Guest Elizabeth Anne Posted July 30, 2008 Share Posted July 30, 2008 I have a year-and-a-half-old oranda and this is the first time he's been sick with anything. I recently changed their tank - new rocks, new plants, new stuff - and when I acclimated all the fish and put them in, he was the only one who didn't take to the new tank right away. He seemed like he was having trouble swimming. Normally the first one to rush to get food when I put it in, he wasn't moving off the bottom of the tank. Luckily, I hadn't dumped all of the old tank water away - it was sitting in the quaranteen tank where they had been staying while the renovations to the big tank were going on. I reacclimated him to the quaranteen tank. I was really worried about him, because he didn't seem to have any interest in food and was swimming very poorly, so I didn't feed him for about two and a half days, and then I steamed some peas and tried to get him to eat those. He ate about two, and then seemed to, again, have no interest. The next day, I tried feeding him a mixture of soaked flakes and the peas, and he ate more. It's been two days and I'm still feeding him that mixture and he seems to be doing much better. He is swimming all around the tank now and is definitely interested in the food (before he would lay in the corner and not move for anything). This morning when I went to feed him, I saw he had a big white blister-looking thing on the side of his head above his right eye. I have no idea what it is, and now I'm worried that maybe I diagnosed him wrong. He went right for the flakes when I dropped them in, and his swimming is still a little tipsy. He keeps tipping from one side to the other or straight forward, but it's not as bad as it was before. He normally lives in a 30 gallon tank with a penguin filter made for a 70 gallon tank. His tank-mates include two black moors and a little 10-cent goldfish who is now getting pretty big. As I said, the tank has been running for about a year and a half, and he's been in it since the beginning. I change the water once a week and normally about a third of the tank. I have to be careful about additives to their water because I have a snail and a freshwater shrimp that could kill them (and have in the past). I'm currently looking into snail-safe conditioners. The snail and the shrimp we got as we were redoing the tank, but there have been snails in the past and no problems. The shrimp doesn't come in contact with the fish - he's scared of them and hides in a log. I normally feed the fish flakes and pellets, but my oranda doesn't like the pellets and thus doesn't eat them. Right now my oranda is in a 20-gallon quaranteen, filled up a about two thirds. He has a whisper filter made for a 20-40 gallon tank. The filter has been running for about 6 months (it was the old filter from before the renovation. We got them the new 70-gallon one because we have 4 good-sized goldies). In the quaranteen tank I put conditioners - Amquel+ and Cycle. I hope that helps... I haven't had time to do any testing (I think I'm going to be late for work as it is...), but I will try to do some when I get home and get them posted up here. Thank you for all of your help. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted July 30, 2008 Admin Share Posted July 30, 2008 If you can get a photo for me I would like to see the white stuff your talking about and a shot from the rear Will need the water quality test. Also if you can tell me what the poop looks like 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elizabeth Anne Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 The closest thing to a water quality test that I can get my hands on is the test strip my dad uses for our spa. For the tank the oranda is in, the hardness is about 250, maybe a little lower. The alkalinity is between 40 and 80, and the pH is about 7. I'm trying to upload pictures of the white thing, and my fish is being absolutely uncooperative in letting me take a picture of his backside. It doesn't help that the tank he is in has writing all over the outside of it (the tank used to belong to my neighbor and the boy drew and wrote on the outside of the tank...) His poop is the same color as the food, and a little longer than it probably should be. As far as I can tell, it isn't trailing with him for too long or anything. I hope this helps, and I'll be trying to get pictures of the white spot up as soon as I can. He's being extremely docile (he's usually kind of feisty), and let me hold him and turn him on his side so I could get a better look at the white blistery thing. It honestly looks like what a callus looks like on a human, with a little bit of skin trailing off... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elizabeth Anne Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Here are the pictures - I hope this works... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted July 31, 2008 Admin Share Posted July 31, 2008 I cant quite tell is the scales sticking up around the head area? Is the white spot a blister or like a white mark like fuzz or like scab skin? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elizabeth Anne Posted July 31, 2008 Share Posted July 31, 2008 Sorry, I didn't really take very good pictures. If you need me to, I can try for some better ones today. It looks like a callus would on a person. The scales are NOT sticking up, there's no fuzz, and it doesn't look like a scab... My mom said she saw him swimming around the filter the night before it showed up. Could he maybe have hurt himself on it or on the decoration in his tank? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin koko Posted July 31, 2008 Admin Share Posted July 31, 2008 If he got to close to the filter intake it could have hurt him. You know instead of doing hard core meds, I would do is use Melafix this heals wounds. I would try that for the treatment and see how he looks in a few days 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Elizabeth Anne Posted August 1, 2008 Share Posted August 1, 2008 Thank you very much for your thoughts on my fish. I'll do what I can for him - I love him to death. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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