Hi there, I have a community tank with about 20 fish which has been up & running for about 3 months. My three red eye tetras have some kind of problem with their skin... on the sides of the fish, the scales/skin seems to be peeling and are a whitish grey colour. Also one of them is very red in the gill area. None of my other fish seem to be affected by this, including my serpaes & neons. I've been trying to find information on the net, but can't see any pictures that look similar other than 'saddleback disease', but this is somewhat different looking. Anyway, if anyone can offer suggestions as to how I can treat this or where to find info on something that sounds similar, I would appreciate it. Thanks!
2007-04-09 13:09:48 · 2 answers · asked by jennyfire 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
Here are the further details asked for...
-the peeling is more like a film coming off the side of the fish, not fuzzy, just like one big flake (largest flake being about 6mm x 4mm, smallest 2mm x 3mm)
-it started about 2 weeks ago on one fish, but has gotten larger & spread to the other two.
-there have been no new fish introduced since the tank was started in Jan
-no muscle can be seen under the flakes
-the starting points of the flakes are just in front of the dorsal fin and do not cover the entire side of the fish & are oddly shaped.
hope this helps you to answer my question & thanks again!
2007-04-09 13:49:14 · update #1
sorry - a few more details... took another cloder look at the one who is infected the worst, and the flake could be described as somewhat fuzzy and I don't know if this has anything to do with it, but there seems to be some kind of iridescent green spot in front of the flake as well...
2007-04-09 13:56:46 · update #2
When you say peeling, do you mean that scales are actually coming off of the fish or it appears that a film is peeling off of them? How long has the condition existed and have you recently added any fish to the tank? If so what did you add and how long ago? Does the material that is peeling off seem to be fuzzy in any way or is it more of a slime consistency? Are you seeing actually muscle under the skin where skin has peeled away? Are the fins involved in any way? Did you notice a starting point on the fish that this spread from? Is it the entire side of the fish or spots of the problems? If spots, are they round or many shapes? Are the spots red in the center? These will make a reasonable diagnosis possible, with out that info anything would really be a wild guess. Please add the info to the question and I'll check back and edit my answer or you can feel free to email me the info.
ADDITION: The first thing that comes to my mind is columnaris. It normally starts around the mouth of the fish and moves away from it, but can be in other areas as well. Columnaris is a bacterial infection that responds well to Furanace or Maracyn 2. Columnaris is uaully known as mouth fungus but also goes by the name saddleback disease just as you mentioned in your original information. It's a tricky disease because it can appear somewhat differently from fish to fish. Some advocate treating this with malachite green or formalin, but in a case that has been around this long I would strongly suggest treating with antibiotics instead. Since treating with antibiotics will disrupt your nitrogen cycle, I would suggest removing these fish to a quarantine container to treat them.
Another possibility is costia. Costia is a parasite infestation that can cause symptoms very similar to what you are seeing. The best treatment for costia is a good quality ich medication or a salt bath. Salt is often recommended if you have actual gill damage and not just redness. The ich medication should be used just like you are treating ich, but usually a shorter term is required to clear it up. For a salt treatment use use 2-3 tablespoons of salt per gallon. Introduce the salt slowly over the course of several hours and leave it in the tank for 2 days.
Additional info on columnaris:
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/hdcolumn.htm
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/columnaris.php
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/columnaris.htm
Additional info on costia and treatment:
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/costia.htm
Your call but I would try the costia treatment first as it would produce results the fastest. If it doesn't seem to work within 48 hours, move to the columnaris treatment.
MM
2007-04-09 13:27:42 · answer #1 · answered by magicman116 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Sounds like you might have velvet disease, which would be treated with Maracide
2007-04-09 13:26:49 · answer #2 · answered by extraordinarywomenoffaith 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋