White spot on side of rummynose?

[Gudgie]

Explain your emergency situation in detail.
I moved 5 rummynose tetras and 3 Bolivian rams from my QT tank 75 gallon community tank earlier today, after pre-emptive parasite treatment plus no sign of illness. Been in QT for 2.5 weeks; I would have kept in QT at least a full 3 weeks to be safe, but some other fish arrived ahead of schedule. I made the judgement call to move them, since there'd been no warning signs. Netted/transferred the fish around 3 hours ago and all looked fine.

I just looked at my community tank and suddenly one of the new tetras has a white patch on its side (otherwise acting fine)! I think it may be slightly raised. Hard to get a good picture of it - see below. I'll also try to get a better pic later. Does this sound like possible fungus? Could that show up like this within a few hours? Could it just be an injury? Seriously hope it's not suddenly columnaris! Ugh. Just frustrating since everything seemed find in QT. It very well may just be an injury, but I wanted to get some other expert opinions ASAP since it could impact my entire community.

Trying to decide if I should 1) move this fish back to QT, 2) treat the fish and if so, with what, and 3) should I now treat the entire community as well. Any input greatly appreciated! My normal QT of course now has other (new) fish in it, so I'd need to set up an emergency container.

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 75 gallon
How long has the tank been running? > 1 year
Does it have a filter? yes, 2 cannisters
Does it have a heater? yes
What is the water temperature? 78F
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)
15 rummynose tetras (5 are new)
6 Bolivian rams (3 are new)
6 Synodontis lucipinnis
1 BN pleco
1 Colombian zebra pleco
1 elderly glowlight tetra
10ish endlers
2 bamboo shrimp
4+ Amano shrimp
1 mystery snail
nerite snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? every 1-2 weeks
How much of the water do you change? 25-50% of water
What do you use to treat your water? Prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water? both

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? yes
What do you use to test the water? API master kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 6.6 (7.4 before CO2)

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? once/day
How much do you feed your fish? typically 1 frozen cube or small amount of pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish? OmegaOne, NLS, Kens, Hikari, Repashy
Do you feed frozen? sometimes
Do you feed freeze-dried foods? no

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 2.5 weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? half an hour ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? white raised patch on left side of fish
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No (but did previously treat with Levamisole and PraziPro)
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Just the sudden appearance of the spot on its side.

 

[86 ssinit]

Ok are you saying the tank is 7.4 before the co2 goes on and than with it on it goes down to 6.6?

 

[Tankseeker]

I once had columnaris , and I treated it with Indian almond to great success with no losses

 

[Gudgie]

Ok are you saying the tank is 7.4 before the co2 goes on and than with it on it goes down to 6.6?

Yes. Although I had a typo, the full drop is to about 6.4 - rechecked to make sure.

It probably is just a mild injury. Just feeling a little extra paranoid since when I added fish earlier this year (skipped QT), I had an outbreak of suspected camallanus that killed a few fish.

 

[86 ssinit]

I don’t use co2. But that’s a big drop in ph. Don’t believe that’s healthy for fish. But I’m wondering if fish can adapt to it since it’s daily. New fish may have a problem till they adapt.

 

[Gudgie]

I don’t use co2. But that’s a big drop in ph. Don’t believe that’s healthy for fish. But I’m wondering if fish can adapt to it since it’s daily. New fish may have a problem till they adapt.

A 1.0 pH drop is completely normal for using CO2 (and is generally a recommended target), so it’s likely not an issue. I’m admittedly not positive if the tank truly offgasses to 7.4 each night (been a long while since I’ve tested that), but that was our established baseline prior to starting CO2. When we first added CO2 to the aquarium in March, we started at a much lower bps and gradually increased it over a number of days until we reached the appropriate CO2 level. We never saw any sign of stress in our fish during that time, many of whom we’ve had for years. Even the synodontis who we’ve had for 6ish years have been their normal selves.

With regards to the new fish, it’s possible they’d be stressed by the CO2 at first - honestly not something I’d thought much about. I did still do a short acclimation over 30 min when moving them from QT to the community, rather than netting them straight in. The new fish colored up well right away, readily ate, and seemed to settle in. I noticed the new rams breathing slightly fast, so I’ll definitely keep a close eye on them to be safe. I think I’ve seen that any time I’ve added new rams to an aquarium (including before we ran CO2), but I’ll be monitoring closely to make sure they’ve adjusted.

 

[Tankseeker]

I personally find co2 quite redundant,if you have a leak you could kill all your fish why risk it

 

[Gudgie]

I personally find co2 quite redundant,if you have a leak you could kill all your fish why risk it

Technically yes, there’s always that *slight* risk for anyone running CO2. But it’s a very low/acceptable level of risk to me, especially when using proper equipment. It’s unlikely that our regulator is suddenly going to spring a leak in such a way that it dumps excess CO2 into our aquarium. I heavily researched the process before starting, as I usually do with our aquarium.

Regardless, we’ve gotten a little sidetracked from the original reason for this post. I’ll post updates if I notice any changes with the rummy or co-inhabitants. Hopefully all will be well!