9 replies to this topic

[Westie]

Type of fish: Boeseman's Rainbowfish - Melanotaenia boesemani
Symptoms: looks like a white streak on the top of the fish (see pic below)
Other tank mates: other rainbow fish, Angels, Corydoras, small tetras
Tank size / capacity: 6x2x2 (600L?)
Type of Food fed: Mainly fed on sera flake food and small NLS pellets
Feeding frequency/amount: once or twice daily 5 days a week (no food Wednesday and Sunday)
Substrate: black gravel from Aquotix
Type of filtration: 2 x Astro 2212 filters
Frequency of filter cleans: only when needed. Maybe every 6 months?
Frequency and % volume of water changes: weekly 50%
Last water change: 1 week ago
PH: 6.8
KH:20ppm mg/L
GH: 30ppm mg/L
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:5ppm mg/L
Ammonia:0
Phosphate: Don't have a test kit for this sorry
Water temp: 27
Medications used recently to date: none
Any recent changes: 2 new rainbow fish about 2 weeks ago



Just got home and noticed the fish had some milky looking colour on top and thought I would take a photo first. Anyone know what it is?

[Westie]

Video here:

[Westie]

I'm guessing it's some kind of fungal infection, so I'm going to pick up a small bottle of Melafix after work today.

I can post results on this thread if anyone is interested.

[Graeme]

Hi Jason

 

Sorry to see your fish covered in what looks like fungus

I haven't had the issue but did read that salt could help, the dosage rate they used was 1 heaped tablespoon to 20L of water

 

Hope your fish survives

ps download this book and enjoy, its the rainbowfish  bible ( and for those needing a paper copy is being reprinted again )

http://peter.unmack....fishes.2011.pdf

 

Graeme

Edited by Graeme, 13 November 2014 - 04:53 PM.

[Westie]

Thanks for that Graeme.

I work about 10 minutes from Vebas, so I popped in there after work this arvo and got some meds. 

Bloke I talked to had a look at the pic and vid and ID'd it as fungal too

[Mr_docfish]

In actual fact, it is a fluke (skin fluke) that causes excess slime production. Normally starts on the top of the fins and continues down to the body.
Formalin/malchite green mix is the fastest treatment - would need several treatments over 5 days. Best also to treat the whole tank if you have other rainbows in the tank. Once it is treated, it rarely comes back unless you re-introduce it.

[Westie]

Thanks for the info Oli. I noticed this morning that two more rainbow fish are also affected by skin flukes now, so I went to Aquotix this morning and spoke to Kerrie

She advised me to treat the whole tank, and checked the meds I got. Tank is looking a bit green now. Will keep monitoring the fish and continue with water changes and meds

[Riggers]

Nice one Jason, glad you caught it early was it from new stock?

Edited by Riggers, 15 November 2014 - 08:32 PM.

[Westie]

Nick I have absolutely no idea how I got it. I did introduce 2 mature rainbowfish a couple of weeks back, but they looked really healthy. So much so that the largest one looked like it was trying to spawn with another rainbow fish for about a week. Although come to think of it, one of the new rainbow fish did die out of the blue earlier this week. It was happy before lights out, then the next morning it was floating on top dead. No loss of colour though, and no spots or fungus infection.

I have noticed a swing in the ph of my tap water, so maybe I got something from the water. Can you get flukes in your tank from the tap? Either way, I double triple checked my test results of the water tonight and the quality is good. I'm going to do another water change tomorrow to make sure the fish have tip top water. Hopefully get rid of this filthy flukes thing

[Riggers]

Hmm I really couldn't tell you if flukes are in tap water but from what you've described its highly possible that the change in ph sparked off the flukes in a fish that was not showing any signs of a parasite or infection. I reckon the way you're going is good, hopefully in a week you should be right