hello everyone!!!



I have a bit of a problem i think , i have a red cap oranda named matilida shes about 8 months old??? in a 29 gallon tank that has under ground AND gravel fillter, in this tank as well there is 2 feeder gold fish and 1 pleco.
this tank has been set up for a yr now , she has been the last addition to this tank and that was 8 months ago when we first got her.
ok now the problem.....for the last ohh 3-4 months now she has been turning yellowish (where she is subpose to be bright white)in color on her belly and the front part of her mouth , as well as her fins are starting to turn yellow as well. she has 2 small skinny red lines on her back fins, as well it looks as part of her tail is kinda ...crippled?? or limp??
my husband and i have done everything we can to fix this problem that we can think of and it seems as nothen helps with the yellow to go away.
are temp is fine, ph is fine,nitro fine. the water gets changed every 2 weeks. plus it has salt. we have treated the tank w/ fin rot meds and it seems as nothen changed. ....also the other fish and as health looking as ever, nice and bright colored, with beauitful fins and tails

could this just be old age?? but if so dont they live up to like 15 yrs?? ( thats what i have read)
IF ANYONE CAN HELP ME FIGURE OUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH MATILIDA, PLEASE ME EMAIL ME, DUCKY18@ATTBI.COM, thank you for your time...mandee

You can relax....I can almost guarantee you it's just a natural colour change. I have a red cap who is probably about the same age as yours (maybe a bit younger), who is currently starting to show some bronze spots...mainly on her belly, fins, and her red cap almost seems to be spreading. I've be advised by others not to worry...that this tends to happen with red caps, and a lot of fish actually. Do you feed your fish a colour enhancing food? That may be enhancing the bronze colour.
I really wouldn't worry though, unless the fish seems ill in other respects, I'd say it's fine.

Hey there and welcome to the board!!

The red lines in the tail are sounding like blood veins. My one
red cap had these showing. As for the cheeks getting a
yellow/green hue to them, I had this happen too. I bumped
up the water changing to once a week. This seemed to help
alot.

If you have any more questions feel free to ask away.