I am fairly new to the fish world, having only bettas and smaller fish in the past. a buddy of mine gave me a 55 gal fish tank with a bunch of tropical fish. the biggest one is a gold severum who seems to have discoloration on his body. one side is worse than the other, with grey bruise like marks along his scales. he doesn't seem sick, swims, eats and still comes runnin' at dinner time. none of the other fish have these marks on them and all fish get along just fine. does anyone know what is wrong with him?
gold severum ill?
- Thread starter freepeace
- Start date
A picture would be most useful in this case, but if one cannot be provided the first question to ask is do the the wounds look like they were self inflicted (by scatching or "flashing" against objects in the tank, or possible bullying from other tankmates? Or do the abnormal area's look like they stem from the base of the scale out, as a possible internal infection?
Also include:
tank mates, water quality and filtration, and any recent changes to the aquarium (new fish/plant/diet/behavior of fish ect.)
Hope we can get this guy cleared up before anything serious happens! Also how old is the fish?
Also include:
tank mates, water quality and filtration, and any recent changes to the aquarium (new fish/plant/diet/behavior of fish ect.)
Hope we can get this guy cleared up before anything serious happens! Also how old is the fish?
ill get a picture of him up soon? i don't know his age, got him from a friend. but there are four gouramis, one other severum (green), and three angel fish. they all seem to get along. plus the gold severum is almost as big as all those fish combined. also i got the water tested and i was told that the only thing wrong was that the amonia levels were slightly high and that i needed to let bacteria build up in the tank. a water change would most likely start the cycle all over again, so i shouldn't change the water yet. everything else checked out fine. thank you for your help, i will get that picture up in the next day or too! got to find the camera.
do you know exactly what the reading was for ammonia, if not thats ok but a water change won't hurt it can only help the situation! The beneficial bacteria builds up in the filter and somewhat in the gravel (why you shouldn't sweep the gravel 100% with every water change) but you should only worry about huge shifts in water chemistry (ph, hardness,nitrates,etc) when doing a water change and this will only happen with a HUGE water change and can shock the fish. I would do a 15-25% water change daily for 3 days and get your water tested again.
Any ammonia can stunt a fishes immune system and allow it to be more easily affected by bacteria or parasites in the tank. Most of the time a week or too of clean water should clean the problem up! But also if their are no behavioral signs these could just be a natural degradation of color in the scales, just keep an eye on him and the water conditions!
Any ammonia can stunt a fishes immune system and allow it to be more easily affected by bacteria or parasites in the tank. Most of the time a week or too of clean water should clean the problem up! But also if their are no behavioral signs these could just be a natural degradation of color in the scales, just keep an eye on him and the water conditions!
Grayish patches could also be a parasite infection, so make sure you keep an eye on his behavior and eating!