baggykitty

I have a 10 Gallon tank with 2 guppies, 2 zebra danios, and 1 cory catfish. I noticed yesterday evening that the guppy I have had for about a year now had what looked like a tiny white blister on one side of his dorsal fin. On the other side there were two more that were smaller. The look like perfect globes that just got stuck onto his fin and is pulling it over onto one side of his body. He is swimming almost normally - but he is shimmying and resting at the bottom or on plants a bit more than he normally does. From looking at pictures and things I think it is a bacterial infection. So today I went to Petco and got Melafix which I have treated the aquarium with. Before I put the treatment in the tank - I briefly scooped both guppies out into a clear glass (instead of netting to cause less stress of course) and looked at him and now the underside of his belly is red and inflamed looking and it almost looks like it's eaten through his scales! It's terrible...but I treated the tank and am crossing my fingers that I'm not too late.
Several questions...
Do you think I'm treating with the right medication?
Should I be putting aquarium salt in there too?
Do I need to be doing significant water changes to the tank as well?
Do I need to be taking everything out and cleaning after all is said and done - if he dies or gets better?

I didn't have a test kit to test ammonia, pH, nitrate, etc. but I'm going to the store now to get one so I can add that to this post. But I thought I'd get it up and get opinions as soon as possible.

baggykitty

As I was trying to take a picture to post of my guppy - (I failed because it kept moving around) I noticed that one of my danios doesn't look right either! He swims so fast and never stays in one place it's almost barely noticeable, but he has a tiny white dot on one of his pelvic fins. In addition, both of his fins seem a little frayed. Could this possibly be fin rot? And if so - will the Melafix be good for this? It's crazy that they can look like this and be swimming like mad. Also should I be feeding them anything differently? My sick guppy kept going up to eat and then spitting out the food....

ray_sj

Welcome to Fishlore! Sorry to hear your fish aren't feeling well.. A picture would help a lot, but from what you described, it might be ICH:

ich-fish-disease

Do the spots look like grains of salt? If so, you can follow the procedure in the link above. Basically, you raise the temperature (slowly, 1 or 2 degrees at a time, over a period of hours) into the low 80s, and keep it there at least 2 weeks and making sure they have no more symptoms. The heat kills the parasites. Be sure to keep the water well-aerated, as higher temperatures mean less oxygen in the water.

Some members also recommend keeping the water clean and doing a gravel vac every other day or so. I'm sure others will chime in. The procedure has worked very well for me in the past.

Good luck! If you have any questions, please ask! The forums are here to help.

baggykitty

Yes - I thought Ich was a possibility, but it doesn't look like salt. The best way I can describe is like a round white blister/pustule - and there are only three of them.

baggykitty

Okay after putting the aquarium salt in (I don't know if that makes a difference or not) I tested the water

Nitrate - High (160ish) Unsafe I know...
nitrite - Low (0) Safe
Hardness - High (150ish)
chlorine - Low (0) Safe
alkalinity - High (180ish) Ideal
pH - High (8ish) Alkaline

Yesterday after I noticed he was sick - I did about a 20% water change. I also added some API StressZyme (as well as API StressCoat as a conditioner). I don't know if these tests are serious enough to require an immediate water change again or if because of the new addition of the meds and the aquarium salt if I should just wait it out...

mare2009

Hi ..Sorry to hear of your distress with your fish. I had something very similar sounding on my platy. It wasn't ICH and it wasn't fuzzy/furry as some bacterial infections present itself. But I sensed it was bacterial in form. I got a hospital tank out, a 5G and treated her with Meracyn2. After 14 days the spots ( like a blister ) were gone. I would also recommend another water change of at least 50%. Being that the nitrate was so high.

[color="Red"]Also in dr fostersmith the recommended dose and use for stress-zyme- use 2 tsp per 10 gallons on day 1, 7, and 14 for new aquariums. Add weekly in established aquariums, at the dose of 1 tsp per 10 gallons.
the stress coat used as a protectant for the fish-To protect fish and condition water:
Add two tablespoonfuls (30 ml) for every 60 U.S. gallons of water.]/COLOR]
(which I hope my calculations are correct should be 5ML for your 10-gallon tank.)
I doubt that the conditioners will affect your reading so quickly, test again and do a water change, I hope this helps and keep us posted ..

baggykitty

It looks as if his abdomen is spilling out :-( :-( :-( It looked like it was sort of red and irritated before but now there's this bulbous thing coming from his abdomen which I think is probably his intestines. There's no coming back from that is there?
I don't know what to do...should I put him out of his misery?

baggykitty

Okay...WEIRD. I did another 10% water change before I went to bed just to help with the nitrate levels. When I wake up in the morning his hernia looking thing is gone. And I mean it was very large and pinkish looking. Could he have possibly healed himself with the medication and everything? Or does this sound like a parasite?

Shawnie

hi baggykitty..im sorry for the problems you are having
Im wondering what type of test kit you got as you have no ammonia reading? im assuming its the test strips(again its my guess )....which are unreliable and most often give false results...so you may not even have that high of nitrates and could even be dealing with ammonia.... if you are using the liquid kit, what is your ammonia reading?

your fish baby sounds like he might have had a prolaspe issue going on but that sounds better now also...stress zyme is going to take up your beneficial bacteria and destroy it as its not self sustaining on its own..its something that you have to add for the life of the tank to keep it cycled but at this point, the meds will probably kill the cycle as well...

I would continue with daily partial water changes and your stress coat...stop using stress zyme and see if you can get some prime.....also, finding a liquid master api kit will help allot and getting the correct tank parimeter readings .....I wish you well!~

ray_sj

Sounds like an intestinal prolapse, as Shawnie said. I've had a few in my guppies, and they often shrink and go away in a few days. Feed sparingly for a few more days and keep the water clean. With the ones I've had, they've recovered completely.

baggykitty

He died It was very sudden. He was doing fine swimming around this morning with everyone but he didn't eat. Then all the sudden I saw him chilling at the bottom like resting against things. he got kind of caught in a plant so I reached in to move it to help him get out. He swam away vigorously. Then the next time I look about 30 minutes later he's upside down stuck in another plant! When I moved it he fell to the bottom of the tank and I knew he was dead. But now I can post good pictures of it so that maybe we can diagnose the problem correctly and the other fish don't get sick.

ray_sj

Sorry to hear that! Hope the rest of your fish will be ok.

cherrybarbboi

sorry to hear about your lose