Melafix (after a 1/3 water change) in case there should be any secondary infections. The rainbow started hanging out at the top of the tank after the first day of treatment. We thought at first the melafix would help but it's been 6 days and he hasn't gotten any better. One of the other neon's fins are a little pale but at least he swims and eats normally. Everyone else seems fine.
We test our water parameters every week (ph every other day) and everything tests fine. The tank is 6 mos. old , 75 gals., live plants, fish & parameters in signature. Does anyone know what it could be?
Thanks! Tammy

75 Gal. - Heavily Planted
5 Neon Rainbows
3 Boesemani Rainbows
9 Rummynose Tetras
2 Clown Loaches
3 White Cloud Minnows
4 SAEs

Well water
PH 7.3 (Tested with Oakton Ph tester 3 plus)
KH 15.7
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10 mg/l
O2 8 - 10 mg/l
Phos 0.1 mg/l
Co2 24 ppm
Temp 79 - 82
Water changes 1/4 to 1/3 weekly

 

[Da_Oz]

If your tank is at 86 I would bet that there is no O2 in your tank. Water has a hard time holding air at that temp. Then you added a med that takes out even more of the air. Try adding a air stone and see if it helps.

Also plants use Co2 during the day to make O2. And at night use O2 to make Co2. This is all I can think of right now. I wish you the best of luck with your fish. I if come up with more I will post it here.

 

[glctsc]

Thanks for your reply! When he first went to the top we thought it might be the o2
so we checked it it was at 8mg/l and I think that's a good level? We added two air pumps when we first turned up the temp to add o2 with our aquaclear filter. He didn't go up until we let the temp go down to 82 and added the melafix. Does anyone know if maybe some fish don't react well to melafix?

 

[glctsc]

Please help! We came home from work today and he's covered in a white film. It's all over his mouth, fins, and body. I's not like thie ich, it actually looks like he was dipped in baby powder. Also one of the other neon rainbows has it on his front fins. What should we do? Please help...

 

[Boggle]

Hi, maybe this is it?

Velvet


Symptoms: Very small white speckles on fish. Resembles a fine powder.

Treatment: There are many commercially available products to cure Velvet. Among them are Maracide by Mardel Laboratories and Super Velvet by Aquatronics.

Information: Velvet, or Oodinium, is a very common disease which resembles Ich. The white pustules are much finer and are located mainly on the body. It is a little easier to cure than Ich, since the life cycle is not so rapid. It commonly follows chilling or stress caused by transportation or poor water quality

 

[glctsc]

Hi! Thanks so much for your reply. We thought it might be Velvet but I was checking different sites last night and couldn't find anything definitive. I'm glad someone who knows what they are talking about thinks it's velvet too! We're still newbies and this is only the second illness (had ich). Any thoughts on the best thing to use with the clown loach? Thanks again!!!

 

[Boggle]

That's ok, I hope the neon gets better

I don't think you mentioned what was wrong with the clown loach (if anything), but I would suggest seperating any sick fish from the clown loaches while you're treating them. Clown loach are very sensitive to meds, and shouldn't be exposed to them unnecesarily. I know with my loaches I have to use half the dosage or it has an adverse effect on them.