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I have two Bala's and noticed yesterday that they are durning red. like rashes under there mouths, and now there fins are turning red. What is this please help....

Hi..Well i think it can be Lymphocystis..not sure though.
If it is that,the only thing you can do is to maintain excellent water quality and possibly manually removing the lumps.Do be right on top of water changes,Keep PH,Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate where it should be.It may be good to add a good med-Kanamycin sulfate and nitrofurazone combination to prevent secondary bacterial infection.Iam not an expert on this..so maybe others can help you out.
Robby

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I know human beings and fish can co-exist peacefully.

If it isn't lumps, and just looks like streaks, it's septicemia. I've had a few fish that had it before-- lots of people say it can't be cured, but all of mine made it okay. Impeccable water quality and good medication will do the trick (it did in my case anyway).

I've noticed that it always showed up after times of stress, like drmatic water quality changes or tank moving... Also, remember that for any of this medication to work, you'll want to take the carbon out of your filters! A hospital tank would be ideal, because the medication may make the healthy fish in the tank with them sick...

Last edited by smantzer at 16-Feb-2005 10:54

thank you guys for all your advice but it's to late
I changed the water added mela-fix I think it's called, tried everything and they all dyed, it's very sad, my three bala's and my two ID sharks all gone. It makes me sad when any animal dies, but especially when there in my care. all we have left in our 55 gallon is a red tail and a pleco. The were all small under 3", and I think my other fish are still sick, we think they caught velvet somehow, I don't know anymore, all I know is just before they died they seemed fine but with white spots that started to flake. So if anyone could help me with my living fish that would be great I really don't want to lose them.

Could you please post tank parameters. i would like to see numbers for:

Ammonia
NitrIte
NitrAte
pH
Temperature

How long has the tank been set up?

All symptoms?

Have you changed anything in the tank recently?

ANYTHING else you can think of that might be of help. The marks sound like they could possibly be septicaemia (sp?) but on the other hand I have seen those symptoms from high ammonia. If you don't have test kits please take a water sample to the LFS and have them test it for you, get NUMBERS not just "your tank is OK" and post em up. I should be able to help with more info.

well they all died last night so we cleaned everything and we are going to start from scratch.
It started with the ID sharks becoming lazy and sluggish then they started just lying on the bottom of the tank. about a week later they developed what we thought was ich, then a few days after that our Bala's started turning a reddish colour, fin and under mouths, like a rash, they too then developed ich like spots, then started dying one by one. Our tank is a 55gallon.
I did all the water changes I was told once a week 50% and added salt raised the temp, it did nothing they were just getting worse, so I used half the dose of nox-ich that It said on the bottle because of the ID sharks.Nothing worked.
We had the ID and Balas in a 20 for about a month to start with however they were fine til they went into the 55 gallon we let it cycle for a month with a goldfish, the goldfish was removed when we added the ID sharks and the Bala's. we thought it was just the ID sharks so a week later we got a pleco and a red tailed shark.
I will get my water stats for you in the tank now but it won't help for then. My fiance wants ID's so bad. All the other fish we own in the other tanks are fine so why this tank.. We have never experinced this before, and my fiance and myself have always had fish. mind you they have either been goldfish or guppy's and such, but it's horrible.
please help...

Last edited by bruce at 19-Feb-2005 19:18

Sorry you lost your fish, however from the stocking you mentioned I'd not surprised they died. Bala sharks are schooling and need 150gallon+ tanks to be able to swim. Irridescent sharks are NOT tank fish. They can easily reach sizes of 3 feet+ and are caught as game fish in the wild. I have a feeling that the inappropriate housing had a bit to play with their passing. I really would suggest doing a bit of research now that you're starting over. IMO nothing that has an adult size larger than 6inches should be kept in a 55.

^_^

[hr width='40%']"Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
I need to calculate,what creates my own madness...
and I am waiting for disaster"

I agree irridescent sharks and balas will grow to be too large for a 55 gallon tank. IMO that pleco is probably a common as well and they get to be huge, I wouldn't keep them in anything smaller than a 125 gallon tank.

I am very sorry nothing could be done for them. Given the stock in the tank, and the fact that they were being medicated, I would say that there is a very good chance that the redness you saw was some kind of ammonia burn. If not that then iit could have been a secondary infection of septicaemia that caused them to hemmorage. Fish with ich and other external parasites can catch other infections very easily.

Irridescent sharks are very beautiful so I can understand why your fiance would want them but PLEASE do not buy them again unless you will be able to give them an enormous tank some time in the near future. As babel mentioned they are capable of growing to be almost 4 feet long and do not belong in a 55 gallon tank. Bala sharks are active schooling fish that will eventually reach over a foot in length and are really only suited to tanks over 6 feet long.

It is unfortunate, but both of these fish are often sold to people without aqequate information, much like goldfish and other species.

There are many attractive fish that will be fine in a 55 gallon tank, I am sorry you had to learn this lesson the hard way but making a fresh start is a good idea. If you need any help picking appropriate fish for the tank feel free to ask as many questions as you need to.

Your water change schedule is a bit off, IMO. In an established and healthy tank there is no reason to change more than 10-20% per week unless you are keeping very sensitive fish or are overfeeding or overstocked. I highly recommend buying your own testing supplies as you start this tank over, it is the best way to get a good understanding of what's going on with your water quality and spot problems before they turn into catastrophes.

Thank you for all the info, however we were going to build a 600 gal aquarium in the basement for the ID's and get a larger tank for the balas,my fiance read all about them. I personally like gourami's my fav fish, excep the giants..
I don't think we are going to get anymore, I have talked him into loking for a smaller catfish. It's sad I mean it will save us money now but I got attached. I can't thank you enough for your info.. as for the water change my lfs told us to do weekly 50% water changes while we had ich.
We will for sure get a testing kit now. If you have any info on smaller catfishes that would be awsome.. thanks


Last edited by bruce at 20-Feb-2005 14:55

There are literally TONS of beautiful and charming catfish that can be kept in a 55 gallon community tank. If you love gouramis and would like to keep them with some kind of smaller catfish, you could get a really great tank set up. Here is a good article that outlines a few catfish species based on adult size in relation to the size of your tank. I like this article because most of the species listed are very easy to get ahold of in your local fish shop:

[link=http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/s_c_170.php]http://www.planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/s_c_170.php" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

based on the size of your tank, any of the species listed in categories A, B, C, D or E would be wonderful.

Planet catfish is a great resource in general for catfish information, check the cat-e-log for info about specific species you're interested in:

[link=http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.php]http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.php" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

I personally love corydoras, otocinculus are very cute but require a mature tank and some specialized care, smaller plecs are great but be sure to research their dietary needs before you buy them and keep in mind that they are POOP MACHINES, small synodontis (like the upside-down cat) are also very cute.

A few favourites:

[link=Corydoras species list]http://www.corycats.com/Corydoras%20species.htm" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link] -there are really too many to name and all of them are great/would be good in a 55. Browse through the list.

[link=bristlenose plecs]http://www.users.bigpond.com/rjeb/bristle.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=bulldog pleco]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loricari/chaetost/318_f.php" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=upside-down catfish]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/mochokid/synodont/334_f.php" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

There are many, many more...too many to list really.

While not exactly true catfish, loaches may have the look you're going for. Loaches Online is a good resource at [link=http://www.loaches.com]http://www.loaches.com" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]. A few specific loaches that I would suggest for a 55 gallon tank are (linkable):

[link=kuhli loach]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/kloach.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=yoyo loach]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_almorhae.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=queen/bengal loach (botia dario)]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_almorhae.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=skunk botia]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_morleti.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=dojo/weather loach]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/wloach.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

[link=black kuhli]http://www.loaches.com/species_pages/pangio_javanicus.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]

Loaches are wonderful fish in general, very entertaining and beautiful. Here is an article about botias, which are my favourite of the loaches: [link=http://www.loaches.com/botias.html]http://www.loaches.com/botias.html" style="COLOR: #ffffff[/link]. If yo are thinking loaches there are a few commonly seen in pet shops that will eventually grow to be too large for your 55 gallon tank (unfortunate since they're gorgeous) like clown loaches and the blue (orange finned) botia. The loaches above come from Asia, the home of the gourami, and would be a good choice for an Asian themed tank.

If you're picking fish out for a new tank setup, the best advice I can give is to research as much as possible before you buy. A lot of smaller (non pleco) catfish need to be kept in groups so keep that in mind when you're picking species for your tank, loaches, otocinculus and corydoras are examples.

To narrow it down a bit, what is the pH and hardness of your tap water? Are you interested in a community (peaceful) tank or something more aggressive? How is your tank decorated? Do you want to stick to a certain geographical area or do you not care? :%) Picking fish is a lot of fun but there are so many choices that it can be overwhelming. :%)

By the way, that 600 gallon dream tank sounds amazing.