Marxoxoshizzle
- #1
Guys!!!!!! I am in need of urgent help and advice. Let me start with our tank. My husband and I have a planted tank, it is 50 gallons. It is cycled, water paramaters are all where they are supposed to be, (I don't know the exact numbers but he tested the water just a few days ago and he said everything was normal). We have proper filtration and lots of aerators. The water temperature is set with a heater at around 78 degrees. We have snails, a betta, a red tailed shark, a cleaner shrimp, a pleco, neon tetra and cardinal tetra and some rainbow something or others that I don't know the names of but they are silvery little fish with colors down their sides and top of their heads. Anyway, we have never had any sick fish in this tank. Not once. About a week ago we started to notice our red tailed shark had a few little white blotches on his scales. I was concerned that it was a fungus of some sort. His tail is also not bright red orange like it used to be (although the faded color has been that way for some time). We had him in our old 30 gallon tank but upgraded the tank maybe half a year ago and put him in the larger one with the plants and new fish. He seemed fine for a very long time. Very boisterous as they usually are, darting back and forth, he'd often chase the other fish around but he never attacked anyone.
So about a week ago we noticed these spots and I had been watching him closely. The situation has quickly progressed. We now have him in a hospital 20 gallon tank with nothing but a heater, gravel, an aerator and a fake plant. This is what he looks like right now:
He doesn't appear to be eating very much and has thinned out considerably from his usual fatty self. My husband has done 1 aquarium salt bath on him and the only thing I can think of is that this might be Ich. I ordered Ich medicine by Jungle on amazon as I have read wonderful things about Jungle products but there is so much information out there and not enough s that I can find. I can't tell if this is in fact ich or of it is a fungus. It looks like both, to me. If it is a fungus, what should we do to treat him? I fear he doesn't have much time left if we don't act fast. He is breathing quite heavily. This guy is probably about 3 years old now so he is no young fish, so not sure if it could just be an age thing. There are no other sick fish in our tank and since reading that ich is a parasite that is introduced by way of other fish and things we just aren't sure if it is ich at all, since none of our other fish are ill. Can anyone help us!?!
EDIT////
I bought API fungus cure and put it in the tank, before removing the gravel because I forgot. When we first set up the hospital tank we had a large rock in the center so he could feel safe. I noticed this white snot looking substance near him the next day. My husband said it was coming off the rock, not sure how that could be. So we took the rock out. Yesterday I saw a little more of that white snot looking substance and he said it was leftover from the rock. So I had him vacuum it all up. This morning, I notice there is a few more blobs of that snot looking substance. It is white and somewhat clear in areas but always has a thick white area. It literally looks like a booger. Could this be his poop?? If so then that’s probably parasites as I’ve heard that parasites cause white poop? None of the “fungus” on his body is big enough to look like how this stuff looks. The gravel is black so it’s super easy to notice it.
So about a week ago we noticed these spots and I had been watching him closely. The situation has quickly progressed. We now have him in a hospital 20 gallon tank with nothing but a heater, gravel, an aerator and a fake plant. This is what he looks like right now:
He doesn't appear to be eating very much and has thinned out considerably from his usual fatty self. My husband has done 1 aquarium salt bath on him and the only thing I can think of is that this might be Ich. I ordered Ich medicine by Jungle on amazon as I have read wonderful things about Jungle products but there is so much information out there and not enough s that I can find. I can't tell if this is in fact ich or of it is a fungus. It looks like both, to me. If it is a fungus, what should we do to treat him? I fear he doesn't have much time left if we don't act fast. He is breathing quite heavily. This guy is probably about 3 years old now so he is no young fish, so not sure if it could just be an age thing. There are no other sick fish in our tank and since reading that ich is a parasite that is introduced by way of other fish and things we just aren't sure if it is ich at all, since none of our other fish are ill. Can anyone help us!?!
EDIT////
I bought API fungus cure and put it in the tank, before removing the gravel because I forgot. When we first set up the hospital tank we had a large rock in the center so he could feel safe. I noticed this white snot looking substance near him the next day. My husband said it was coming off the rock, not sure how that could be. So we took the rock out. Yesterday I saw a little more of that white snot looking substance and he said it was leftover from the rock. So I had him vacuum it all up. This morning, I notice there is a few more blobs of that snot looking substance. It is white and somewhat clear in areas but always has a thick white area. It literally looks like a booger. Could this be his poop?? If so then that’s probably parasites as I’ve heard that parasites cause white poop? None of the “fungus” on his body is big enough to look like how this stuff looks. The gravel is black so it’s super easy to notice it.