fish colour?

Question

I am on the third day of cycling my fish and i have noticed a very slight darkening of their skin, one of them has developed a sort of white sore on the tip of its mouth. I checked the levels of ammonia which were 1.0 and nitrite 1.6 I have since done a water change to lower the levels. Is there anything else i can do at this point?

Btw my tank is only 2.5gallons...

The fish i mentioned has died. I removed it immediatley. Should i do another water change just to be safe? I already did a 30% change earlier in the day.

Answer 1

The darkening is most likely from the previous ammonia and nitrite levels. The white sore may be the beginning of a Columnaris ("cotton mouth disease") infection. Does this appear to be "fuzzy" aroung the sore? Compare with the upper left photo in this link: http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html#External

Keep an eye on this area and if it starts to appear like the photo, you 'll need to treat the fish with an antibiotic - Furanace is a good one for Columnaris (Furanace is a product name, the medication is Nifurpirinol if you can find this as an ingredient). Do a good water change and cleaning before adding medication.


ADDITION: Another water change wouldn't hurt. At the very least, it'll help lower the ammonia and nitrite levels if you have other fish in the tank.

If you don't have other fish, I'd suggest you add a non-living ammonia source (drops of 100% ammonia, a piece of cooked shrimp, or a pinch of fish food so your cycling continues. You might choose to do a fishless cycle at this point, so you won't have to be concerned about the ammonia or nitrite being too high and losing more fish. See this link for instructions for fishless cycling: http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm Once you're only reading nitrates, you should be okay to add a small fish or two. Just be careful not to add too many for the small size of your tank, or to add too many small fish too quickly.

Answer 2

Sounds like they have ammonia poisoning. This is the problem with cycling tanks with fish. You can google "fishless aquarium cycling" for more information on how to avoid this cruelty next time you set up a tank.

You are off to a good start otherwise, though, with cycling a tank in the first place and testing your water.

Don't change too much of the water at once to avoid shock to the fish. 30% is probably the most you should switch out at once unless something is really, really wrong.

Answer 3

Following up on Copper's great answer. Fish can shift their coloration during times of stress so that would further support Copper's diagnosis on the darkening and I would also support him on the whitening. I don't think this is related to ammonia or nitrate and sounds very much like the mouth fungus he described, given the region of affliction also, I think that may very well rule out ick. What was your inital ph reading in the tank when you started out? If you didn't take a ph reading it's ok, but if you could take a reading on your ph, this will give some insight to how toxic your ammonia is going to be to the fish. Higher ph's are going to make ammonia that much more toxic in terms of exposure to the fish then at lower ph's. If it is on the high end, don't adjust it now, but wait until your cycle is over and very slowly begin to work it downwards. Most of the time though you really don't want to play with your ph once fish are present in the water. You'd want to adjust that prior to fish introduction. If it is very high like say 8.4 or up you are going to want to take some action but caution to the speed at which you move it down because radical shifts in ph can be just as harmful as the ammonia and nitrite itself. Sounds much like you are on top of things here and good spotting on the white on your fish. Follow up with copperhead on treatment and keep up the good work :)

JV

Answer 4

Small water changes are the best way to deal with the ammonia sipkes but it sounds like you got a problem with your fish that needs medicating. If you are not too worried about it just keep up the small water changes and it will all even out in 4-8 weeks. Good luck!