Haven't posted in a while.... My moor has slight white/grayish patch on both her gill plate area. Dorsal fin and anal fin has a split. Didn't think much about it until she started swimming unstably yesterday (with her fins clamping someeetimes and then she releases the clamp :\. I thought I'm done with fish problems!!

Checked water parameters, Amm 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10, pH 8.0 (- not normal, it is usually 7.2ish). She was also has a bittt of bubbles on skin. And seems to be hanging at the surface a lot. Her other two friends are normal!

When I took her out in a bucket and adding fresh tap water (which I measured to be 7.4 that day), I think she perked up. (I should have kept her in a QT after that, but I don't have QT space that time). Thinking it's the sudden pH (I did not check tap water pH during last week's water change), I have added pH down to the main tank, and put her back in. She's still hanging at surface so far, but no weird floating.

What do you think? Is a 7.4 to 8.0 pH swing that huge?

Yes it is to much. Gf can withstand a wide range of steady PH's, that is the key the ph has to be steady. A fluctuation is bad, dropping is worse than increasing. I wouldn't mess with the PH down stuff you could create a worse problem.
Do gradual water changes, try and keep the ph with in a 0.1 if you can.
Any idea why the change??

I had a very similar problem with PH recently, except my fish got septicemia from the ph swing....anyways, I'll give you the link to my topic because I got some good advice in there, and hopefully it can help you too

http://www.kokosgoldfish.invisionzone.com/...showtopic=25610

Hi kat,

I won't say that the pH swing didn't play a part but it doesn't quite add up. When did you notice the white patches and fin spilts?

Can you please describe the white patch in greater details. Texture? Size?

Can you please check his gills? Nice rich red colour, good solid shape? No tatters, slime or pale, grey colour?

Have you added extra aeration?

Was anything added to the tank recently? Fish, plants, snails?

Captk, I really appreciate ur alertness - it doesn't add up indeed! Thanks for the feedback Grain + Laurie, the pH swing is creepy indeed :\ I wish tap water will be a bit more decent here. Our water supplier said that the average is "met" when I had enquired before...of course when you average the swings they become average :\ So Ammonia is more dangerous in high pH? I decided to get a newer test kit (this one I used was a year old) and guess what - there's 0.5 ammonia :\ What it was few days back I only wonder.

I was thinking...maybe last week's water change (I also tested with the old kit to get 0 ammonia then) must have had dodgy high pH water which killed some bio bugs. Blackie's white patch is just a small patch of white (not fuzzy, just like different colour). And I won't worry about her split fin too much as Dekker has been quite mischievious with her anyway lately (fish in love).

I didn't check her gill colours yesterday, but it seemed sticky then, like clumping together when she's breathing. Not normal at all. Now it looks reddish, but not as clumpy.

I have placed her in a QT today as she's still on the less active side. She seemed to be perkier, although still sucking at the top a lot (then again, she's quite blind). Is this a normal healing process of ammonia poisoning?

With the drought here I really should be more careful with tap water To think that last week's water change made tank water 8.0...it must have been 9ish pH or something outta the tap then :\

I'm going to add this bacteria powder thing into the main tank in a bit - the other two fishies seem to be handling 0.5 alright. Wish us luck :\ I hate putting fish in QT, there's this stigma attached....majority of fish that goes in there don't seem to make it out alive

Hi kat,.

Higher pH do not kill biobugs. Quite the opposite. Nitrifying bacterias prefer mid 7 - mid 8 pH to do their best. Of course we are talking about sensible numbers here and pH of 9 is fine. However, once pH drops below 7, the nitrfying bacteria becomes more and more ineffective and below 6, they are no longer functioning.

Yes, higher pH does make the ammonia more toxic. Ammonia attacks the body and results in chemical burns and also the gills which makes them less effective in absorbing oxygen. If in doubt, get some ammonia binders and dose the tank.

I'm a bit concerned that the gills seemed sticky.