xyyz

for the past few days, i noticed one of my female golden killies started to breathe rapidly and didn't have an appetite.

since i didn't have a quarantine tank, and i didn't want her tank mates to get sick, i started treating with both mela and pimafix (yes, i did read the stickie that they outta' be avoided, which is making me worry even more.) that was about a week ago. today i noticed protruding scales around the first 1/3 of her body (from the mouth to the pectorial fins.)

the water conditions are the following:

the tank is 29 gallons, with flourite as the substrate. it is moderately planted.

temp - 77-84F depending on the time of day/night
pH - <=6.0 (with water changes it can rise to about 6.6)
ammonia - 1ppm (since the pH is so low, practically all of it is ammonium)
nitrates & nitrites - close to 0ppm
GH - very hard
kh - ~0ppm

i'm set out to get a quarantine talk tomorrow, but i have no idea if it's dropsy or something else, and what's the best way to treat her?

i'm also concerned if this is a contagious condition.

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Shawnie

First off, im sorry your fish is sick its heartbreaking when our babies fall ill..and welcome to fishlore!!!!...but I think you are still cycleing or started a mini cycle...you should always have a 0 ammonia and nitrites, with nitrates under 20...any trace of ammonia is deadly..so daily water changes with city water treated with a conditioner is a must for now...at least until your readings are healthy

sirdarksol

Welcome to Fishlore and thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for having your water parameters listed on your first post. That helps cut about five messages' worth of question and answer from this.
As Shawnie said, that ammonia reading needs to be dropped. Ammonium or not, it is damaging stuff, and is filtered through the most delicate organs in the fishes' bodies; their gills.
I would suggest getting some sort of water conditioner that neutralizes ammonia. There are several good "all in one" conditioners that do so. Otherwise, I have used AmQuel in the past, and it worked well.
It could be (I have no proof of this, it's just a hopeful guess) that her scales are sticking out because she's trying really hard to keep her gills wide open to increase water flow. Still a good idea to get a q-tank.

Now, on to the long-term. If your tank has ammonia, but almost no nitrites or nitrates, I wonder if your tank was cycled at all. How long has it been set up and with fish in it?

If you don't know about the nitrogen cycle, check this link out.
http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

Good luck with everything, and keep the questions/information flowing. The more info we have and the more info you have, the easier it will be to save your fish.