Velvet?

[cmfoggy]

Hi all

I have seen some of my fish twitch and scratch themselves on the gravel and decorations in their tank.

I dont think it is ick, there are no visible signs of white specs on them.

I cant actually see anything on them, they are all eating, and swimming around, everything seems normal with them except they twitch and scratch.

Dont know what to do.

Do I treat for ick???

Do I treat for velvet???

Do I treat for parasites???

I have a 150lt tank
temp hovering between 25-27 C (cant bring it down because the weather here in Aust has been hot)
ammonia 0
GH 100ppm
KH 0ppm
pH about 7.3 (currently trying to slowly bring down to 7)
nitrite 0ppm
nitrate 20ppm (currently doing 20% water changes everyday to try and bring down to <10ppm)
have live plants (not heavily planted)
plently of oxygen in water

Inmates are
4 b/n catfish (none are fully grown, biggest one is 8cms)
5 corys (will be moving out when their new tank has cycled) (none fully grown)
8 neon tetras
1 albino RT shark (only about 7cms)

cheers

 

[darknirvana217]

It sounds like your about to have an ick outbreak. There is a chance that the scratching will stop and there won't be an outbreak, but with such delicate, and small fish, its probably inevitable. I would not dose them until you see visible signs of ick. If you do treat them, and they're not sick, you risk lowering there immune system. Also, with such delictae fish like tetras its best not to put medicine in your tank unless you have to, don't just do it based on a hint of sickness. just give it a few days and keep watching for white spots.

 

[rabbut]

It definately sounds like the symptoms of a parasite. I would get hold of a general parasite med, such as Waterlife Protozin, so that meds are on hand when you have sysmptoms to diagnose by. Protozin has Copper Sulfate, Formaldahyde and Malachite Green as active ingrediants, and these are effective against most parasites, with the exception of Flukes. Though flukes is a possibility, I doubt that this is the problem, as flicking wouldn't be the only sysmptom.
I would probibly be worth holding off on actualy dosing the meds untill you are cirtain there is an issue though. One of the most common sources of problems in a tank, is treating for the wrong thing. You cannot be cirtain that Protozin is the exact med you need untill there are more outward sysmtopms, but as I say, it will treat all but one of the problems that it could be here. Protozin is a very general med, so in useful to have lieing arround, should you ever have any problems, as there are only a few diseases that it is not effective against.

HTH
Rabbut

 

[cmfoggy]

Hi

The more i look the more i think it might be parasites.

Tomorrow I'm going to buy some sort of parasite treatment and hopefully it will be safe to use with b/n as they dont have any visible symtoms, and i dont have another tank to transfer them in to.

Thanks, and lets hope for the best

cheers

 

[rabbut]

I would hold of meds for now, untill you know what your are treating for. There is also a chance that this is a bacterial problem. I would post in the emergency section, with a full list of symptoms and the water stats. That way you will hopefuly get a diagnosis

All the best of luck
Rabbut