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It sounds like the infection just stepped up, the discolouration is more likely to be velvet, slime disease, or a bacterial infection than stress, although stress may have been the initial cause of a dropped immune system that caused the infection in the first place. Id go in with the meds about now, salt in situ is a good idea for the first step ( though not if you have salt sensitive fish), if it fails, youll have to turn to meds.If it were me, Id take into consideration the speed at which the fish are dropping now, and not wait too long. Time for action!

Good luck.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 14-Dec-2005 06:52

Well, I removed the gourami before my vacation and found apon returning home a platy skeleton now all I have are cherry barbs (which I love) and a devil ramshorn snail. Thanks for all your help I will most likely just leave the tank as is for a few months before adding anymore fish.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

you didnt offend me dude,(it would take a lot more than that)i was just passing on what i was told,most fish keepers wont even use the dunny as a last resort.anyway good luck with ya little platys.

Once again thank you for your help. I returned the devil gourami to the lfs and they said they would quarintine and add salt to prevent any infections. My last platy is ok and the tank should be stable now.

Happy holidays!

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Pimafix is a nice gentle treatment for finrot and fungus, used in conjuction with melafix it can prevent a whole host of bacterial and fungal infections from becoming more serious. Id go with that to begin with.

Thanks, I may have to add fish around them as they are great fish especially the male as he is a deep red.

What is the recomended treatment for fin rot if it were to come back?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

No you didnt offend anyone, it wasnt really your original recommendation after all.

Cherry barbs may live upwards of 5-7 years, but a lot are getting inbred so you might not be able to expect more than 2- 3 years depending on where you got them from.Lots of my barbs have broken the 5 year mark and are still doing well.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 15-Dec-2005 19:17

I am sorry if I offended anyoned with the toilet bowl thing, I just cant bring myself to inject or smash a fish like is suggested by many people. But now it doesnt matter as the fish died this morning

None of my other fish are showing any signs of injury and the last platy has stacked out territory away from the gourami. I think I will return the gourami just in case it does get violent towards other inhabitants.

Thanks for all your help with this hopefully I wont have any more issues.

Does anyone know the lifespan of a cherry barb? Just wondering as I want to restock now that I have very few inhabitants but I want to wait for the barbs to pass naturaly.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Freezing is NOT painless, far from it.Flushing fish is the least humane thing you can do, I doubt most fish would appreciate being mashed about in a toilet bowl, and then dumped into a chemical cocktail of household detergents and human excrement.It equates into about the most suffering imaginable, anyone who recommends that approach is presumably a mental deficient.

see this thread for more info.

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/forums/The%20Hospital/65184.html

Thers loads of cures for finrot and fungus, esha exit ( as I already recommended),pimafix , sterazin etc.


Last edited by longhairedgit at 15-Dec-2005 07:14

there is a number of treatments you can get from your lfs,what you get is up to u and what your budget alows,i can recommend something if you like.one other thing,im just telling you what i got told,i had a experienced fishkeeper tell me that the toliet is not really a good way to get rid of dead fish and that if a fish is that close to death,99% of the time its curtins for them,he also said that rather then just let them die in your tank, take them out place then in a container(with the same water they came from)then put them in the freezer.its sounds bad but this is painless & humane(i was told),has anyone else heard of this practise.

Last edited by hokese at 14-Dec-2005 22:48

Thanks, I think I may have found another problem, fin rot. It is obvious now that I think about it, attacks caused fin rot which led to more attacks.

How do I treat?

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

It looks like you have answered your question and also solved it. If it is the Gourami you have only one choice of action remove him completly. How you do that is your choice.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tanks]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

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The fish looks good but is not swimming he has lost most of his tail fin but has nice color and is showing more activity. I hope he gets better because he cant be in the net while we are on vacation so he will have to meet the toilet unfourtunatly I just cant risk the whole tank for one fish.

The gourami has not been removed yet I cant decide if I should.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

The gourami does frequently charge the platies even nipping them I noticed this but the platies didnt seem to affected as the gourami was not focusing on them but instead going after the snail but now the gourami is focusing on them even delibritly cornering them. The fish in the net has actually improved (color returning slightly) so I think it is just bullying hopefully he can pull through. I will hopefully get the gourami out tonight. I dont want to dose any salt as I am about to go on vacation and though the caretaker has a veternary degree she has little expierece with fish.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

My male platy just crashed on the bottom, he seems listless and is extremely discolored near the head area its almost brown like. He is also losing color in his tail (caudal fin). I am not sure if it is a disease or if he got attacked but I dont have much longer so please help!I have recently had heater trouble and my tank dropped about 2 degrees from the regular 75F, 24C it currently is at about 74F. The fish is about 1.5 years old now and has taken alot of crap recently from the dwarf gourami could he just be dieing from old age?

10 Gallon
Red Gravel
1.5 WPG Fluorescent tube
Average Temp. 75F 24C
Java Moss/Vesicularia dubyana
FISH
1 Honey Dwarf Gourami/Colisa lalia
3 Platy's(1 Male, 2 Female)/Xiphophorus maculatus
3 Cherry Barbs(2 Female, 1 Male)/Puntius titteya
1 Giant Ramshorn snail/Marisa cornuarietis
FEEDING
1x daily Nutrafin Max Complete Flake Food
Filter: Millenium 1000 HOB
Heater: Radiant (I think 50 watts)
Water changes once per week
De-Clorinater:Aqua Plus

Parameters
Nitrate:30 ppm (higher than normal as I was about to do a water change)
Nitrite:0
Ammonia:0
PH:6.8
Buffering:70 ppm (this has me woried I was going to add some buffer to the water change but I am unsure why it dropped so much, from about 110ppm)

Also 2 things were recently moved between this tank and my other 10 gallon (see profile for stock and anything youd ever want to know about it)
A. The ramshorn snail was there for less than 12 hours
B. Java moss was moved after into a quarantine bowl for 4 days then into this tank.

Last edited by bcwcat22 at 09-Dec-2005 21:32

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Have you witnessed the dwarf bullying other fish? Honey dwarfs are usually pretty peaceful -- and platies are faster swimmers anyway, so they presumably could get away unless they already had a problem that was slowing them down.

I've had dwarf gouramis in 10 gallon tanks with platies, and have seen them charge the platies when the platies are infringing on their personal space, but that's always been the extent of it -- I don't think they could have gotten close enough to the platies to nibble fins even if they'd tried, unless, of course, the platies were sick to begin with.

When you have a problem you can't identify in a tank, aquatic veterinarians usually recommend doing a 30-percent water change, then adding a teaspoon of aquarium salt per gallon of water. (That eases osmoregulatory pressures on the fish and also can actually wipe out some low-level infections.) So you might start by doing that, and seeing how the fish respond before you start adding drugs to the tank.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

He is still alive (barely) but now I have a bigger issue, one of my other female platys died this morning. She had severe tail discoloration and it looked shredded. This was the dominant female platy so I think the gourami may be bullying his biggest threat in the tank. Hopefully I can get rid of the gourami but I dont know if my lfs will tank him since he possibly killed 2 other fish.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Well you could try, not saying it will help, but hes already held in there 3 days longer than you thought he originally would. You never know.The meds might finish him off quicker, or they may help, if youre gonna wait until he fades away anyway it makes no difference. If youre gonna euthanise, do it before he suffers too much. Pain is only worth the suffering if theres a chance of life.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 13-Dec-2005 11:51

Thanks, I think he is beyond meds now anything else would just increase the suffering of him and his tank mates.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Dont really know what to suggest, you could try antiprotozoan treatments or broad spectrum antibiotics, but it sounds like hes getting so weak it may be too late for that. If you can find esha 2000 antifungal and antibacterial treatment you could give it a go, I find it saves a lot of fish when other treatments fail.

Good luck with your fish, but I have a suspicion he may not survive.