Please Help

silentskream

silentskream

AC Members
May 16, 2004
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Florida
in my 55gallon aquarium i have one 8" black moor , one 3"red cap oranda, one 3" "fancy fantail" and one 3"lionhead.

today i noticed that the lionhead is missing his left front fin, and his tail is tattered. i'm afraid one of the other fish is harrassing him (he's obviously the slower and more cumbersome of the group)

another option is that there's something in the tank that is causing it, but wouldn't it show up on all of the fish?


the ammonia/nitrates are all normal.
i did add two mystery snails last week, one of which is already dead.

i did add a little bit of salt (a couple tablespoons) but i didnt want to add anymore without consulting you guys.

what should i do?? 8(
 
Test the water? Dead snails can cause ammonia spikes, and the stress from rising ammonia could be enough to allow an opportunistic bacteria to sneak in. Since he's already the slower fish, he'll most likely more susceptible than the others. Dividing off a section of the tank for him will prevent the others from harrassing him, and I'd start with doing a few more water changes, JIC, immediately.
 
it seems the snail was eaten.

so it didnt stick around verylong, and i didnt notice any ammonia spikes

nonetheless, i'm going to separate him in one of those breeder net thingys.

should i add more salt? increase the temps? should i add anything at all? or just separate them?
 
i once heard that there are 3 different classes of goldfish:
(I am PRETTY sure haw this went)
1) normal- comets...etc
2) fancy- black moore, ryukin
3) extra fancy - lionhead

class 1 will pick on class 2 and three, and class 2 will pick on class 3.

so your moors may be picking on your lionhead, if the above is true

I wouldnt put it past them, even though ive kept ryukins, moors, pearlscales, and loinheads together in 1 tank with no issues. I would still treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic (1/2 strenght) a bit of aquarium salt (1/2 dose) just so you dont get a major... "something" outbreak
 
Routine use of an antibiotic without a clear target for which that antibiotic is the preferred agent is shooting yourself in the foot IMHO. It is as likely to cause problems as it is to help. Very poor aquarium practice.
 
RTR said:
Routine use of an antibiotic without a clear target for which that antibiotic is the preferred agent is shooting yourself in the foot IMHO. It is as likely to cause problems as it is to help. Very poor aquarium practice.
Click to expand...

I agree, anything that promotes anti-biotic resistance is a bad thing. Our society is a little too keen on handing out antibiotics without a specific target, and this doesn't just apply to aquaria. They may be the "magic bullets", but you still gotta know what you're aiming at if you expect it to hit.
 
im sorry, thats is just what i would do, because every fish that i have bought in the past from the stores around here always have problems. and I find it better to at least try to make a hit with an antibiotic in the hospital tank half or less dose , so you dont kill them with the medicine), rather than ooh and ahh over what is happening and then have $80 of wonderful fish floating belly up the next day. but im sorry, if you guys think that is bad, ill try to learn why, but that is the only thing that has worked for me. sorry for the bad advice...
 
The idea behind NOT doing that is that what doesn't kill the bacteria only makes them stronger, so to speak. Some of the weaker bacteria may die at a half dose of antibiotic, but the strongest will reproduce, and the strongest of those will reproduce, etc until you have a strain of bacteria resistant to that antibiotic. That is a bad thing, since the more antibiotics a bacterium is resistant to, the fewer there are that can kill it.
 
When adding a fish, the best thing is a long time in an observation tank where you can observe and treat a specific problem if it occurs. I use a higher amount of salt in the observation tank to take care of parasites. But yeah, just throwing around antibiotics isn't good. If you can't figure out immediately the problem, the solution I think is: water changes, water changes, water changes, isolation.
 
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