Oranda help. Please help me identify what's going on.

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hhgtrillian

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Dec 2, 2006
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Background: 29 Gallon tank. Have had the thank for about 6 years. Had two orandas and nothing else. Recently had one oranda die suddenly. No indications of anything wrong. Was eating and acting fine then an hour later was dead at the bottom of the tank. Thought he may have choked on a rock...really have no idea. Had no external symptoms. Added a smaller oranda recently, neither seem to be bothering each other which I was a bit concerned about. A few days ago I noticed some red streaks in the older ones fins and now it has white puffy stuff on it. I tested ammonia and it was fine (out of nitrite test at the moment, need to buy more). Any help with identification and treatment is appreciated. Let me know if you need more details. Here are some pictures:





 

Somervell

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I am not an expert and I hope that one of our goldfish gurus will hop on soon. Is it possible that the fish injured herself on a tank decoration? It looks almost like some kind of laceration that has gotten infected. It looks amost like a pattern of abrasion, as if she got her dorsal caught by squeezing through something.
 

hhgtrillian

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I guess it's possible he tried to go in the little Colosseum that you can see in the background of the first picture, but he usually doesn't seem to go in there anymore. When he was little, he used to go in there and the new little guy likes to go in there. I don't know if the new guy could be nipping him or something? I watched pretty closely and it didn't seem like this was happening. If it is an abrasion, what is the best course of action to take? I never know what to do when there is an illness or something going on. Ask me about cats and dogs and I'm a wealth of knowledge, but I'm just not as good with fish, even though I like having them. I was poking around online and the red lines made me look at septicemia, but I really have no idea. Ollie says thanks for any help.
 

hhgtrillian

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Here is one more picture too. Taking with a better camera. Not sure if it's a better shot or not, but I thought it might be a little clearer.

 

Somervell

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Since no one has chimed in again I will go out on a limb and say that what ever it is, it looks infected. If it were my fish, rightly or wrongly, I would quarantine and start a broad spectrum antibiotic if it looks as if the injury is getting progressively worse.
or is aggressively reddening.

A lot can be done with clean, clear water, but that looks pretty bad. I think that an antibiotic would be in order.
 

hhgtrillian

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Thank you so much. Is there any specific one I need to be looking for? We have a Petco and a local fish store that I can check, but can also order online overnight if I need to. I've never had to do antibiotics on fish before.
 

Somervell

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I would try a Maracyn product-- maybe Marycyn II. It's readily available, easy to dose and will treat a number infections.
 

Lupin

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The first thing I noticed was you never seemed to quarantine the new fish you bought. Why? Quarantine is very essential in this case. This is one way you can safeguard your current pets from possible transmission of diseases that may be carried by your new fish who could have hosted a variety of parasites, bacteria and virus that could kill all your other fish.

If you do not have a quarantine tank, now is the right time to invest in one. Keep it simple. You do not have to buy everything except for a few essentials which includes heater, filter, a few plastic plants for refuge and a 10g barebottom tank only. If possible, make sure your quarantine tank is also cycled.

If you do not have a test kit yet, please invest in one. API liquid test kit is your best bet especially as it is most accurate and reliable. Do not be tempted to buy test strips. They tend to be misleading and inaccurate.

Once you have the kit, please test the following and post the exact results as they show.

Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
pH
KH
GH

How long have you kept each fish (including the one that passed away)?
How do you acclimate them?
How do you maintain your tank?
What is the feeding regimen?
What do you feed the fish?
Current temperature?
How thick is your substrate?

The best thing we can do is make sure the water is very clean! Please be reminded that if your tap water has chlorine and chloramine, then be sure you use a dechlorinator that can bind both substances. If possible, buy Prime from your petstore. It can help detoxify ammonia and nitrite as well. Make sure to do daily water changes and test your water daily for levels of ammonia and nitrite. Ammonia and nitrite are quite toxic in high levels.

To understand better the toxicity of ammonia in correlation with pH and temperature, please check this link.

http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html

In the meantime, the best you can do now is get the test kit, do a water change by as much as 50% (do not forget the dechlorinator!) and add a teaspoon per gallon of table salt (choose one without yellow prussiate or ferrous cyanide added).

If your substrate is somehow more than an inch thick, remove some of it to thin it down a bit. This will minimize the chances of parasites and bacteria being able to breed especially as thick beds of substrate permit stagnation of oxygen thus enabling the anaerobic bacteria to develop rapidly and intoxicating the fish when disturbed.

If any of your decorations have a hollow base, please remove those ASAP as well. Those can promote production of anaerobic bacteria.

What antibiotics do you have access to?
 

hhgtrillian

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Yeah...I don't have a quarantine tank. I guess I may have to get one. I have an extra 10 gallon around here I think. I have a large extra canister filter too, I could probably use that as well. I did have a test kit, but recently ran out of the nitrite one, and have been intending to get one. Ammonia was not present last I checked. I have some prime here, but I didn't have a ton of luck with it when I originally used it. I switched to Start Right (which probably isn't as well regarded) and had a lot better luck. Not sure what antibiotics I have available. We have a Petco and a local fish store so if I have a few that are recommended, I could try to go find those today.

How long have you kept each fish (including the one that passed away)?: I had the two large Orandas for 6 years.
How do you acclimate them?:
They were put in a cycled tank 6 years ago
How do you maintain your tank? Do around 20% water change every couple of weeks to weekly. Have been doing 10-20% daily since sick. Originally had a Rena Fillstar XP3 filter, but seem to have better luck with wet dry filters so have that now. Filter gravel with water change, use Start Right.
What is the feeding regimen? Feed fish once daily
What do you feed the fish?Feeding Hikari Lionhead sinking pellets. Soak pellets well before feeding. Also feed them peas a couple times a week.
Current temperature? 73-78 F
How thick is your substrate: Substrate currently around 2-3 inches thick.
 
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