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hey there i am worried about a few of the fish in my tank. you may remember a post describing some fin nipping amongst neons a week or two ago... anyway i began dosing with pimafix daily to the prescribed ml dose. there were 3 neons effected 2 of whom were larger ones that are very easily distinguished as i bought them fully grown. i suspect it was these two who carried the infection as they were in a seperate tank in the pet store and have been the most effected. (the tank contained a huge angel that belonged to one of the members of staff- i now suspect he could have been under treatment as why else would you bring your own fish into a petstore tank?? this could be my suspicious mind but im not buying fish there ever again) also one other neon displayed fin shrinking.

anyway i wasnt too worried as the damage was fairly minimal (despite a slight white tinge to the tip of the largest neons tail) and continued with the treatment, there was not much noticible improvement and when the bottle ran out i tried melafix. there was a slow regrowth on the tails and i was happy to see everything on the mend. then one day i noticed one of my blackwidows has a sore looking wound on his top lip- i put this down to having introduced a new sinking flake for the rams and he crossing a line or trying to nick away the food. but the more i thought about it the less sense it made as the rams rarely actually bite each other- more scare each other down (3 males). then i was looking through a post by redphantom and noticed a photo of a fish with a growth on his lip. so i looked in the tank and sure enough the largest neon had a white tinge to his lip. the other two neons effected didnt. any way i had to rush off to work and upon returning i decided to quarantine the black widow and the 2 largest neons. i would have quarantined the 3rd neon but have failed thus far to catch the little so and so.

i will try and get a photo of the bw after i return from the second part of work. my main concern is that there is something nasty in the tank that is about to take down my fish.

i should mention that i have been monitoring the parameters of the tank very closely over these weeks they have remained very fish friendly. i keep them in a diary as well as all dosing of meds etc so can list them all if needed but basically all ammonia have been 0 bar one that i believe may have been a miss read as upon testing again it was 0. the nitrites have remained 0 the nitrates have remained 0 (it is heavily planted) and the ph has remained a steady 6.8. temp 25.6 degrees. gh 8

i am worried about dosing the tank with anything too strong due to the rams sensitivity and also the fact that it is heavily planted.

what do the doctors think?

Yup thats the kind of worry a lot of us have, and the advice for now is keep on using mela and pima, but if the fish get worse and you get extreme fluffiness or a fish or two turns up dead you may have little option except to use a furan based med, or install uv sterilisation.If its flexibacter columnaris at fault you may win with melafix if you caught it early enough, but if it fails then you'll have to use furan and just cope withthe associated dive in water quality and bacterial death as best you can, maybe stock up on cycling products to get the tank back to normal asap. If its an unusually persistant fungus a sulphur based med may have to be used, and they often kick the hell out of filters too. Not fun, but thats diseases!

BTW most plants survive most meds, thats the least of the problems. What is a problem is if you are using co2 and have to use aggressive meds. Remember to turn it off unless you want choking fish and misty water.

okey thanks for that LHG mela and pima it is, i dont have co2 so no worries there. i have isolated all effected fish bar one. he is the 3rd neon and is impossible to catch- he is the least effected and has only a tiny tail depletion with a whisp of white. do you think i should make sure i quarantine him too? my gut feeling is yes though i am worried of stressing the rest too much. maybe i can whip him out during feeding tomorrow.

as for the quarantine tank i am dosing with wardleys promethyasul - which is mafenide hydrochloride 24.2 mg/ml, aminacrine hydrochloride 3.3 mg/ml and malachite green 0.4mg/ml (im not sure if you get the same product back in the uk). let me know if this is the wrong approach.

very glad of the help, thanks
dan

well that should do the trick, lol, i almost feel sorry for diseases confronted by that cocktail Sounds thorough.

just what i needed to hear lhg, cheers. the neons are doing well in the q tank- the black widow is very reclusive hiding alot. i think i freaked him out whilst catching him. also having your top lip missing must be a bit odd...
i would love to be able to re unite them with their friends, although since i have segregated them the neons school a lot more, as do the black widows and there is a lot less aggression in the tank. there is still one neon i would like to quarantine but he is the master of escape- i m keeping a close eye on him.

hi heres an update:

the black widow in quarantine is looking alot better- the wound has healed up on his lip although there is still a patch of white though it is reducing in size daily. so thats good. the two quarantined neons look the same, still a patch on the lip of one and the other is slightly faded.

also there was a neon left in the main tank with tail damage whom hasnt got any better despite daily dosing of melafix. worryingly i have noticed my smallest black widow has slightly clouded eyes and possible growth on the lip- tho its hard to tell as it would be the finest whisp if its not my imagination! i am worried it could be Saprolegnia or Flexibacter columnaris. should i segregate these two fish? its a heavily planted tank and it really stresses the fish as i have to remove the large driftwood to have any chance of getting them out.

as for water quality i have been testing regularly and cant find any discrepencies (also my bolivian rams are really starting to colour up which i hope is due to good water quality).

i am convinced the problem was introduced when i introduced the two larger neons as they have been at the centre of the problem all along- since quarantining them there were no further signs of disease untill now. i am worried that if i stress the seemingly healthy population i will induce further cases of disease. should i intervene or monitor the little fella?

what would be the best cause of action?
cheers dan