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Whats wrong with my fish ?


robdog013

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Hi Guys,

I have about 30 maingano, 8 hongi, 5 yellows, 2 fronts and 2 chippo's in a six foot tank, dimensions are 6 x 14 x 18. I run this tank on two canister filters and two power head filters. I perform 40 percent water changes twice a week.

The problem is recently after the addition of more mainganos the fish started to flick themselves against rocks and the sand substrate. I thought it was ick and treated the tank with ichonex, I also thought it was due to the little air bubbles produced by the power heads, so I turned them off for a couple of days, the fish still flicking. I read here that some non-iodised salt may help, I have tried this and I am out of ideas.

the fish all seem healthy, no whitespots are seen and they all have a healthy appetite.

Can anyone out there give me some advice?

Cheers ;)

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Not that I'm an expert, but i had a very similar issue with my fish, in a very similar setup. Upon advice from these forums, i pumped the temperature up to about 28 - 29degrees more as a preventative than anything, and as a result the fish stopped rubbing themselves. I've since dropped hte temp again without any signs of return.

HTH.

Tony

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sometimes whitespot will be invisable/harder to see at lower temps - up the temp & keep treating with the gear in case

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G'day mate sounds like a slight case of velevet.

Try add a dose of promethasyl in the tank, it turns things blue, including tubing and silicone.

If this is no good to you, try adding protozin.

Mike.

If you are going to try any of these tretments make sure that you have no activated carbon in any of your filters. The carbon will soak up all the medication and you will be wasting your time and money.

t does sound like whitespot. So turn up the temp treat, gravel vac treat again and if pssible turn up your air as well.

Good luck

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It's very hard to diagnose fish over the forums. I'd suggest you turn up the temperature regardless and add 5g of NaCl (rock or sea salt is fine) per litre of aquarium water. Most parasites dont like changes in osmotic pressure and this can frequently help. That said it's important to correctly diagnose the disease so you can treat the right parasite effectively.

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Its not just simply agitation from a fish being super dominant?

I get a bit of flashing in my tank of male Ps and Lab. Its usually from aggression. No one dies or develops any disease. Stops after a while or when the lights go off.

Maybe with your latest addition of Maingano you have introduced a boofhead into the tank? Rearrange it a bit.

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At first I thought it was a display of aggression however I think that the prob is a little more widespread than only the mainganos dominance displays beacuse the Hongi and yellows are also flicking.

I placed a second heater in the tank last night I checked the temp at it was only at 22 degrees so will have to wait a couple of days for it to reach 30. I also added 5g of salt per litre. The flicking has died down alittle.

Thanks to everyone who has given me advice...much appreiated

:thumbup:

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Changing 80% of your water each week seems extreme to me. While these fish have been in the trade a while they may still react poorly to such continual changes in water parameters, and what you see might be a response to that...just a thought

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A few good points raised. Sounds like flukes of sort,{gill or body} which are near impossible to spot. Also whitespot itself can live in the gills for long periods of times, if the body of the fish itself is healthy. I would go with Yew approach first & see how that goes.

Frenchy :)

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Never thought I would ever say this, but perhaps cut back on the water changes.

How are you doing your changes? are you aging the water in a large tub, bringing it up to temp and identical parrameters as your tank before adding, or just straight from a hose or bucket?

It does sound like Whitespot, being that so many are displaying the symtoms at once. This can be bought on by many things like: stress from new tankmates, fighting, not enough water changes, too many water changes, incorrect water parrameters and transport.

Good Luck.

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I had a similar problem with fish "flashing" especially after a water change but sometimes even without. Upon closer inspection I realised most of the flashing was on gill plates and around head area. I investigated tap water and realised nitrite was present and somedays was quite high. When I switched to a trickle filter the flashing stopped. Nitrite burns and irritates just like ammonia. Have a close look and see if yours are doing the same. Perhaps your cleaning filters too well?

Addition of salt will help since this thickens the slime coat.

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I have inspected the fish and it does appear that most of the flashin is occuring on the head and gills. I will purchase a nitrite and nitrate testing kit this week and do some investigations. Thanks guys

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