I have a single salvini chillaxing like a boss in a 54 gal corner tank; his sole tank mate is a tiny 2" pleco that I'm pretty sure hasn't moved in over a year. Salvini is like 5" and I've had him in this tank for over a year as well.
I just got back from a 3-week trip in Japan; about a week before I left I noticed Salvini was looking kind of pale in color, but I didn't think much of it. By the time I came back he was much much worse: almost no color left, his face has lots of pure white patches, fins clamped down, almost no activity, lost a lot of weight, he just sits in the back corner in a hollow he dug out. He does seem to come out for pellet food but not for veggies. The boyfriend melafixed him for a week right away as a general antibacterial treatment but that was abut 3 weeks ago now. He seems to maybe do slightly more swimming around when the tank lights go off?
do you think he's ill? i spent like 3 hours on google but can't pinpoint with certainty what his ailment might be. any help would be appreciated!
Um um, trying to think of other stuff that you might need. I'm a "leave-it-be" kind of tank cleaner, so the tank generally gets a 15-20% water change every 2-4 weeks, depending on the amount of algae I get (again, that silly pleco hasn't ever moved, I don't think); the tank gets nice natural light (hence algae
) so the lights are timed to come on around noon? - they always need adjusting - and go off around 9? and then the LEDs for effect come on but those have never bothered him. Filtration is Fluval 305, Params are always normal (but from a strip) - nitrites 0, nitrates 10, pH 6.6, kH 40, GH 75 or so?
edit i forgot a couple crappy pics of my fishy (pardon the awful tank I just got back from vaca):
I just got back from a 3-week trip in Japan; about a week before I left I noticed Salvini was looking kind of pale in color, but I didn't think much of it. By the time I came back he was much much worse: almost no color left, his face has lots of pure white patches, fins clamped down, almost no activity, lost a lot of weight, he just sits in the back corner in a hollow he dug out. He does seem to come out for pellet food but not for veggies. The boyfriend melafixed him for a week right away as a general antibacterial treatment but that was abut 3 weeks ago now. He seems to maybe do slightly more swimming around when the tank lights go off?
do you think he's ill? i spent like 3 hours on google but can't pinpoint with certainty what his ailment might be. any help would be appreciated!
Um um, trying to think of other stuff that you might need. I'm a "leave-it-be" kind of tank cleaner, so the tank generally gets a 15-20% water change every 2-4 weeks, depending on the amount of algae I get (again, that silly pleco hasn't ever moved, I don't think); the tank gets nice natural light (hence algae
) so the lights are timed to come on around noon? - they always need adjusting - and go off around 9? and then the LEDs for effect come on but those have never bothered him. Filtration is Fluval 305, Params are always normal (but from a strip) - nitrites 0, nitrates 10, pH 6.6, kH 40, GH 75 or so?edit i forgot a couple crappy pics of my fishy (pardon the awful tank I just got back from vaca):
