Hi all,
Can anyone help our poor Snowy? Snowy and Sunny were won by my daughter when she was 8 at a street fair 11 years ago, they are now both about 8 inches long. We are about to transfer them into a 55 gal tank from a 30 gal but Snowy now seems to be ailing so we don't want to stress her out. I'm not sure if she is a female or male but I'll just refer to her as a female here. Water parameters are: 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 10 Nitrate, 6.5 PH. This is pretty much how it's always been. I've doubled the aeration in the tank. We have an Aquaclear filter for this size tank. Since they slowly kept getting bigger, I've been doing 40-50% water changes every day for the past 2 years (using Prime as conditioner and water left overnight). They are used to it and like to play in the bubbles.They eat a combination of Aqueon Shrimp pellets, Bug Bites insect larvae, Omega One and Tetra goldfish flakes once a day at night, and I soak everything in a cup of aquarium water before giving it to them. I am wondering if Snowy is egg-bound, or has dropsy. Slowly over the past several weeks when she rests, her tail is bent down. She's been head down sticking her head in a corner with her tail bent to the right, and looks bloated on the left side. I've fasted her for 2 days and today fed her a few peas which she gobbled up. I have not seen her poop in a few days. I also put a teaspoon of Epson Salt into the tank and turned the heat up to 72. If you will notice, her tailfin has a cut on it at the top - it looks like a slit and I'm not sure how that could happen, we don't have anything sharp in the tank besides maybe the gravel. Sunny keeps bothering her and poking her belly so maybe he did that? Usually they love each other! There is also a red streak on the side of her tail (pic 2). I purchased API General Cure, Kanaplex, Metroplex and Melafix, and yesterday dosed the tank with Kanaplex, but I'm not sure if the was the right one to use or if I should use any of the others. So far there is no improvement and today I've noticed little white dots on her fins (Ich?) Thanks for any help or suggestions!
Can anyone help our poor Snowy? Snowy and Sunny were won by my daughter when she was 8 at a street fair 11 years ago, they are now both about 8 inches long. We are about to transfer them into a 55 gal tank from a 30 gal but Snowy now seems to be ailing so we don't want to stress her out. I'm not sure if she is a female or male but I'll just refer to her as a female here. Water parameters are: 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, 10 Nitrate, 6.5 PH. This is pretty much how it's always been. I've doubled the aeration in the tank. We have an Aquaclear filter for this size tank. Since they slowly kept getting bigger, I've been doing 40-50% water changes every day for the past 2 years (using Prime as conditioner and water left overnight). They are used to it and like to play in the bubbles.They eat a combination of Aqueon Shrimp pellets, Bug Bites insect larvae, Omega One and Tetra goldfish flakes once a day at night, and I soak everything in a cup of aquarium water before giving it to them. I am wondering if Snowy is egg-bound, or has dropsy. Slowly over the past several weeks when she rests, her tail is bent down. She's been head down sticking her head in a corner with her tail bent to the right, and looks bloated on the left side. I've fasted her for 2 days and today fed her a few peas which she gobbled up. I have not seen her poop in a few days. I also put a teaspoon of Epson Salt into the tank and turned the heat up to 72. If you will notice, her tailfin has a cut on it at the top - it looks like a slit and I'm not sure how that could happen, we don't have anything sharp in the tank besides maybe the gravel. Sunny keeps bothering her and poking her belly so maybe he did that? Usually they love each other! There is also a red streak on the side of her tail (pic 2). I purchased API General Cure, Kanaplex, Metroplex and Melafix, and yesterday dosed the tank with Kanaplex, but I'm not sure if the was the right one to use or if I should use any of the others. So far there is no improvement and today I've noticed little white dots on her fins (Ich?) Thanks for any help or suggestions!
