Help with unknown issue

[JamieLu 0]

Hi this is my first post here. Sorry its long, ive been dealing with this issue for so long. I have been trying to figure out whats wrong with some of my fish for several months now. I have a 75gal tank temp is 70f ammo 0 nitrite 0 nitrate 30ish. 2 black moors, 1 oranda and 1 fantail. I also have about 7 fry that hatched in July. Anyway, the problems started when i added my last moor without quarantine around march? Ended up getting some type of parasite to my other moor (clamped fins, milky white patches) and also the others were flashing. I treated with copper safe. It definitely helped them all and things were going well. Side note, i do 50% water changes weekly. Some of my fry should have been culled but i love them so much so i kept some. They eat fine, but have deformed tails or mouths. I put 4 of the biggest fry with the adults in my 75gal. A few of them have always swam in spirals when coming to the surface but they eat and poo fine so i figured maybe a swim bladder issue plus their tails are flat so affects swimming maybe? They all have seemed to stop growing now though and the 4 in the main tank have flat stomachs and tend to hang out around the top corner of the tank (no gasping) My moor is clamping again and my oranda hides, gets pimples on his wen and is even missing some scales from flashing tho he hasnt been flashing much lately. So i treated with prazi pro, just one dose since the bottle says that should be enough. But after a few weeks and water changes it didnt help so i dosed again. Im still having issues and i dont want to keep dumping in meds and stressing them out but something is wrong. Sometimes a few of them have white stringy poop but some days they dont. Im at a loss and all this research and guessing has me overthinking. I need outside opinions from people who deal with goldfish regularly. I have levamisol on hand and prazi as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I love all my babies and want them to be healthy and happy

[koko 14,377]

Im going to move this into the D & D area. When you can please fill this out for us. Sorry I didn't see this thread.

Please copy & paste the following form and fill it out to the best of your ability when requesting help for Goldfish Problems:

 

Test Results for the Following:

 Ammonia Level(Tank)

 Nitrite Level(Tank)

 Nitrate level(Tank)

 Ammonia Level(Tap)

 Nitrite Level(Tap)

 Nitrate level(Tap)

 Ph Level, Tank (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines)

 Ph Level, Tap (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines)

Other Required Info:

 Brand of test-kit used and whether strips or drops?

 Water temperature?

 Tank size (how many gals.) and how long has it been running?

 What is the name and "size of the filter"(s)?

 How often do you change the water and how much?

 How many days ago was the last water change and how much did you change?

 How many fish in the tank and their size?

 What kind of water additives or conditioners?

 What do you feed your fish and how often?

 Any new fish added to the tank?

 Any medications added to the tank?

 List entire medication/treatment history for fish and tank.Please include salt, Prazi, PP, etc and the approximate time and duration of treatment.

 Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt," bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?

 Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, etc.?

"If copy and paste doesn't work for you, quote this post and put your answers after each question."

[JamieLu 0]

Results for the Following:

 Ammonia Level(Tank)   0

 Nitrite Level(Tank)   0

 Nitrate level(Tank)   30ish

 Ammonia Level(Tap)  1

 Nitrite Level(Tap)   0

 Nitrate level(Tap)  10-20

 Ph Level, Tank (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines)   8.2

 Ph Level, Tap (If possible, KH, GH and chloramines)  8.6+

Other Required Info:

 Brand of test-kit used and whether strips or drops?   Api drops

 Water temperature? 70

 Tank size (how many gals.) and how long has it been running? 75gal over 2years

 What is the name and "size of the filter"(s)? HOB Aqua tech 60? And a huge sponge filter (like a jumbo roll of toilet paper), unsure of brand

 How often do you change the water and how much? 50% per week

 How many days ago was the last water change and how much did you change? 4 days ago 50%

 How many fish in the tank and their size? 4 adults (3 inches) and 4 babies (1 inch)

 What kind of water additives or conditioners? Just prime 

 What do you feed your fish and how often? 1 per day sometimes twice but i believe the babies get swim bladder since they tend to float nose down quite a bit. I feed aqueon goldfish pellets, bloodworms, spirulina flakes, peas and sometimes spinach when i have it. 

 Any new fish added to the tank? Just the babies about a month ago 

 Any medications added to the tank? Copper over a year ago. Recently prazi pro and quick cure 

 List entire medication/treatment history for fish and tank.Please include salt, Prazi, PP, etc and the approximate time and duration of treatment. Coppersafe over a year ago followed instructions. Prazi about 3 weeks ago, only 1 dose since my oranda forms white spots all over his tail from the treatment so i waited a few days changed water then added quick cure since i was told its prob ich tho i dont think it was. I did the 3 day treatment or whatever the bottle said, cant remember. Then recently added prazi again (only once) since i read it takes multiple treatments and i am still having problems

 Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt," bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? My oranda has always had red veins in his tail, hes lost some scales (some from breeding some not) flashes sometimes tho not as much lately, he gets pimples under his wen that kind of pop when they come to the surface and hes been hiding more than usual. My older black moor has clamped his dorsal often since i got him and hides more than he should. Fantail got slightly red veins and flashes but no much at all now (shes the healthiest) and my babies swim so weird. They spiral when going up for air or zig zag across the top when begging for food. Also they seem to have flat stomachs compared to my babies in a different tank. And they float nose down when resting.

 Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, etc.? The 2 boys hide quite a bit but everyone eats like pigs. I explained unusual behavior above in more detail. 

"If copy and paste doesn't work for you, quote this post and put your answers after each question."

[JamieLu 0]

Id really appreciate any help anyone can give please? I havent had any responses 

[Mikey 6,789]

I do apologize, I do not have much to offer other than if the babies are having swim bladder issues with feeding, I would stay away from the flakes so they aren't gasping at the top to eat them. You can also try pre-soaking the pellets for 30-60 seconds to see if that helps as well. 

 

I am very out of practice with QT procedures and medication uses haha. You are in great hands here though!

[JamieLu 0]

Can anyone help? I feel like its some sort of parasite, possibly velvet but unsure. My betta does look like he may have it but i havent seen him flash. He is in the other room tho so i dont see him as much. I also am not sure if its normal color or not but hes not really active. And i do use the same water change equipment. 

[koko 14,377]

It sounds like it might be parasites and bacterial. @Arctic Mama is good with MEds. But I want to start off by saying lets get some stuff out of the tank cause its taking up water space. You have to many fish in the tank. Sorry to say that. But its over loading the cycle.

Then I would see if you have Aquarium salt or Picking salt. Salt that doesn't have anything in it but salt its self.  We need to get to .01%

 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

I’m sorry, for some reason I missed the notifications on this thread.

Did I miss, were the new fish quarantined? If not, it’s likely they brought something in with them, and we would need to treat the entire tank. As Koko said, emptying it of some of the substrate and decor will help, that tends to trap unnecessary mulm and dirty water. But ultimately this is probably going to require meds, and I need some closeups of each fish showing physical symptoms. 

[JamieLu 0]

14 hours ago, Arctic Mama said:

I’m sorry, for some reason I missed the notifications on this thread.

Did I miss, were the new fish quarantined? If not, it’s likely they brought something in with them, and we would need to treat the entire tank. As Koko said, emptying it of some of the substrate and decor will help, that tends to trap unnecessary mulm and dirty water. But ultimately this is probably going to require meds, and I need some closeups of each fish showing physical symptoms. 

I did add without quarantine about 6 months ago and i had to treat with copper (protazoan infection) then everyone was fine and healthy only my moor still clamped every once and awhile. Then they would flash from time to time. When i added their fry to the main tank it seemed to stress them possibly and thing went downhill. I havent lost anyone but my oranda is prob the most affected, red veins tho hes had them from the get go, pimples on his wen that come and go (not wen growth) he hides frequently and missing some scales. I did treat with prazi since it says it can b used as a prophylactic. My fry in the main tank stopped growing and 4 of the 5 have flat stomachs and swim in a corkscrew across the top mostly or when coming for air. 1 have 1 fry who is unaffected. My oranda isnt showing any signs right now except missing scales. They seem the get stressed after water changes as well. 

[JamieLu 0]

On 12/25/2020 at 5:51 PM, koko said:

It sounds like it might be parasites and bacterial. @Arctic Mama is good with MEds. But I want to start off by saying lets get some stuff out of the tank cause its taking up water space. You have to many fish in the tank. Sorry to say that. But its over loading the cycle.

Then I would see if you have Aquarium salt or Picking salt. Salt that doesn't have anything in it but salt its self.  We need to get to .01%

 

I have already tried salt. Should i try again? 4 fish is too much for 75gal? I know i have 4 fry but they are small so didnt think it added too much to the bioload? Im used to tropical fish, these are my first goldfish so im sure u know better than me. I wasn't planning to keep the fry i have left, just want to get them healthy first! Thanks for ur help

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

Okay, there are likely several things going on here. You’re going to have to be fastidious about keeping your filter clear of mulm, since the tap nitrates are so high already. Do you get any mineral buildup on your taps or tanks? Is your water hard or soft, to go with that pH?

My guess is that the tap water swings a bit and isn’t particularly hard, despite the high pH, and that plus the nitrates could account for a fair bit of stress, especially after water changes. This might just be a tank where two or three half changes per week is a getter choice than one 80% one weekly. Please also take your filter media and hit it against the side of your sink or squeeze it into a bucket of tank water every 3-4 weeks, we don’t want any solids sitting in there if we can help it, that will make the nitrates even worse. No need to toss it or rinse it vigorously, a good smack will usually do

Prazi is a good choice, but the instructions are garbage. It needs to be done in rounds, especially with fry. Dosing it in a freshly changed tank and leaving it in for four days, then changing out the water and letting it sit three more days, is a round. Four days of prazi, three days of nothing. That should be done for 2-3 weeks in a row.

My next recommendation based on the symptoms isn’t salt, but metronidazole. If you saw some improvement in treating protozoan infections already, you could be dealing with secondary infections from the stress or a more stubborn parasite that wasn’t knocked all the way back, especially without QT. If you can order or obtain metronidazole we can begin treatment with that during or after the prazi.

Please keep everything out of the tank but a thin layer of substrate, a cm or so. At this juncture it’s just going to make figuring out the water quality and enacting treatment even more difficult.

@koko can you remember where any of the threads on terrestrial plants fixing the nitrate issues in tanks are? I don’t have time to search at the moment, but I think a pothos or bamboo out the back could really help with those nitrates.

 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

You may also find you need to keep your fry in a colander floating at the top, or a breeder box. Are they eating decently during feeding? Please make sure to give them protein rich sources like bloodworm cubes twice daily, the flat bellies are as likely to be ‘not enough food’ as parasitic at this juncture. If they’re spitting or won’t eat well I lean toward the latter, but having them not competing against adult fish in a big tank for food is an easy fix to try and fatten them up, along with prazi rounds to ensure they’re not getting fluke infested (a common fry problem and it can cause jaw and gill deformities).

[JamieLu 0]

22 minutes ago, Arctic Mama said:

You may also find you need to keep your fry in a colander floating at the top, or a breeder box. Are they eating decently during feeding? Please make sure to give them protein rich sources like bloodworm cubes twice daily, the flat bellies are as likely to be ‘not enough food’ as parasitic at this juncture. If they’re spitting or won’t eat well I lean toward the latter, but having them not competing against adult fish in a big tank for food is an easy fix to try and fatten them up, along with prazi rounds to ensure they’re not getting fluke infested (a common fry problem and it can cause jaw and gill deformities).

So all the fry i have left are deformed, some with mouth deformities. I kept reading about rounds of prazi but yes the instructions say only 1 round is necessary. And they seemed to get stressed during treatment so i didnt add anymore. 😒 The ones with flat stomachs do eat well tho they also corkscrew swim so prob struggle a bit. I have to break the pellets smaller since some of their mouths are deformed. I have another tank with other deformed fry so i can move them in there, i just didnt want to cross contaminate any possible illness. I tend to get a good amount of buildup from the water so its pretty hard. I checked with strips in the past (not very accurate) and it was above 180 but i dont remember an exact number.  I started letting water sit in a tote for a few days before water changes since the ph is so different from the tap. And i do clean my polyfil and sponge filter a few times a month in old tank water. I plan to switch out my sand soon anyway so i will remove most of it next change in a day or 2. I wanted to add some more plants as well (mine got taken out by staghorn and string algae and my goldies demolished my duckweed) once i get a new light. Mine went out and i have a crappy florescent one right now. I had some pothos in the tank as well but i smashed the leaves when i dropped my lid on it a few weeks ago. I was thinking of getting some sort of bigger floating plants until i can propogate my pothos. As of right now i dont have much money to spend on meds. That last bottle of prazi i got was not cheap. I did get a microscope for xmas. I was planning on researching possible parasites and how to check for them with a microscope. Its so expensive to treat a 75gal tank. And in the future i will quarantine. I really appreciate your help. Everyone seems ok for now, havent seen any flashing or stress these last couple days, everyone is eating but i can tell they arent 100%. I will do my scheduled change tomorrow, with a smaller amount of water and remove some of the decor and sand. 

[JamieLu 0]

1 hour ago, Arctic Mama said:

You may also find you need to keep your fry in a colander floating at the top, or a breeder box. Are they eating decently during feeding? Please make sure to give them protein rich sources like bloodworm cubes twice daily, the flat bellies are as likely to be ‘not enough food’ as parasitic at this juncture. If they’re spitting or won’t eat well I lean toward the latter, but having them not competing against adult fish in a big tank for food is an easy fix to try and fatten them up, along with prazi rounds to ensure they’re not getting fluke infested (a common fry problem and it can cause jaw and gill deformities).

So all the fry i have left are deformed, some with mouth deformities. I kept reading about rounds of prazi but yes the instructions say only 1 round is necessary. And they seemed to get stressed during treatment so i didnt add anymore. 😒 The ones with flat stomachs do eat well tho they also corkscrew swim so prob struggle a bit. I have to break the pellets smaller since some of their mouths are deformed. I have another tank with other deformed fry so i can move them in there, i just didnt want to cross contaminate any possible illness. I tend to get a good amount of buildup from the water so its pretty hard. I checked with strips in the past (not very accurate) and it was above 180 but i dont remember an exact number.  I started letting water sit in a tote for a few days before water changes since the ph is so different from the tap. And i do clean my polyfil and sponge filter a few times a month in old tank water. I plan to switch out my sand soon anyway so i will remove most of it next change in a day or 2. I wanted to add some more plants as well (mine got taken out by staghorn and string algae and my goldies demolished my duckweed) once i get a new light. Mine went out and i have a crappy florescent one right now. I had some pothos in the tank as well but i smashed the leaves when i dropped my lid on it a few weeks ago. I was thinking of getting some sort of bigger floating plants until i can propogate my pothos. As of right now i dont have much money to spend on meds. That last bottle of prazi i got was not cheap. I did get a microscope for xmas. I was planning on researching possible parasites and how to check for them with a microscope. Its so expensive to treat a 75gal tank. And in the future i will quarantine. I really appreciate your help. Everyone seems ok for now, havent seen any flashing or stress these last couple days, everyone is eating but i can tell they arent 100%. I will do my scheduled change tomorrow, with a smaller amount of water and remove some of the decor and sand. I do want to add that when i kept platies in this tank i lost 3 from something unknown. They started to get flat stomachs as well and eventually died. I treated with levamisole but they were the only 3 that died or had issues. Not sure if this is relevant but just wanted to throw that in there. Im no good with diagnosis as ive only ever dealt with swim bladder or fin rot in bettas. 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

Letting the water sit in a tote for a few days is a great idea if it is offgassing a lot and jumping around.

 

Pouting and bottom sitting during prazi is good, that means it’s likely helping. If these babies do already have notably deformed mouths or spines it’s probably better to cull them, honestly. But if you’d rather keep them alive, definitely switch from pellets to actual worms or other live food. It’s just so much higher nutritional density and doesn’t aggravate swim bladder and constipation issues. Duckweed is another great choice for goldfish supplemental food, they love greens and it’s well balanced and easy to chew, as it sounds like you’ve discovered. You can cultivate it in another tank or bin under lights since they pretty much Hoover it up in the main tank

I wouldn’t recommend treating in tank if you have a hospital tank option. Running that main tank with meth blue or hydrogen peroxide to disinfect it, or hot and empty for several weeks (like 90+ degree water) with the animals over in a hospital tank for treatment, is a lot more cost effective for any medication except prazi. If you do run out of PraziPro, though, we have found the dry prazi powder is more effective for some reason. 
 

If you can get a scraping under the scope of the slime coat and one of the gills and make some slides for us to see that could be extremely helpful in narrowing down treatment. Otherwise we end up doing broader spectrum medications to try and hit as many options as possible. In your case two weeks of metronidazole and possibly several rounds of Paraguard are where I’d go after prazi, if that plus some of the tank parameter management doesn’t solve things. You’re doing a lot right, it sounds like crappy water is really the biggest issue, and goldfish are delicate enough that once stress impacts them it’s an ongoing battle to get on top of the opportunistic parasites and bacteria that can proliferate in the weakened fish. That, and needing much more substantial water change volume, are really the biggest different between most tropically vs goldies.

Yes definitely get a few stems of pothos back in there! The little suction cup sponge holders are my fave aquatic planters foe quickly getting cuttings to root in the top of the tank and they sponge up the nitrates so well. Start that up again, it can only help. I’m sorry the previous ones got crushed 😖

Can you clarify for me, did you toss the media and nuke the tank between the platys and the goldfish or is it the same environment and cycle? 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

This is one of my favorite sources for fish meds, and their bulk metro is very reasonable. The more I think about this, the more it sounds like a you have an ongoing issue that might require additional meds.

https://angelsplus.com/collections/fish-medications/products/med-metro-nidasole-100

[JamieLu 0]

1 hour ago, Arctic Mama said:

Letting the water sit in a tote for a few days is a great idea if it is offgassing a lot and jumping around.

 

Pouting and bottom sitting during prazi is good, that means it’s likely helping. If these babies do already have notably deformed mouths or spines it’s probably better to cull them, honestly. But if you’d rather keep them alive, definitely switch from pellets to actual worms or other live food. It’s just so much higher nutritional density and doesn’t aggravate swim bladder and constipation issues. Duckweed is another great choice for goldfish supplemental food, they love greens and it’s well balanced and easy to chew, as it sounds like you’ve discovered. You can cultivate it in another tank or bin under lights since they pretty much Hoover it up in the main tank

I wouldn’t recommend treating in tank if you have a hospital tank option. Running that main tank with meth blue or hydrogen peroxide to disinfect it, or hot and empty for several weeks (like 90+ degree water) with the animals over in a hospital tank for treatment, is a lot more cost effective for any medication except prazi. If you do run out of PraziPro, though, we have found the dry prazi powder is more effective for some reason. 
 

If you can get a scraping under the scope of the slime coat and one of the gills and make some slides for us to see that could be extremely helpful in narrowing down treatment. Otherwise we end up doing broader spectrum medications to try and hit as many options as possible. In your case two weeks of metronidazole and possibly several rounds of Paraguard are where I’d go after prazi, if that plus some of the tank parameter management doesn’t solve things. You’re doing a lot right, it sounds like crappy water is really the biggest issue, and goldfish are delicate enough that once stress impacts them it’s an ongoing battle to get on top of the opportunistic parasites and bacteria that can proliferate in the weakened fish. That, and needing much more substantial water change volume, are really the biggest different between most tropically vs goldies.

Yes definitely get a few stems of pothos back in there! The little suction cup sponge holders are my fave aquatic planters foe quickly getting cuttings to root in the top of the tank and they sponge up the nitrates so well. Start that up again, it can only help. I’m sorry the previous ones got crushed 😖

Can you clarify for me, did you toss the media and nuke the tank between the platys and the goldfish or is it the same environment and cycle? 

Thanks for ur advice! I did nuke the tank with h202 before starting over and tossed the media. i recycled the tank before adding anything back as well. Yes i heard duckweed is very good for them and they love it. Only the place i got my plants from in the past brought in a host of issues with it. I battled staghorn, string algae, bladderwort and even cyanobacteria. This was all before starting with goldies. So we plan to get more suitable plants for them soon when we get a better light. My java fern doesnt like the light i have either. My pothos im a bit nervous to propogate since my hubby sprayed it with a pesticide from some bugs we were having issues with. I can possibly get some more soon if i can find it. I dont really have a hospital tank that would work for everyone but i have 2 30gal totes. I have clove oil and i should have culled long ago but i couldnt bring myself to do it. I am thinking it may be wise to give them to my friend who will feed them to his turtle. U think my tap water is crappy or im not maintaining it enough? I wish i knew the amount of dissolved solids but i dont. Ammo and nitrite are in check but nitrates obviously are a bit high. I hate that my tap has ammonia and such high nitrates. I will set up my microscope tomorrow, pretty sure it came with whatever i need. And hopefully in the future i can get a better filter going as well. I really appreciate u oh and by the way yes, they were bottom sitting and not happy about the prazi. My oranda even got tons of white dots on his tail after the first time i used it. Is that normal? It wasnt ich, it didnt spread and didnt come back. 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

Culling them would be less painful than turtle food, but it’s your choice. I’d also worry, if they were infected with anything, of potentially passing that on to the turtles 😬

Maybe pick up a new pothos or pop a potato in the back? There are plenty of choices that can nitrate fix besides pothos, lucky bamboo is good too. Your call. If they’ve been sprayed with pesticides you’d want to wash the leaves well with warm water and some vinegar before trying it.

Totes are great hospital tanks, that’s often what I use. A half full 30 g tote makes a nice one, and cuts the med amount needed dramatically.

If you nuked everything between fish and cyanobacteria blooms I think you’d be fine just running some meth blue and heat while the fish are out, no need to crash the entire cycle and start again. But Java fern or any other plants you want to keep in that tank should stay in during the meth blue. It might damage the foliage but it will sanitize them and they’ll regrow any leaves lost eventually. I’d just hate for you to do all that work in the tanks and then reinfect them with contaminated plant life. A surprising number of viral tomites and parasites can hitchhike on the greens.

Let’s try the Prazi in two week-long rounds on ALL the fish, in a hospital tank with an air stone and a spare sponge filter or HOB if you have it, so we can kee your main tank running at a greatly increased temperature and with a disinfecting oxidizing agent. Meth blue is my fave, but HP or potassium permanganate can be used as well. Heat and the two weeks of fishlessness should deal with any baddies in there fairly well. Do you have a spare heater you can use in the hospital tank, so you can leave the main tank one running at 90 or so?

We can try prazi and light feeds, since it sounds like possibly congenital issues with the fry are making one problem, and stress with the water are making another. The prazi may be enough to help the stressed fish without additional meds. It is worth a try. Euthanizing the fry who simply cannot eat well or swim is still my recommendation, but two weeks of prazi won’t hurt to try first.

If there are still major signs of water issues even in the quarantine tote, we may need to do some additional work on ways to mitigate those swings. Testing the tap and the tote and the off gassing waiting water each day and posting the data here will help me, if you can, so we can see how things are reacting to the various tweaks.

Have I been confusing on anything? It’s a lot of moving parts, I know.

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

Oooh, the white dots in the oranda tail I missed - were they raised bumps or just blotches? 

[koko 14,377]

I found the thread @Arctic Mama 

 

[JamieLu 0]

On 12/27/2020 at 10:36 PM, Arctic Mama said:

Oooh, the white dots in the oranda tail I missed - were they raised bumps or just blotches? 

I dont have any heater at all actually. Well i have one but it isnt great, it def wont get the 75gal up to 90. Can i ask why would they need a heater in the tote? Just to speed up the life cycle of whatever they may have? I also seperated the fry yesterday and fed blood worms. I didnt consider the fish passing on something to the turtle, didnt know that was possible. I only considered it because at least they arent going to waste in a sense? And the orandas dots im unsure. I couldnt really tell. Some people on another forum said it was ich but i really dont think so. It never progressed or came back and it didnt look like salt. So ill need to get meth blue, another tote to age water while doing water changes in the hospital tank. Will all 3 b ok in a 30 gal tote for 2 weeks? Can u explain once more how to do the prazi round. Also i have tried the potato but it just ended up rotting. Someone told me i need seed potatoes. What are ur thoughts on this? Is there a certain/better way to do it? 

[JamieLu 0]

6 hours ago, JamieLu said:

I dont have any heater at all actually. Well i have one but it isnt great, it def wont get the 75gal up to 90. Can i ask why would they need a heater in the tote? Just to speed up the life cycle of whatever they may have? I also seperated the fry yesterday and fed blood worms. I didnt consider the fish passing on something to the turtle, didnt know that was possible. I only considered it because at least they arent going to waste in a sense? And the orandas dots im unsure. I couldnt really tell. Some people on another forum said it was ich but i really dont think so. It never progressed or came back and it didnt look like salt. So ill need to get meth blue, another tote to age water while doing water changes in the hospital tank. Will all 4 b ok in a 30 gal tote for 2 weeks? Can u explain once more how to do the prazi round. Also i have tried the potato but it just ended up rotting. Someone told me i need seed potatoes. What are ur thoughts on this? Is there a certain/better way to do it? 

 

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

They need a heater to warm it up for treatment, both to make it more effective with the life cycle of the bacteria or parasite involved, and to lower the stress on the fish’s immune system. Unless your house runs 75 or so, it’s useful to have a small one for the quarantine.

they’ll be okay in the tote together but if you can’t run a cycled sponge or media during the prazi (like moving your canister to the treatment tote) we will need to do some water changes during treatment to control the ammonia. Generally I prefer to use an air stone and just replace the water once daily (and all the meds with it), but if you have mature filters this course of treatment shouldn’t totally wipe it out and could stretch the time between water changes with all of them in there. You’ll still want to feed lightly regardless.

prazi rounds are a week long. Treatment in for half that time, usually I do four days on, three days off. Complete water change to get the prazi out, and one more complete change before the beginning of the next round.

So if your filter was in, Monday through Thursday would be prazi, then remove the fish and do a complete water change, replace the fish into the water, and then Friday through Sunday would be rest days, before a complete water change Sunday night before the next prazi-in day.

The only difference if you don’t run a filter in there, is all four would probably need water changes every day or two, and thus you’d redo the prazi each Monday through Thursday night when you change the water out. It uses more meds but is a little less stressful on the fish, as it is easier to control and there are less biologics in the system competing for redox.

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

Also if you post, please give me at least 24 hours before poking again. Usually I’ve seen it, I’m just busy and can’t always get right online. But I have this on notifications, I don’t usually miss posts

[Arctic Mama 3,647]

As for the potato, I’ve never had issues. Just a normal spud from Costco, let it sprout eyes on the counter and then submerge that side in the tank. You can also suspend the potato about a centimeter above the water line, and let it root down toward the water. If it rots just try again, no biggie. I think pothos and bamboo are easier, but maybe less cheap.