Jackiee
Fish Crazy
It's gonna be a long one, so be patient to read!
It's been a long time since I've posted on here because for the past 3 years or so, my 100 gallon tank has been perfectly fine, no issues.. Except for now! So here I am, back in action!
First of all, tank size.. 100 gallon. Inhabitants.. 2 female jack dempseys, 2 blood parrots, 1 severum, 1 red devil, 1 small rescued Oscar who has remained small due to stunted growth from his previous owner, and a sailfin leopard pleco.
Some say this is overcrowded, however I have never had any issues between the compatibility of the fish or my water parameters..
I have one Fluval 304 canister filter under the tank, and two other filters hanging off the back of the tank that include a Whisper 60 power filter and a Marineland Hot Magnum..
Last week I took apart my Fluval 304 canister filter to clean it because I hadn't cleaned it in a year.. (I slacked, I know), but I clean my other two filters (with dechlorinated tap water by using Prime) fairly regularly, every couple months, to keep them flowing well and get rid of any leftover waste/food that they happen to suck up. I also replace the carbon in the Whisper 60 power filter cartridges every few cleanings.. And this has been working for me for the longest time.
Back to my point.. I cleaned/dumped out my canister filter last week for the first time in a long time (it was filthy inside, I cleaned everything in it with dechlorinated tap water using prime as well)... After this was complete, I started the filter back up. It had much, much better flow than before now that it was clean. Of course it blew out some junky water for a second when first turned on (as per usual), I then filled the tank the rest of the way up with tap water dechlorinated with Prime. It was low from evaporation..
I tested my water right after I cleaned the filter and added water to the tank, my ammonia was between 0-0.25ppm (but my tap water has ammonia in it so this tends to be normal after I add water), my nitrites were 0, my nitrates were about 20ppm..
The thing is, there was a water main break on my street.. As well as a sewage line break around the same time. 5 days prior to me doing all this to my tank.. My entire street went on a "boil order" for only 2 days and all was supposed to be fine for us to use the water afterwards...
But who knows what they put into the water to "disinfect" it as a precaution, but almost immediately after I cleaned my canister filter and filled the tank up the rest of the way with dechlorinated water from the tap, a couple days later, my largest Jack Dempsey started showing signs of flashing.
She was rubbing herself up against the heater. I've seen her do this at very random and very seldom times before when she would have an itch here or there, but this wasn't the same. It was much more frequent and she started doing it on other objects in the tank as well, like the driftwood even flipping upside down to do so.. I know a lot of the times this can be a sign of ich or some other irritant, but I looked at her closely and couldn't see anything physically wrong with her.
I then began to noticed my Pleco's belly was starting to look sunken in, even though he was getting adequate food. He also started going to the surface of the water to gulp air quite often. This isn't very normal for him at all. His color also was changing to a mottled/discolored look which indicates stress. I very closely looked at him and seen very tiny white dots on him, but there were only maybe 3.. Same for my jack dempsey who was flashing. Barely noticed a couple specs on her but nothing major.. Not covering him or her in an outbreak like Ich usually does..
The next day after this happened, my smallest blood parrot started coming down with white spots (almost looks fungus-like) on his head. Completely different from the small white specs on the other 2 fish. He also began itching and flashing to relieve the spots on his head..
Then my larger blood parrot got a similar looking white patch but only on her upper lip in her mouth. I have dealt with fungus infection before in a different fish tank, but this doesn't look exactly the same as what I seen before.
As far as the other fish, no visible signs of infection. No itching from any of them either.. I did some labored breathing from most of my fish though. Only the night before I went and bought medication though..
I have since treated the tank with Mardel Coppersafe (chelated copper sulfate) for ich, velvet, and external parasites, it says.. All of the itching and flashing from the fish has stopped since the medication has been put in the tank, and the few white specs I seen on the dempsey and pleco have seemed to disappear, but the fungus-like white spots on my blood parrots are still there and don't seem to be getting better.. And the pleco's stomach is still sunken. It may have improved a bit, but not much. The medication has been in the tank 3 days now.
I tested my water last night and my ammonia was now 0.50ppm, my nitrites still 0, but my nitrates had jumped to 80ppm?!... Idk if this is because I started adding more wafers for the pleco during feeding time over the past week.. May be from overfeeding? I didn't think it was that much though! Plus my fish themselves like to pick at the pleco wafers so they usually don't go uneaten..
I can't do a water change right now to lower my nitrates because I frankly don't trust my tap water at the moment.. Construction work is still being done on my street.. And if I do a large water change, my ammonia also jumps because my tap water has an ammonia reading of 4.0ppm...
I've been dosing my tank daily with Prime as a short term solution to detoxify the nitrates and ammonia. I don't really know what else to do right now.. (Pleco's stress discoloration went away since I've been doing this)
I bought Pimafix for fungal treatment in case the Mardel Coppersafe didn't complete the job.. I'm thinking there's more than one disease/infection going on here.. And it doesn't help that my nitrates and ammonia have spiked.
I will include some pictures of the white spots on my blood parrot's head..
It's been a long time since I've posted on here because for the past 3 years or so, my 100 gallon tank has been perfectly fine, no issues.. Except for now! So here I am, back in action!
First of all, tank size.. 100 gallon. Inhabitants.. 2 female jack dempseys, 2 blood parrots, 1 severum, 1 red devil, 1 small rescued Oscar who has remained small due to stunted growth from his previous owner, and a sailfin leopard pleco.
Some say this is overcrowded, however I have never had any issues between the compatibility of the fish or my water parameters..
I have one Fluval 304 canister filter under the tank, and two other filters hanging off the back of the tank that include a Whisper 60 power filter and a Marineland Hot Magnum..
Last week I took apart my Fluval 304 canister filter to clean it because I hadn't cleaned it in a year.. (I slacked, I know), but I clean my other two filters (with dechlorinated tap water by using Prime) fairly regularly, every couple months, to keep them flowing well and get rid of any leftover waste/food that they happen to suck up. I also replace the carbon in the Whisper 60 power filter cartridges every few cleanings.. And this has been working for me for the longest time.
Back to my point.. I cleaned/dumped out my canister filter last week for the first time in a long time (it was filthy inside, I cleaned everything in it with dechlorinated tap water using prime as well)... After this was complete, I started the filter back up. It had much, much better flow than before now that it was clean. Of course it blew out some junky water for a second when first turned on (as per usual), I then filled the tank the rest of the way up with tap water dechlorinated with Prime. It was low from evaporation..
I tested my water right after I cleaned the filter and added water to the tank, my ammonia was between 0-0.25ppm (but my tap water has ammonia in it so this tends to be normal after I add water), my nitrites were 0, my nitrates were about 20ppm..
The thing is, there was a water main break on my street.. As well as a sewage line break around the same time. 5 days prior to me doing all this to my tank.. My entire street went on a "boil order" for only 2 days and all was supposed to be fine for us to use the water afterwards...
But who knows what they put into the water to "disinfect" it as a precaution, but almost immediately after I cleaned my canister filter and filled the tank up the rest of the way with dechlorinated water from the tap, a couple days later, my largest Jack Dempsey started showing signs of flashing.
She was rubbing herself up against the heater. I've seen her do this at very random and very seldom times before when she would have an itch here or there, but this wasn't the same. It was much more frequent and she started doing it on other objects in the tank as well, like the driftwood even flipping upside down to do so.. I know a lot of the times this can be a sign of ich or some other irritant, but I looked at her closely and couldn't see anything physically wrong with her.
I then began to noticed my Pleco's belly was starting to look sunken in, even though he was getting adequate food. He also started going to the surface of the water to gulp air quite often. This isn't very normal for him at all. His color also was changing to a mottled/discolored look which indicates stress. I very closely looked at him and seen very tiny white dots on him, but there were only maybe 3.. Same for my jack dempsey who was flashing. Barely noticed a couple specs on her but nothing major.. Not covering him or her in an outbreak like Ich usually does..
The next day after this happened, my smallest blood parrot started coming down with white spots (almost looks fungus-like) on his head. Completely different from the small white specs on the other 2 fish. He also began itching and flashing to relieve the spots on his head..
Then my larger blood parrot got a similar looking white patch but only on her upper lip in her mouth. I have dealt with fungus infection before in a different fish tank, but this doesn't look exactly the same as what I seen before.
As far as the other fish, no visible signs of infection. No itching from any of them either.. I did some labored breathing from most of my fish though. Only the night before I went and bought medication though..
I have since treated the tank with Mardel Coppersafe (chelated copper sulfate) for ich, velvet, and external parasites, it says.. All of the itching and flashing from the fish has stopped since the medication has been put in the tank, and the few white specs I seen on the dempsey and pleco have seemed to disappear, but the fungus-like white spots on my blood parrots are still there and don't seem to be getting better.. And the pleco's stomach is still sunken. It may have improved a bit, but not much. The medication has been in the tank 3 days now.
I tested my water last night and my ammonia was now 0.50ppm, my nitrites still 0, but my nitrates had jumped to 80ppm?!... Idk if this is because I started adding more wafers for the pleco during feeding time over the past week.. May be from overfeeding? I didn't think it was that much though! Plus my fish themselves like to pick at the pleco wafers so they usually don't go uneaten..
I can't do a water change right now to lower my nitrates because I frankly don't trust my tap water at the moment.. Construction work is still being done on my street.. And if I do a large water change, my ammonia also jumps because my tap water has an ammonia reading of 4.0ppm...
I've been dosing my tank daily with Prime as a short term solution to detoxify the nitrates and ammonia. I don't really know what else to do right now.. (Pleco's stress discoloration went away since I've been doing this)
I bought Pimafix for fungal treatment in case the Mardel Coppersafe didn't complete the job.. I'm thinking there's more than one disease/infection going on here.. And it doesn't help that my nitrates and ammonia have spiked.
I will include some pictures of the white spots on my blood parrot's head..
/www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/freshwater-conditions/hexamita.aspx
