White Streak On Blackmoor (pics Included)

[SnBMeg]

A few days ago I noticed a white streak on my little blackmoor's left side that hadn't been there that morning. Since then it's grown a little. The streak is flat to her body, not fluffy, and it's not her scales changing color. More than anything else, it looks like someone got her with a white oil pastel. ._. She's not showing any other signs, physically or behaviorally; the streak is the only thing unusual.

Recently all three of the goldfish in the tank were doing a bit of flashing, though they showed no other signs of parasites. I treated the tank with Coppersafe, and haven't seen any flashing since. On Sunday I treated the tank with Pimafix, on the chance that the white streak might be fungus, but it hasn't diminshed at all.

Tank, etc. specs:

Ammonia - .20

Nitrite - 0

Nitrate - very high, it has been for a few weeks, and if anyone could give me some advice on how to beat it down, I would appreciate it immensely

Ph - normally right around 7, though I noticed a drop last weekend, so this Sunday I replaced the crushed coral in the filter

Tap Ph - around 6.5?

Tank - 36G, currently barebottom, running for 7 months

Filter - Fluval 404 canister filter, runs at 340 gal/hour

I change the water once a week, about 25%; on Sunday I did 50%

Fish - 3 fancies, ranging in size from about 1.5 to 2.5 inches, w/o tails

Water conditioners - AmQuel Plus

Medications - as mentioned above, Coppersafe a few weeks ago, and Pimafix yesterday

No new fish for several weeks

I feed my fish gel food (one of dataGuru's recipes ^^), peas, sinking pellets, "Emerald Entree," veggie wafers, and cucumber slices

The only unusual finding is the white streak on the one fish

No unusual behaviors from any of the fish

In the past I've regularly (very lightly) salted the tank, but I stopped a couple of weeks ago. Also, for the past couple months or so I've had some strange white stuff growing on the walls of the tank. From a distance it looks like white algae, but it has a feathery, floaty texture. I scrub it off every week but it keeps growing back. I think my blackmoor may have been eating at it. Could it be fungus?

In this one the flash washed the streak out on the blue areas, but you can see it well on the brown.

And a clearer shot on the blue.

[Carmel]

It kind of looks like fungus.. how is his poop?

[SnBMeg]

Everybody's pooping fine too. Same color as the food and not stringy, usually short unless they've really been chowing down.

It really confuses me, because, right now at least, the discoloration really is the only thing out of the ordinary. :/ The Pimafix still doesn't seem to be having any effect either. Should I try a different fungal medication?

[katmad]

could it not be just missing scales?? casued be some kind of scrape, against an ornament or something?

[dickey_moe]

Just curious: Do you see any of the white stuff on any of the suction cups in your tank? If they are rubber, you may. The suction cups may smell like mold. I don't know what it is, but pieces do come off from time to time.

[Devs]

You have a couple things going on here.First off, if your tanks been up and running for 7 months,it should be totally cycled,which means that your ammonia/Nitrites should always be reading 0. For safe Nitrate readings,you want them under 40 ---safer yet under 20 ppms.

Poor water quality can cause flashing because of the toxins irritating your fish.The fact that you've noticed low ph and plunges also could be the reason your fish is showing the white mark as you definately sound like you had a PH crash.

You may want to consider a few things here.1st is to up your water changes.That is one of the only ways to control Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrates.What are you feeding and how much a day? Over feeding can also cause these problems.

2nd) adding a second filter.Your Fluval is almost exactly 10x's filter filtration,but I have found that going over that amount and having extra media,seems to also help ,so all my filters are over 10x's,and most tanks have multiple filters.

All your problems stem from water quality,so I personally would work on that and forget about adding any sort of meds,as fish don't respond to them well ifd they're the wrong meds or water is poor quality to begin with.

Your ph out of the tap is low,so you have to keep the upper hand on changing /adding coral.Any drops in ph very well could cause a crash,and your fish showing those white marks are the beginning results of that.

As for regularly salting the tank,you also have to be very aware of exactly how much you're adding/how much is taken out for water changes,etc.,or you could end up with "Salt Creep" problems.Salt doesn't evaporate out of your tank.The only way to rid it is by doing large water changes,so just be careful with that.

I think once you get your water quality all straight,you'll be back to good fishkeeping.Good luck.

[SnBMeg]

Thanks for all your help, guys!

katmad, I'm almost certain that she's not missing any scales, though it's a bit hard to tell because she's a very active little fish. Plus, I think the only place in the whole tank where she could possibly scrape any off is the filter intake, which is pretty out of the way, though not impossible. It mostly looks like she's got white paint or something on her, and around the edges the color of her scales is bleached out.

dickey's_assisstant, nope, no white stuff on the suction cups, except for a tiny bit of the feathery stuff I mentioned in my original post.

Devs, my tank was cycled for several months, but a while ago I converted it to a barebottom. Nitrates stayed low (15-20 ppm) over the weeks I was removing gravel, and for a while after the tank was completely cleaned out, then suddenly started to spike a little while after I added a new fish. Shortly after that, I moved one of the original fish to her own tank, so I was back to the original number of occupants, but the nitrates have stayed elevated.

I'll see how the fish handle a cut-back on their food. I only feed them as much as they can clean up within 15 minutes or so (typically less), and recently they've been finishing in record time (and two of them growing like weeds), but I'll see if a reduction will help.

I've been kind of thinking about getting another filter, but so far haven't had the funds for one. However, now that you mention it, it's less than two weeks until x-mas, so I guess I know what to ask for now. ;D

I've always been cautious about the salt. ^^ Though since I've stopped salting it shouldn't be a worry.

Thanks again!

[SnBMeg]

A long-overdue update on this situation. Within 3-5 days of my last post the mystery spot had disappeared. I hadn't yet had a chance to do a water change or alter their diet much, so I'm still not sure what happened.

I now have 2 filters on the tank, for a total of 680 gph (cycling the tank about 20x per hour). I'm doing 2 ~75% water changes each week, so my nitrates are way down from where they were, and now within the safe zone.

No new problems or other abnormalities have shown up, so things are going well now. ^^