What’s wrong with my harlequin rasbora?

[Sistesu]

Hi so I’m fairly new to owning tropical fish, I’ve had my tank for about a month maybe nearly 2 and as of right now I have 1 beta, 7 neons, 3 small shrimp (forgot what they were called but they’re transparent) and 7 harlequin rasboras. The temp is 26 - 27 degree Celsius and it’s a 22 litre tank. I’ve just changed about 10% of the water and cleaned the pump and noticed the harlequins have this white coating on them it looks like dry skin and is only on a couple of them, another one can’t shut it’s mouth. My other fish are fine it just seems to be the harlequins. They don’t seem to be acting weird but I’m concerned as I’ve never seen it before. I’m planning on changing the pump since it’s not the best. Is this normal should I be concerned? I’ve attached a couple of photos but they’re not the clearest since they move around a lot.

(I don’t know if the link will work so sorry I’m advance)

 

[Colin_T]

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/#post-3804819

someone else deal with this, i'm too tired to help tonight.

 

[Essjay]

To be honest, your tank is way too small for all those fish. It is just big enough for the betta. Neons and harlequins need a tank at least 60 cm long, with bigger being better.

This would not have caused the problem with the harlequins directly but it will cause problems for them.
Firstly the small size will stress the neons and harlequins, and stressed fish get sick easier.
secondly, with so many fish in such a small tank you probably have water quality issues. What are the levels of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate in the tank? Any level of ammonia and nitrite is harmful to fish, and a nitrate level of over 20 ppm is also harmful. Please let us know those levels, either from your own test kit or take a sample to a fish shop and ask them to test for those three - and get the numbers not something vague like OK or bit high. You don't mention how you cycled the tank (ie grown the beneficial bacteria needed to remove the ammonia made by the fish, and the nitriate made from that) so you may still have ammonia and nitrite in the water. And with that many fish, nitrate will build up quickly unless you do large water changes at least once a week.
It would also be useful to know how hard your water is. This information should be somewhere on your water provider's website - again we need a number, and the unit, rather than some vague words. If you can't find it, a fish shop can test a sample of your tap water for GH and KH (the two types of hardness)
When you say change the pump do you mean the filter? If you change that you need to move all the media (the stuff inside the filter) into the new one. The good bacteria that have grown in the filter in the last month or so must be kept for the sake of the fish, and using the old media is the way to do that.


Going forwards, you need to either return the harlequins and neons, or get a bigger tank and move the harlequins and neons into that. We can help you set up a bigger tank so that you don't put the fish through a fish-in cycle.
Your current 22 litre tank is fine for the betta, but they are not community fish and should be kept alone. The shrimps may or may not survive with a betta long term.

 

[Sistesu]

Thankyou for the advice I went to a local pet shop whose owner I’m good friends with. She keeps very good care of her own fish and does it as a hobby and not to make financial gain like chain pet stores. The ammonia and nitrate levels were the issue as well as a fungal infection I’ve got a Plan for the next week to treat this.

As for the size she keeps the same number of fish in a similar size tank just a little bigger. The betas you can keep with the neons and harlequins but I’ll take your advice and get a bigger tank asap I just don’t know if I should move them to a bigger tank while treating them or if that will cause too much stress or should I just wait until I know that they’re ok.

 

[Essjay]

I would be sceptical of things that even this fish shop says, and instead look at Seriously Fish http://www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/ It is quite possible that the shop owner is out of date whereas Seriously Fish contains the most recent thinking on keeping fish. You'll see on that site the minimum tank size needed for each species of fish.


If you do get a bigger tank you will need to cycle it before moving the fish over or they will be exposed to more ammonia and nitrite. You have a few options.
Do a fishless cycle following this method http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/ although this means waiting for a month or two before the tank is safe.
Move some of the media to the new tank. Not all of it as the betta will need some. And move the neons and harlequins at the same time as the media.
With both of these I suggest using Dr Tim's One and Only if it is available where you live, or Tetra Safe Start.
The third option is to plant the new tank with live plants. You need more than just the odd one or two plants, and floating plants are particularly useful. Once you are sure that the plants are doing well, then move the fish over. Measure ammonia and nitrite every day to make sure that the plants are taking up all the ammonia, and do water changes if either show up.

The fish can be treated in the new tank; they will benefit from the extra space, and with lots of water changes could improve by themselves.

 

[Sistesu]

I’ve already got plants in my current tank but I’ll take your advice as soon as I can get my hands on a new tank unfortunately I won’t be able to acquire one right away. I’ve had them for a couple of months and this is really the first problem I’ve encountered so hopefully they’ll be ok as I mentioned before I have got a plan in place.

As for the moving them, since it is a water and fungal problem I’m still unsure if I should wait for the fungal problem to clear up? Im so sorry if this is all trivial and I’m wasting your time as I said before I am very new to this and have been misinformed. Thankyou again for your help it means a lot.

 

[Colin_T]

Post a picture of the fish. its more likely to be excess mucous not fungus

 

[Sistesu]

This is as clear as I could get it it looks a lot worse in person.

 

[Colin_T]

it's not fungus.
it is excess mucous caused by a protozoan or bacterial infection, or poor water quality.

Fish have a thin layer of mucous over their body. It helps them move through the water easier and also acts as a barrier to help stop parasites and disease organisms getting onto their skin.

When fish are stressed out or kept in water with ammonia or nitrite, or high levels of nitrates, these chemicals irritate the fish and the fish produces more mucous to try and reduce the irritation. The same thing happens when parasites are biting the fish. The fish produces more mucous to try and reduce the irritation.

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Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

The big water changes will dilute any nutrients and disease organisms in the water and you should see a major improvement within a couple of days. If the problem gets worse after a couple of days, and the water quality is good (has 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and less than 20ppm of nitrate), then it is either bacterial or protozoan. Protozoan infections normally cause the fish to rub on objects. Bacterial infections can stop fish eating and usually kill fish within a few days of the white/ cream film appearing on the body. But try daily water changes first and see if there's an improvement.

 

[Sistesu]

Oh Thankyou so much! I’ll definitely take your advice and I’ve just got my hands on a bigger tank so hopefully they’ll improve.