L-52, fin rot or something else?

[TheNewSeverum]

I just noticed this the other day. I dont know if its fin rot or if something else is causing this. I do water changes once a week, 5G of 29G, I just recently changed the filter media(Skipped a week on the water changed blah blah blah)

Water Parameters are as followed as of 5:25pm EST 11/23/11:

pH- 7.6+ (I have drift wood and peat soil why is this so high?!?!?!)
Ammonia- 0.25
Nitrates- 0
Nitrites- 0

Other fish in the tank include a clown pleco and a 4 inch sp. Vene pike.

Pictures:




I noticed on my L-015 months ago, when he got fin rot there was white stuff on his fins. As you see here he doesnt have it. So I am trying to figure out what the deal is.

Any ideas?

 

[anarekist]

parasites?

 

[TheNewSeverum]

I dont know. None of the other fish are showing signs of anything.

 

[C L O W N K N I F E]

Looks to me like other tankmates have nipped his fins. Probably the pike was responsible...could of been defending his territory. Pikes are aggressive, lucky he didn't kill it

 

[BigFishMommy]

I just noticed this the other day. I dont know if its fin rot or if something else is causing this. I do water changes once a week, 5G of 29G, I just recently changed the filter media(Skipped a week on the water changed blah blah blah)

Water Parameters are as followed as of 5:25pm EST 11/23/11:

pH- 7.6+ (I have drift wood and peat soil why is this so high?!?!?!)
Ammonia- 0.25
Nitrates- 0
Nitrites- 0

Other fish in the tank include a clown pleco and a 4 inch sp. Vene pike.


Any ideas?

the two places i bolded are your issue. changing filter media takes away all the good bacteria that lives in the media. this bacteria is what converts ammonia to nitrite, then to nitrate. your ammonia is at 0.25 because it is spiking slightly due to the absence of bacteria to convert it. media should be rinsed in tank water, not replaced. ammonia will eat away at a fish's fins, but these fins do look like they could have been bitten.

anyhoo.......

you should be showing some nitrates if your tank is cycled, so that zero nitrate is concerning. with a 1/6 water change (that is the 5 gallons out of 29, as you mentioned, so only 16% approx), you are not removing a whole lot of water, so if the tank was cycled, there would be nitrates showing.

i would do a large water change (at least 50%, more is better), and dose Prime as your dechlor a bit heavier than the recommended dosage on the bottle. Prime will detoxify the ammonia for 24 hours, until your next water change. keep up those water changes if your ammonia is ever reading anything other than zero. i expect your nitrite will spike soon here too. when that happens, do the daily large water changes and dose Prime at 5x the regular dose to keep the nitrite detoxified. once your nitrite is done spiking, you'll see nitrates start to show. then your tank is cycled.

how long has this tank been set up, and how often have you been changing out the filter media?

 

[TheNewSeverum]

The tank has been set up for 4 months, almost 5. I am running an Aquaclear 110. I only changed the sponge and charcoal. They haven't been switched since I started the tank. I have Biomax which wasn't changed. I also have a bag of peat soil which also was not changed. I didn't do a water change and replaced the media at the same time.

As far as the pike goes, hes stupid and doesn't bother anyone. The two plecos sit next to him and he doesn't have a care in the world. Unless something is happening at night that I am unaware of. The Clown has nothing wrong with him. And he literally floats above the Pike.

 

[BigFishMommy]

was the tank cycled with fish or with an alternate ammonia source? fish-in cycling can take a long time, because you need to consistently change water to keep the ammonia and nitrite readings at zero as much as possible during the cycle.

a 4 month old tank could easily be not cycled, if you did a fish-in cycle.

filter sponges can be squeezed out in a bucket of tank water. to make it easier, cut that big Aquaclear 110 sponge up into 6 to 8 sections - much easier to squeeze the gunk out! there is no need to replace them until they start disintegrating, and doing partial replacements with small pieces (like the 6 to 8 i mentioned) is a lot better for your tank and your bacteria colonies. a lot of bacteria live in all the little nooks and crannies in a sponge. i'm running the same sponges now that i bought in 2008, they are just now starting to fall apart. as for carbon, i haven't run any in any of my filters for a few years now - it isn't necessary unless you want to remove residual medication from the tank. sponge, biomax, and polyester batting for fine particle filtration is all you need.

doing a water change will not affect your bacteria numbers. the bacteria live on surfaces in your tank and filter, and not in the water itself. i very often will do a large water change and a filter clean on my oscar/p. polleni tank at the same time. mind you, i do run two large filters on there (rena xp4 and aquaclear 110), and i usually only clean one filter at a time.

 

[TheNewSeverum]

was the tank cycled with fish or with an alternate ammonia source? fish-in cycling can take a long time, because you need to consistently change water to keep the ammonia and nitrite readings at zero as much as possible during the cycle.

a 4 month old tank could easily be not cycled, if you did a fish-in cycle.

filter sponges can be squeezed out in a bucket of tank water. to make it easier, cut that big Aquaclear 110 sponge up into 6 to 8 sections - much easier to squeeze the gunk out! there is no need to replace them until they start disintegrating, and doing partial replacements with small pieces (like the 6 to 8 i mentioned) is a lot better for your tank and your bacteria colonies. a lot of bacteria live in all the little nooks and crannies in a sponge. i'm running the same sponges now that i bought in 2008, they are just now starting to fall apart. as for carbon, i haven't run any in any of my filters for a few years now - it isn't necessary unless you want to remove residual medication from the tank. sponge, biomax, and polyester batting for fine particle filtration is all you need.

doing a water change will not affect your bacteria numbers. the bacteria live on surfaces in your tank and filter, and not in the water itself. i very often will do a large water change and a filter clean on my oscar/p. polleni tank at the same time. mind you, i do run two large filters on there (rena xp4 and aquaclear 110), and i usually only clean one filter at a time.

I will deff take your idea into consideration. Thank you.

I did a fish-in cycle. Starting with zebra danios about a week after the tank was set up. I also bought two pieces of drift wood from already cycled tanks.
I fought with the water conditions for a very long time before they finally went to where they should be. Im not worried about a recycle.

As far as my poor pleco goes.. I dont know what his deal is. I saw the clown when I got home today, not a scratch on him. and he literally sleeps ontop of the pikes head. You you lay there belly down and look up, hes right there. So idk if the pike is attacking him or whats going on.

 

[lipadj46]

never change the sponge unless it is falling apart, just rinse it every so often in tank water when you do a water change. If you want him to heal, up your water change amount as the ammonia will be stressing him, since it is such a small tank doing 75% is not that much more work. Your tank should have nitrates, did you test them?

 

[BigFishMommy]

I did a fish-in cycle. Starting with zebra danios about a week after the tank was set up. I also bought two pieces of drift wood from already cycled tanks.
I fought with the water conditions for a very long time before they finally went to where they should be. Im not worried about a recycle.

how many danios? danios have a small bioload compared to plecos and pikes, so unless you had a good number of danios in there, the cycle would have only been completed/sufficient enough for the bioload of the danios, but not for the heavy waste makers like plecos. i'm going to make an assumption here and say that you had a large ammonia spike when you took out the danios and moved the plecos and pike in, right?

i would treat your tank as a completely uncycled one at this point, and do daily large volume water changes to keep that ammonia at zero. fish-in cycling takes a long time, and you may be 'fighting' with this tank for some time to come.