I have a freshwater tank with 3 tetra, 1 Ram Chiclid, and a bottom feeder. I am having problems with the Ram. i just got all of these fish a month ago and already have changed the water. I first noticed the Ram hanging out on the bottom of the tank 4 days ago (I know that is a HUGE red flag). The next day I noticed he had a sort of fuzz looking thing on his top fin ( I figured it was fungus) So I went to PetSmart and bought fungus tablets and it said for a 5 gallon tank use a half a tablet and the sales person told me use a quater tablet since tetra a very sensitive. The next day the fungus went down and he seemed to be breathing better but today he's still down at the bottom and it looks like the fugus is on his face as well and he is gasping for air. I know this doesn't look good at all but what can i do? Go for a second dose? HELP!
2007-10-14 12:31:02 · 4 answers · asked by Lindsey 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
Whithout seeing your fish, I can only say that it might be fungus, or it might be Columnaris, which is a bacterial infection (especially since the new infection is near the mouth, Columnaris has an alternate name of "cottonmouth disease"). You can tell the two apart by looking at the "fuzzy" area closely. The "body fungus", or Saprolegnia will have longer straighter filaments that you can make out individually almost to the base, but the Columnaris filaments will be matted together and hard to make out individually. If the new infection is Columnaris, treat this with a broad spectrum antibiotic (see list in the last link below).
Before you do any more medicating, do a 50 % water change in the tank. This will help remove the old medication, plus it sounds as though the ram is suffering from ammonia or nitrite poisoning, which is why it's gasping. Your tank is probably still cycling, and there's not enough bacteria build up yet to convert these completely to nitrate yet. That's bad news for the ram, since they are very sensitive to water quality and should only be added to mature tanks (ones which have completed the cycling process).
2007-10-14 12:54:21 · answer #1 · answered by copperhead 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Read the label on the medication and see how often you can give it to the fish. Since you didn't give a full dose, I would go ahead and put in another quarter of the tablet.
Also, you need to clean your tank more than once a month. Clean it every 2 weeks and use a gravel vaccum to get the excess food/waste out of the tank. You are only supposed to change 15%-25% of the water at a time also. The fungus is caused by poor water quality so change it every 2 weeks on the dot.
There isn't much you can do when a fish is sick besides giving it that medication. Good luck.
2007-10-14 12:35:20 · answer #2 · answered by Madison 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunitly this occurs to greater then basically fish at puppy shops. many times if the animal seems, acts healthful whilst this is bought the puppy shop won't take any responsablitly and could attempt to place the blame on you for unfavorable care. which will or won't be the case. this is unfair i be attentive to.
2016-10-09 05:48:31 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is it ick? There are a lot of things to treat this and it is curable
2007-10-14 12:37:10 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋