# Sick Fish



## Paladin68 (Jul 16, 2012)

I will post with water conditions as soon as I get them but thought the photo might give me some ideas as to what to do first. Any help would be appreciated.


----------



## bluenapG (Mar 30, 2011)

Looks like a bacterial skin infection spotting up. The little yellow dot near the anal fin may be a parasite, so you may have a secondary infection happening.


----------



## Paladin68 (Jul 16, 2012)

Okay, well I can now see some of my problems. How the heck to I fix them?

Nitrite - 5
Nitrate- 40
Alkalinity - 180
Hardness - 75
pH - 7.5 to 8.0


----------



## bluenapG (Mar 30, 2011)

What is your ammonia reading? Your nitrites should be 0 and Nitrates are right at the top of the line. Do you have other fish? Right off the bat, I would do a good water change with some Prime or other nitrite/nitrate remover (and ammo remover). I would also remove the fish to a QT and treat him/her with an anti-bacterial medication and/or a anti-parasitic with anti-bacterial added. I think I've seen something like that yellow dot on another website, and can send the link to you to see if it matches.


----------



## Paladin68 (Jul 16, 2012)

Ammonia is reading between 0 and 0.25 (leaning toward the lower end). This is a 90 gallon tank and there are now 20 fish in it (plus a few fry that have survived). I have a mix of mbuna and peacocks in there. I run two magnum 350's on it and have been doing weekly water changes of about 25 to 30 %.

Any links or other helpful ideas would be appreciated. Thank you.


----------



## bluenapG (Mar 30, 2011)

Well - sounds like your tank is not completely cycled. The ammo, nitrite and nitrate readings mean you will need to do a 50% water change to get everything to zero. Looks like this guy is a bit weaker than the others and is showing stress from the water quality.

The website I mentioned with pictures is: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_pal ... ation.html - but it's sort of like looking up human diseases on the internet.

My suggestion about it being a bacterial infection is based on my experience with my fish. It could be the onset of Columnaris where the white patches become red. I used Maroxy and Furan-2 (not together) to treat my fish. The Furan-2 in a QT tank took care of it.

Yours looks like it's at the beginning of an infection and the little yellow dot could be a small parasite or a bacterial bundle hanging off the fin. I would move him/her to a QT keeping the water as pristine as possible until the patches go away. You may also want to cut down on feeding until your tank is fully cycled and you get 0 ammo and nitrites.

Maybe other folks will have suggestions as well.

Good luck!


----------



## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

The yellow dot is an egg spot, completely normal. Looks like the fish is stressed due to poor water quality (high nitrites). 
How long has the tank been running? Did you clean filters lately?
As mentioned, you'll need to perform water changes to bring down the nitrite reading. Use a dechlorinator that detoxifies nitrite, such as Seachem Prime when performing water changes. This will detox the nitrite for 24-36 hours...although I'd likely be doing daily water changes until your cycle resumes.


----------



## Paladin68 (Jul 16, 2012)

Okay, I will step up the water changes. The tank has been running for about a year now. It's been about a week and a half since I changed the filters. I don't change them out with every water change. I have one running with carbon and the other is just the filter cartridge.

What about cichlid salt? I have heard and read mixed opinions on whether that is necessary.


----------



## GTZ (Apr 21, 2010)

Depending on the type of filter you use, it's best to rinse out the filter media in tank water, rather than throw out and replace. One, it's cheaper than buying new media, but more importantly, the bacteria that converts toxic ammonia and nitrite into less toxic nitrate live on this media. When you replace existing media with new, you risk an ammonia or nitrite spike because the bacteria are removed.
Cichlid salt and other buffering methods can be beneficial when your tap water doesn't contain the proper levels of trace minerals, metals, etc. You'll need to test both tap and tank water for pH, GH and KH to determine whether you need to buffer or not.


----------



## bluenapG (Mar 30, 2011)

BTW- you both have awesome tanks.


----------

