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Hi:

Having some odd red coloration on three of my Bleeding Heart Tetra. Started as 1 over a week ago, now it is beginning on two others. Here are the particulars:

28 Gallon Bowfront tank with a Topfin 30 filter. Gravel substrate. 5 Bleeding Heart Tetra, 4 neon rainbow, 2 false julii cory. Plants are 2 Italian Val, 1 Hornwort, 3 wysteria.

Just did a 30% water change (as a matter of weekly maintainance) and noticed the "illness" had spread. Test results below represent the chem readings 1.5 hours after the water change/gravel vacuum.

pH - 7.5
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 20
Ammonia - 0
Hardness - 300 (typical for water in city)
Alkalinity - 120
Temp - 76 F

Any ideas as to what the red coloration is? It looks like exposed skin, and I do not want my 5 month old daughter's favorite pastime to be degraded because I missed something.

ajm

How long have you had the Bleeding hearts in the tank?

Any swelling that you see on their bellies?

Are their scales laying flat or sticking out at all?

How is their behavior? Are they "acting sick" or are they still eating well? Anyone else in the tank behaving oddly towards them or by themselves?

What are you feeding them? any recent changes in their diet?


WQ seems in a decent enough range, may want to do an additional water change before the weekly one. Are you cleaning the sponge/floss in the filter on a regular basis or switching it out with a new one? Pretty sure it was topfin that I had as my first filter, never bothered to replace the floss the way they said, instead just got a refillable "sock" to slide over the frame and add the carbon to then squeezed it out once a month in used tank water.


^_^

Behavior of the fish seems to be normal. The Bleeding hearts and corys have been in the tank for 6 weeks, and the rainbows for 2 weeks (after tank cycling was complete). All scales appear normal (when compared to non-affected fish of same species) and no noticeable swelling. The most affected fish is quite territorial, and is perhaps beat up from defending his bridge cover. Eating is certainly normal. No changes in the flake food being given. Have not had any brine shrimp in 2 weeks. Just replaced the filter cartridge last week, but the most affected fish had been affected in the few days just prior to the filter cartridge change. There has been some brown algae in the tank, but is currently going away. I had applied 4 days worth of Melafix to help one neon rainbow repair damaged tail fins and exposed rods due to losing out on alpha male status to another rainbow.

Took water sample and attached pictures to LFS this afternoon. All results coincide with details in first message. based on all evidence, LFS said it was some sort of internal bacterial infection. They directed me to mix antibiotic into their food, and feed the fish in small doses over the next week.

Thoughts?

ajm

You can buy premade antibiotic foods for fish, may work for you. My experience treating bacterial issues in fish hasn't been too successful, but it's worth a try. Foods should not cause too much trouble with the bacterial filtration in your tank, so it reduces the risk of a minicycle. You'll want to switch to just the medicated food so you can make sure that any fish that is showing symptoms is getting the right food by watching them carefully come feeding time.

^_^