ayni
08-08-2003, 10:54 AM
I got a red-bellied pacu and a tank from a friend whose room mate had moved out. (I didn't know how big they got when I agreed to take her :D )
Being new at this I have made some mistakes. I was clueless about cycling so I have had water quality issues (a guppy died from popeye, another guppy and a platy succumbed to something that made them swim whirly-like and wind up wrapped around the filter intake, and my oscar got a small spot of the cottony white fungus on his tail). I have learned a great deal in these few months that I've had the tanks; the only remaining issue I have is:
For the past month, the pacu has been glancing (scratching an itch) off the bottom of the tank. She has black flecks on her tail (where it meets the fin) about the size of the head of a pin. They have increased in number where fin and tail meet, spread to the rest of the tail, and now it has spread to her belly. I have her quarantined. I ran a course of tetracycline (ugh, what a mess) and that appeared to help a bit, briefly. Now, I'm about halfway through a course of Maracyn (-cide? the liquid of the two). The dots don't appear to be improving or lessening. The mara(cyn)cide (I'm at work, I can't check!) and tetracycline did help the fin splitting that was occuring; they are repairing nicely. She has also stopped glancing off the bottom so it appears the itchies have cleared up.
What are these black dots and how do I get rid of them for good? I don't think it is a fungus because she was in a tank w/ the oscar and his fungus cleared up just fine on the 4th day of a 5 day tx.
Thanks in advance for your help. Please be easy on the newbie, I've only been a fish mom for 2 1/2 months :confused:
Being new at this I have made some mistakes. I was clueless about cycling so I have had water quality issues (a guppy died from popeye, another guppy and a platy succumbed to something that made them swim whirly-like and wind up wrapped around the filter intake, and my oscar got a small spot of the cottony white fungus on his tail). I have learned a great deal in these few months that I've had the tanks; the only remaining issue I have is:
For the past month, the pacu has been glancing (scratching an itch) off the bottom of the tank. She has black flecks on her tail (where it meets the fin) about the size of the head of a pin. They have increased in number where fin and tail meet, spread to the rest of the tail, and now it has spread to her belly. I have her quarantined. I ran a course of tetracycline (ugh, what a mess) and that appeared to help a bit, briefly. Now, I'm about halfway through a course of Maracyn (-cide? the liquid of the two). The dots don't appear to be improving or lessening. The mara(cyn)cide (I'm at work, I can't check!) and tetracycline did help the fin splitting that was occuring; they are repairing nicely. She has also stopped glancing off the bottom so it appears the itchies have cleared up.
What are these black dots and how do I get rid of them for good? I don't think it is a fungus because she was in a tank w/ the oscar and his fungus cleared up just fine on the 4th day of a 5 day tx.
Thanks in advance for your help. Please be easy on the newbie, I've only been a fish mom for 2 1/2 months :confused: