I have 2-1 inch bottikoferi. upon receiving them I noticed one swam with slightly clamped fins and faded color but figured it was due to stress of being shipped across country in 24 hours. now fast forwarding a 4 or 5 days he still remains semi clamped and fins down (he will perk up and dart after food or across the aquarium), less active and almost always be sitting at the bottom, while the other is much more active,appears to have grown a quarter inch and almost double in girth while being more colorful. yesterday I noticed both fish scratch at the bottom, the smaller twice, the larger once but neither has done it since that ive noticed. Today I noticed what appeared to be stringy reddish/white feces floating in the tank but I couldn't swear to it as its very small and there is tannins in the aquarium from driftwood and the feces was moving fast due to pump current... Do I have an issue to deal with or have I read to many parasite threads? Thank you in advance for your replies.
Possible parasite?
- Thread starter Iron Cat
- Start date
Unless you have a heavily planted tank, you're parameters shouldn't be "0 across the board". A cycled tank should have nitrate. How long has your tank been running?
No plants at all. I made a thread yesterday about the 0 nitrates.the general advise was wait a few days,retest and shake the nitrate bottle #2 like crazy.Do you have a different opinion or advise,as it would be appreciated. these are 2-1 inch buttikoferi in a 75 gal that has been running for 5 days.
Sorry, I haven't seen your other thread about nitrate. Did you use any sort of start-up bacteria in a bottle product? Without utilizing the bottled products, it takes about 6 weeks to cycle a tank.
Since your fish are already in there and they are very small for a 75, what you need to do is about 30% water change every other day until ammonia and nitrite are at 0 and nitrate starts showing up. I've never used any bb in a bottle product before, but I hear they do work. You can add this stuff while your fish are in the tank and it should speed up your cycled time dramatically.
In regards to the scratching, I would just leave things alone and just keep up with water changes. Clean water can be a powerful "medicine"
I appreciate the reply. I bought a seeded filter from a place called AngelPlus. Apparently they keep sponge filters in their established tanks for 30-60 days to seed them.when it arrived it was smelled very "earthy" and was in some mucky water and had some tiny plant roots on it. I'm assuming it had been in their tank for some time and was established.With that said, I did get a bottle of Dr Tims ammonia drops incase the filter wasnt good, I could atleast get a fishless cycle going in another tank while keeping these guys in another and changing water as much as needed until the cycle finished in the other tank.Ill take your advise and wait some time.If after a week it continues an I decide to get medicine for these guys,what should I get? With the research ive done it looked like Tetra's Parasite Guard would be a good choice????
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Sorry can't help you with meds. I've been fortunate in that I rarely have to deal with diseases, so I just don't deal with meds nor have much experience with them. From time to time my fish will flash, and I just leave things alone and it has always gone away on its own with no further issues. I'm sure Aquanero or other members can chime in on a good med should you choose to go that route.
your help is greatly appreciated. I'm in the same boat, Ive had fish on and off for years and the most ive ever dealt with was Ich once in a community tank and planaria (spelling) once in a snakehead tank, so this is very new to me if it is infact a parasite.Again thank you for the help.
Well,i waited a few days to see if the sick baby butti came around, woke up to a dead fish yesterday.I went to Petsmart an got a box of API General Cure .( I have 2 boxes coming from Foster-smith but their shipping is slow).I food soaked the medication and fed the remaining Butti ,Prior to,he has been active ,eats like a horse and almost seems to grow by the day. After medicating his food, within an hour he had whitish colored feces(not as stringy as the other butti),is that the medication working, removing the parasites or is it just a sign he has parasites? I will treat his water tomorrow evening and second dose it wedensday (48hrs) when the other boxes get here.