question: frayed fins?

[farble1670]

i have a freshwater community tank that's been setup for several years. i have an ongoing strange problem.

some of the fish in the tank develop frayed fins, depending on the fish species. they otherwise appear healthy, but their fins look "damaged". i've seen it get to the point where the fish has trouble swimming. sometimes, it is just a split or two that never heals.

just some species i recall having trouble with: several types of loaches, plecos, silver dollars, gouramis, a catfish (can't recall the species).

on the other hand, i have a pictus catfish that appears fine, and rainbowfish that are thriving.

my tank appears healthy. clear water. water tests appear mostly normal. i do regular water changes, and use water conditioners (amqual and novaqua). i have an undergravel filter and canister filter. the tank is aerated very well. the tank is not overcrowded.

this is what my cheapo water test reported ...

nitrate: a little high
nitrite: "safe"
total alkalinity: normal or a little high
ph: neutral or a little alkaline
total hardness: soft

in the past, i tried treating the tank w/ tetracycline which had no effect. my thoughts are though that it's not a fungus or infection because the fish looks otherwise normal.

there is no nipping going on.

as a side note, another symptom ... less often, i've seen fish develop a condition where they are extremely "frightened". they go crazy if there's any action near the tank, and stop eating for all i can tell. however, they carry on in this condition indefinitely as far as i can tell. these are fish that spent at least some time in the tank originally as active and aggressive eaters.

as a second side note, the tank develops white crusty deposits. i am not sure what this means. hard water? not sure if it's related. i had looked into using a ph balancer in this past, but after some reading, it didn't sound like that was a good idea.

i am completely stumped on this. if anyone has any ideas, i'd love to hear them.

 

[CHOMPERS]

Mixing agressive & semi-agressive fish with non-agressive fish will result in ragged fins. Pictus cats can be extremely agressive. Mine goes head to head (and holds his own) with my Melanochromis Auratis, which is one of the most agressive african cichlids. Also, if any of the gouramis are the "pink kissing gouramis", they are very agressive too and will run other fish ragged. Silver Dollars are very agressive fish too.

 

[Lupin]

some of the fish in the tank develop frayed fins, depending on the fish species. they otherwise appear healthy, but their fins look "damaged". i've seen it get to the point where the fish has trouble swimming. sometimes, it is just a split or two that never heals.

How do the fins look? I was under the impression you may have finrot if it does not look like they were torn by another fish. But judging your sentence here(there is no nipping going on.), your fish may have finrot problems. Use Maracide to treat your fish.

just some species i recall having trouble with: several types of loaches, plecos, silver dollars, gouramis, a catfish (can't recall the species).

Pls be more specific with what gouramis you have. Most gouramis are aggressive towards each other and other fish species.

nitrate: a little high

How high is it?

as a second side note, the tank develops white crusty deposits. i am not sure what this means. hard water? not sure if it's related. i had looked into using a ph balancer in this past, but after some reading, it didn't sound like that was a good idea.

Calcium deposits.

 

[farble1670]

How do the fins look? I was under the impression you may have finrot if it does not look like they were torn by another fish. But judging your sentence here(there is no nipping going on.), your fish may have finrot problems. Use Maracide to treat your fish.

Pls be more specific with what gouramis you have. Most gouramis are aggressive towards each other and other fish species.

How high is it?

Calcium deposits.

i am 99.9% positive it is not fin nipping. i've never, ever seen this current set of fish be aggressive towards each other. when i had a gourami, is was alone (osphronemus).

on my cheapo water tester, the nitrate is on the upper end of safe, or lower end of unsafe (40-80ppm).

i've read some really nasty things about malachite green. i will go ahead and try it, however, after having aquariums for tens of years, i've never seen a medication help. it's certainly possible that i've failed to diagnose the root problem at the right times.

 

[phaedraeos]

Just a thought - do you have moonlights to watch the tank at night? Our pictus seem very peaceful during the day, but when the light go out (and the moonlights go on), they really go after a lot of the other fish. They rip the crap out of the feeder fishs' fins all the time.

PS - whenever I had fish "flipping out" when the lights came on, etc it was because they were getting chased and attacked during the night.

 

[CHOMPERS]

 

[Lupin]

on my cheapo water tester, the nitrate is on the upper end of safe, or lower end of unsafe (40-80ppm).

What test kit were you using? That range is very high IMO. More water changes will rectify that. What is your water change and gravel vacuuming schedule?

i've read some really nasty things about malachite green. i will go ahead and try it, however, after having aquariums for tens of years, i've never seen a medication help. it's certainly possible that i've failed to diagnose the root problem at the right times.

I wouldn't use medications with bad water parameters. It certainly will have adverse effects on your fish. Stress from bad water quality+stress from medications(which often happens)=high possibility of a fish succumbing to death in a little time.