african butterfly fish losing scales and color?

Question

i'm wondering why my african butterfly fish have lost their scales and turn lighter. Would ich cause them to lose their scales? I think they are pale because they have lost their scales. How long can they survive? I am trying to fight the ich with Quick Cure and Salt.

"Have you tested the water for ammonia or nitrates? Have you tried to see if the ph is right. It should be 6.5 to 7 for these fish. Also is the temperature correct?"
How do these affect my fish? They don't have whitespot so it's not ich. They were a lot darker when i got them, now they are very light in color.

Answer 1

This fish is from the congo basin and would never encounter salt water so you may be doing the wrong thing by treating it this way.
Has it got any tiny white spots on its fins or body if not then it is probably not Ich (whitespot). Have you tested the water for ammonia or nitrates? Have you tried to see if the ph is right. It should be 6.5 to 7 for these fish. Also is the temperature correct?


you need to get a test kit from your local aquarist shop to test the water or ask if this can be done at the shop. Most good aquarist shops will test the water for free.
You should have a thermometer in the tank or stuck on the glass to read the temperature.

If you have high ammonia or nitrates the fish will be slowly poisoned and going pale can be a sympton of this also if the temperature is too low its metabolism will be slowed down so resulting in it not feeding and going pale.

Answer 2

its got a disease of some sort also it could be what they did to catch the fish they put some type of chemical to paralyze it to catch it