possibly sick freshwater lion fish I can't tell please help!!!

david1517

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2017
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Hello everyone I have a 75 gallon brackish tank with a salinity of about 1.010. My ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm. and I believe my nitrate is high looks like 80 ppm. I have an fx4 and a penguin biowheel 350 and an under gravel filter. I have 3 freshwater lion fish and one freshwater moray eel. Some of my freshwater lion fish have this white like patch ill attach a photo I have no idea what it could be and I was wondering if I should just remove the under gravel filter completely because I believe that to be the reason I am having high nitrates. I really love my fish and don't want any to die and would appreciate any help you can give me. you can see it on his tail fin and on the top fins on the right its like a white patch like thing I honestly have no idea what is wrong. IMG_0848.JPG
 

david1517

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2017
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The tank is cycled been up for probably 4 months I did a water change almost 50 percent probably 40 percent just a few days ago and the nitrates are still that high. I would like to remove the under gravel but I'm scared it will destroy my tank I mean I do have the fx4 and the penguin biowheel 350 that are both cycled on the same tank as well I don't know its been giving me a lot of anxiety lately I have put so much time and money into this tank and really love the fish I have they may be boring to some people but I find this predator tank to be so awesome.
 

tlindsey

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Aug 6, 2011
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Hello everyone I have a 75 gallon brackish tank with a salinity of about 1.010. My ammonia and nitrite are 0 ppm. and I believe my nitrate is high looks like 80 ppm. I have an fx4 and a penguin biowheel 350 and an under gravel filter. I have 3 freshwater lion fish and one freshwater moray eel. Some of my freshwater lion fish have this white like patch ill attach a photo I have no idea what it could be and I was wondering if I should just remove the under gravel filter completely because I believe that to be the reason I am having high nitrates. I really love my fish and don't want any to die and would appreciate any help you can give me. you can see it on his tail fin and on the top fins on the right its like a white patch like thing I honestly have no idea what is wrong. View attachment 1274378

How often do you do wc's?
Please don't remove the undergravel filter it will make things worse imo.
 
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david1517

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2017
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How often do you do wc's?
Please don't remove the undergravel filter it will make things worse imo.
I do them every week. Do you have any idea what that is on my fish? Thank you for your response by the way.
 

david1517

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 17, 2017
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I'm really worried about my fish if anyone has any idea what it is that'd mean so much to me.
 

tlindsey

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Aug 6, 2011
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Tbh looks like a scrape to me if both Lionfish and Moray are eating and acting normal I would suggest keep up with your wc's and removeing larger % of water to bring Nitrates down.
 

Drstrangelove

Potamotrygon
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Oct 21, 2012
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Remove more water, not the filter as tlindsey tlindsey said.

Filters don't cause nitrates. Nitrates come from the protein that is in food that people feed to their fish (or indirectly from the fish themselves.) Filters are made of plastic, gravel, sand and metal and none of those things can be converted to nitrates.

Remove more water than you have been or do it more frequently and try to keep the nitrates much, much lower. I would aim for below 10 with those fish, as I think they might be more sensitive, however, I would expect that anything over 20 would be bad in the long term.
 
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