Can you help me diagnose this?

[sue711]

Hi all. I am new to this wonderful forum and I have been lurking for about a month. I have a newish 10 gallon tank that has been cycled for over a month. I did a fish cycle with a pair of Danios, and then added 3, and then 4 Rasboras respectively after the cycle was complete. I have had this problem with Rasboras right from the get go. The day after I purchased the last 4 Rasboras, I noticed that one of them had this growth like thing on its lower lip. Then a few days later 3 more of them had what looks like whitish/flesh colored spots on their lips. I started treating with Melafix and Pimafix, and daily 20% water changes with Prime added. A few days later one of the Rasboras' mouth definitely looked like necrotic tissue on its lips. I continued the Mela/Pima for over a week, then thinking that I might be dealing with Columnaris I treated with Kanaplex 3 treatments total....water changes daily. There was some improvement bit not much. Well I waited a few more days, only did daily water changes, and waited some more. Their mouths slowly stared to show increased involvement, so I did API Fungus cure for the full two doses treatment, and water changes daily. All but one of the Rasboras has shown improvement, but one still has this thing on its lower mouth, his appetite is not quite as good as the others as well. Below are the best pictures I can get of him and his mouth. There are no other spots on their bodies. BTW I am sick of daily water changes!!!

Water parameters:
Temp 76
PH 7.2
Ammonia .25 or less with daily 20-30% water changes to remove excess
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 20
GH 71ppm
KH 35ppm...I know this is low so I will start to add some well water to my mix to slowly increase this level (well water is over 214PPM!)

Through out this whole mess I have been adding some "Safe Start" daily to help seed the tank since adding all this crap has somewaht messed up my biofilter.

10 gallon tank
7 Rasboras
Penguin Biowheel 150
Aqua Clear 20 on lowest flow
air stone
Stealth heater

Thanks for reading thus far!

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/4672/hjs3300it6.jpg


http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/8933/hjs3317tt1.jpg

[evelyn80]

sue i believe the problem is your tank isnt cycled properly. a cycled tank constantly has 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. wat happened im gonna say is that ammonia in the water caused alot of stress on your fish, makung them succabtable to disease. the disease alredy on ur 1 rasbora than took off at the weakened state of the fish and has infected them. watch the danios they could be infected next! 30-40% wc's daily should help the ammonia and disease in your tank good luck and keep us updated!

[gmh]

I agree, keep up with the daily water changes untill ammonia stays at zero. And I would stop with all those meds. The rasboras look healthy other than that lip thing.

[grannylvsfish]

cotton mouth??

[rocker92]

im treating my tank with API fungus cure and my zebra danio have that. i would let the tank cycle then go with the API fungus cure, seems to be helping my fish!!

[leeser28]

fish stix thats a terrible thing to say!:swear:
sue i believe the problem is your tank isnt cycled properly. a cycled tank constantly has 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. wat happened im gonna say is that ammonia in the water caused alot of stress on your fish, makung them succabtable to disease. the disease alredy on ur 1 rasbora than took off at the weakened state of the fish and has infected them. watch the danios they could be infected next! 30-40% wc's daily should help the ammonia and disease in your tank good luck and keep us updated!

:iagree: I haven't used medications in years. My tanks are a bit larger but I've been lucky in that regular fresh water (30-50% water changes daily for a couple of days) has been enough for the fish to heal themselves (and I've had some situations where the my fish had more amount of disease than yours. I always worry that the medication will actually be more stressful and harmful on all fish involved (especially those who are not sick) than fresh water.

[sue711]

Thanks everyone for your replies thus far. I agree about using so many different meds in the past month...argh! My tank was cycled before I added the Rasboras, I had 0 Ammonia, Nitrites and 10ppm Nitrates for a week before adding them, so I'm not sure if that could have contributed to the first one showing stress. I certainly do think that with all the meds I have used, it has caused a disturbance in my cycle, and that is why I'm now showing Ammonia. I've been adding the "Safe Start" bacteria, hoping that it will speed up the cycle recovery.

The weird thing about the fish I have pictured is that the thing on his lip is now hanging there by a tissue like thread. It comes and goes, well not completely...I don't know what it is. (Some days it looks worse, some days better) Cotton mouth...same as Columaris, was my first thought too, that's why I treated with Kanaplex, and then Fungus Cure.

I will keep up the water changes and vacuuming (good grief luckily this is only a 10 g tank!!) as I don't know what else to do. Do you guys think I should add aqurium salt??