Daggerfish

Hello all Im relatively new to this as a hobby and I am enjoying its addictive nature. Anyway I started my tank with a grp of 5 danios and they lived up to their nature by being very active fun to watch fish. about 2 weeks ago i introduced a second grp of fish to my tank a grp of 5 gold platy's. the fish seemed to get along well over the first couple of days but slowly the danios have begun to hyde amongst the decorations in the tank. The water tests out with the safe ranges in my test kit and really are minimally different then what they were prior to introducing the new fish. The platy's seem to leave the danios alone so I am baffeled as to the change in the behavior. Any thoughts!? Please help!!

agabr123

hi and welcome to fishlore

did you add all of the platies at the same time? it could have sent you into a mini-cycle adding that much bio load at once.

do you have your exact readings? and what kind of kit are you using? the readings you want to have are 0ppm ammonia 0ppm nitrite and 5-20 PPM nitrate, that indicates that your tank is cycled. also, what kind of test kit are you using? i've found the paper strips to be pretty inaccurate, the API freshwater master test kit is great, although it's more expensive than the strips it will last a lot longer and is much more accurate.

na/mustang1

i first started with 4 zebra danios and have slowly added 4 guppys and 2 angels and 1 albino cory cat mine seem to have done fine no noticeable change in behavior with any of the additions so maybe agabr123 is right, it could explain the behavior differance

Daggerfish

Well much to my disappointment i came home and found one of my Danios dead. but in regards to agabr123 i did add all the fish at once and i am using the Mardel 5-1 test strip and their ammonia test strip (recommended by the pet shop as reliable?) I tested the water tonight to get the latest results. pH 6.8, alk is 120, hardness 50, nitrite 0.5, nitrate 20, ammonia was 0.25. Also I noticed that one of the danios has this "hairy" appearance today. this is the first time that i noticed it. I was thinking that this was likely a mini cycle after the posts here but now not sure again.

agabr123

the paper strips are pretty inaccurate actually, i'd recommend going with the API freshwater master test kit, it's liquid. it's a bit more expensive but will last a whole lot longer and is much more accurate than the strips, so you'll be able to get a much better reading.

even so, with those readings for ammo and nitrIte then it's definitely a mini-cycle, i'd go ahead with daily water changes to keep the levels safe for the rest of your fish

can you get a picture of the danio with the "hairy" appearance? does it look like cotton? what color is it?

i'm sorry you lost your danio

Daggerfish

I tried to get a picture of that particular fish however she is pretty skittish and tends no to stay in anyone spot for long. I will try again later. As for her look it looks like a downy brown fuzz over her dorsum.

agabr123

it could be some kind of fungal infection or bacterial infection....but it's hard to know without being able to see it.

Daggerfish

I had to isolate her last night as she was now being attacked by the platy's in the tank. I think that what i saw on her back may be related to this. it kinda looks like all of the scales on her dorsum were gone, she has a new bleeding into her tail fin and half of it was gone. the rest of my danios are starting to perk up and be more active. So the original problem likely was secondary to this mini cycle that my tank went through. I tried to get a good picture but none of them gave enough detail for me to post sorry.

agabr123

i'm sorry to hear that it sounds like there are a lot of problems going on, i'm not really sure how to tell you to treat at this point. your best bet may be some kind of medicine combo like maracyn and maracyn II or something like that, but you'll only want to use medications that are designed to be used together. having said that, sometimes the best decision is to NOT medicate, as it can do more harm than good if you don't know exactly what's wrong. you can also think about using a melafix/pimafix combo (DONT use this if you have any labyrinth fish such as bettas or gouramis, one of the main ingredients can paralyze their labyrinth organs).

AlyeskaGirl

i am sorry to hear one of your Danios isn't feeling well. Yeah, it sounds like eather a bacteria or fungal infection. Pemafix and Melafix work great. I am using it right now to treat my tank, since it works well when the fish show mild to semi-medium signs of infection/not feeling well. When you first add it some fish don't mind it and others will be like what the heck, but adjust soon after adding. Usually the Pimafix is what makes them go "what the heck". Don't overdose. It says add daily for 7 days, but when I last used it to treat my 3 Angelfish and Black Neon Tetras I dosed for 3 days then did a 25% water change and repeated that for a few weeks. It worked great.

Yes, don't use on labrynth fish such as Gourmais and Bettas or even Corys.

Daggerfish

I appreciate all the help guys. I did start the Pimafix/Melafix combo. It seems to be helping the other fish. The remaining three danios in my tank are perking up. Unfortunately the one with the biggest problem ended up dying this by the time i got home from work today. I have learned my lessons from this experience and will move on. Very upset about the 2 deaths but this seems like a hobby with a lot of trial and error.

I want to replace the fish that I lost any suggestions on how long I should wait before I start adding fish back to the tank


thanks again
Dan

agabr123

i'm sorry to hear that i'd do a complete treatment with the melafix/pimafix before thinking about adding any new fish to your tank. you can, however, get those fish now and put them in quarantine for two weeks (while you finish the treatment on the main tank) and then add them after the QT and treatment time