My Scat has red lips

[CHughes]

Hi: I'm new to this forum, have been lurking as a guest for many months now...great source of info in this group. Anyway, I have a problem with a couple of my silver scats (2 out of a group of 5). They have developed a reddish (growth??) on their upper lips. Is this a water quality issue or a fungus? The water peraimeters are in a 35 gallon tank (yeah, I know I need a bigger tank):

pH - 8.0
No2 - 0.1
No3 - 50
Am - 0.00
SPG - 1.020
Temperature - 78

I'll try to post a photo later...any assistance would be appreciated.

Thanks, Chris

[MonoSebaelover]

Well the Nitrite won't be helping their cause any. I would do some frequent water changes to get that down to zero. I would guess what is happening is Scats are very aggressive to one another and the two that have the issue are probably the ones getting picked on. They are probably slamming into the glass which is causing the skin to slough off. I would keep water quality pretty well perfect to make sure a secondary infection (bacterial) doesn't get them. I would upgrade to a bigger tank ASAP. A bigger tank will allow the subordinates to get away easier rather than crashing into the walls.

[CHughes]

Mono:
Thanks for the input...I quarantined the pair of scats and treated with Melafix. The sores are healing just fine. I've been performing biweekly water changes, but I guess the tank size is a major problem with that many inhabitants. I plan to find good homes for 3 of the 5 until I can upgrade to a bigger tank.

As I have moved the salinity to pretty much a marine tank, should I be adding a skimmer and deeper gravel bed? Currently, I have about 3" of standard aquarium gravel and for filtration just using a single Aquaclear 300 filter (foam inserts and Kent Nitrate Sponge media only) and of course an air stone.

Chris

[MonoSebaelover]

If it is pretty close to marine then a ps won't hurt, if anything it will benefit. I wouldn't keep only two Scats. They will raise hell. Trust me I have done it before. I had 2 Ruby Scats and they killed an Anablep and an Archer in one day period. They went back to lfs the next day. They generally aren't this mean but they will bully other fish if not kept in schools. I would say for now just keep all of them.

[CHughes]

Thanks again for the reply. I still have the 5 and have moved them all to a hospital tank (stripped down 35 gal) until I can upgrade to larger tank.

The lips are getting better with the water changes and melafix. Just for interest, I'm attaching a photo for those who might run into this in the future.