Unknown Freshwater Tropical Fish Illness.

[ner3k]

hello everyone, new here. i have a problem with my fish in my 29 gallon. they seem to have some sort of irritation. symptoms include rapid darting, flashing, and the appearance of "choking" on something. i am familiar with ich (ick?) and none of my fish have white spots. it seems to be gill related. i presume velvet? however, i have read up on this ailment, and although it starts in the gills of the fish, it seems it kills the fish off rather quickly. all of the fish which have been showing signs of stress are still alive. and i cant manage to find the gold dust appearance. there are no other common diseases that fit the exact description of what is going on here. i do bi weekly water changes, and i also use aquarium salt. water conditions are good. does anyone have any ideas? the disease has not affected every fish-i have four red eye tetras that have been alive since the tank was first started up a year ago. although not fatal to my fish, they are under stress and it needs to be taken care of. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Jackiee]

what are your water paramaters and have you recently added any new fish?
and what exactly do you have your tank stocked with, species wise..

Also, when you say flashing and darting, are they just acting as if they are spooked;
and are they rubbing themselves on anything in the tank like gravel, decorations, plants?
do they seem to be hanging out at the top of the tank near the water surface or anything along those lines?


It could possibly be skin/gill flukes, have you by chance researched the symptoms and the disease on the internet, yet?

Flukes are a parasite that attack the gills and skin. Small numbers of flukes are pretty much harmless, but in bad water conditions, over crowding, or tanks with larger organic content or waste, they can multiply at a fast rate. The symptoms are usually fish that will flash or scrape its self against decorations, rapid gill movement. and at a more advanced stage, the fish might isolate itself and lie at the bottom with fins clamped and could start showing so cloudy skin due to excess mucus and slime coat that they are producing from the irritation and what not.. If it is skin or gill flukes, I've read that they're hard to treat and you could do consecutive salt baths over 2-3 days, or you can go buy commercial medicine for it at your LFS.

 

[ner3k]

thanks for the reply. ive researched into the gill/skin flukes, but it seems that my fish have symptoms that dont quite match up. in my tank i have as follows. 4 bamboo shrimp, 3 red eye tetra, 1 rummynose, 4 scissortail rasbora, 1 bala shark, 1 angelicus botia, 1 sewlli lineolata, 1 dwarf albine bristlenose, 1 chain loach, 1 striata loach, pictus cat, 1 flying fox, and a chinese algae eater. the bottom dwellers seem to be the most affected. i do realize that i may be overstocked in my 29 gal. tank is planted, as well if that means anything. i just did a test, and everything measured within safe parameters except for the nitrate, which was at 80 ppm. i conducted a water change yesterday. the last time i added fish was a few weeks ago, the chain loach and striata. they do not seem to be affected.

flashing probably wasnt the word i was looking for. some of the fish will glance off rocks, and there is rapid gill movement, but after a bit they are back to normal. also, certain fish will dart in a certain direction. i guess you could say they may seem spooked. my bala shark is probably the biggest fish in the tank (4 inches) and today i noticed a little red speck on the outside of the gill. havent come across any diseases where that could be attributed.

 

[Jackiee]

I used to have a slightly overstocked 29 gal, I say as long as you have good water parameters and not stunting growth of the fish, all is well.

and in all reality 80 ppm of nitrates isn't all that bad. Most people like to stay in the 25 ppm range, but It's hard to say what is really 'dangerous' for nitrates,
I would not be overly concerned with nitrates of 80ppm. Unless you have some really sensitive species of fish, many of them can be perfectly fine into the 100's of ppms of nitrate.

I have heard various safe limits from 40ppm, 80ppm, even 200ppm. But who really knows.

But I have read that rummynose's are sensitive to nitrates as well as your angelicus botia, and also many loaches are known for being sensitive to high nitrates, and you said that your bottom feeders are mostly affected.
They could be showing signs of sickness/stress from the toxicity of your nitrates? The only thing I can suggest is on trying to get your nitrates down as low as you can with many water changes and see if there are any changes in them.