Hi everyone... okay, I'm not sure if this is the correct Forum for this post, but I will give it a try.

We have 2 tanks in our home, 1-60 gallon, housing the fish below in my signature info, one fish, the RedCap Oranda has been treated for bacterial infection on one side, scales are much lighter now, seem to be healing from using Melafix now for 11 days, staying on this longer, since she's showing signs of improvement and after getting input from Aq. Pharm rep, Craig.. he was very helpful!

Okay, in our other tank, 10 gallon, we have baby fancies, 2 1/2" in size, Lionhead, and 2 Orandas.. they have been quarantined for about 6-7 weeks now, with no signs of disease.. fed them Medigold for 2 weeks, keeping water clean, salted for a week. have AquaClear 5-20 running.

We have 2 Dwarf Bristlenose Plecos in our 60 gallon tank. We are not positive but wonder if Lexi (Oranda w/bacterial issue) is being bothered by them? we want to switch tanks, putting Plecos into 10gallon, and baby fancies into 60 gallon (where we planned on housing them anyway).

The water levels are fine, except a small battle with low KH (80ppm) and high Nitrates at times, but much lower than they have been in the past 2 1/2 mos I've been dealing with freq w. changes, adding bkg soda to buffer, etc.

Both tanks seem to stay in the same ranges with everything: Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 40-80ppm (fluctuates, not concrete, is better at this point though), PH 7.0-7.1, GH 200-250.

Is it a good idea to place the babies into the tank with Melafix right now, in order to get the Plecos out into their own tank in case they are the culprit with Lexis scale problems?

**one issue, with one Choc Oranda baby in 10 gallon tank, we see floating on & off, we are feeding less, fasting a day, watching water parameters closely. it is not continuous, but ???? not sure why he does this? they are eating Progold, occasional peas, algae wafer, we alternate.

** will the Plecos be okay in a tank without fish, will there be enough algae growth for them to eat, besides the algae wafers we feed them?

any suggestions, I'd like to hear what others would do in this case...

more details at bottom about our tank filter, in my signature area..

thanks, I hope you can advise, suggest, share your views, experience.


We are eager to move the babies to the large tank of course! but if it's safe to do so, or does it matter at this point, considering the levels are so similar?
Melafix is safe I know.. I may stay on it for another week and a half, A. Pharm said a month is fine too if it seems to be working with Lexi..

Lynn

Lynne I would not move anyone into a tank with a sick fish. I know you are wanting to move them and get everyone settled in, but that runs the risk of it spreading. Since you are not sure what is causing the "ulceration" of the other fish in your other post, it is best to not expose babies to that.

As for the plecos, I would move them out. Plecos can live without fish. And I learned the hard way not to have them eat the algae as their diet, or they eat the fish. No matter if the are a "safe" pleco for gf or not.
Plecos need a steady diet of wafers and veggies.

So with that I would move them to their own tank and go from there.

The chocolate oranda sounds like he has a touch of Swim Bladder Disease (SBD). I will let you research it and read up on it. For usually a fish that has this only gets worse they don't usually get "normal".
Fasting for a couple days followed by a diet of peas for a couple days help. Along with soaking their foods and making sure they don't eat off the surface.
Also nitrates over 20 can aggravate SBD.

Hi again Laurie! thanks... we have 2 tanks in our home, and we do not have another to house the Plecos at this time, nor do we want to add a third really... that's why I posted this "situation", weighing the Plecos possibly causing Lexi's scale problem? or waiting, treating her, then moving them.. I wanted other opinions as to what you would do in the same situation. I don't want Lexi healing as she is doing, only to have the Pleco go after her.. so far, it is healing without any new redness, scale damage.
I want to get them moved asap to test and see if this was really the issue. I'm still not sure, all I've read have said the Bristlenose dwarfs are safe with GF.. or we wouldn't have included them..
I know my mom had the regular species and it attacked her Comet badly she moved him out after I informed her.. the Pleco grew to be 18" long in her 60 gallon tank, and just died a few weeks ago.. he lived in a nice large tank at least!
she fed him algae wafers just like we do too.
I'll keep plugging along here... * so, I gather, you've never had a longrunning issue with your Nitrate levels rising and not staying stable/low??? how about your KH levels? I feel like I'm doing my best to test, monitor, keep the water changed and I am tired really.I'm going to order the Nitrazorb tonite..at least this can be controlled more easily from all I've read about that product at GF Connection. Lynn

ACtually Lynne I battle high nitrates on a weekly basis. I have a habit of over feeding my "pigs" even though I am way understocked. So I do water changes twice a week usually. That is pretty much the only way to control them. Live plants can help but not by much.
I don't have a ph problem........thank goodness.

I myself am not a fan of Nitrazorb. I had bought it once to use to control nitrites as well as nitrates and was told by a couple experts here that it is pretty useless and can crash the cycle on occasion. Something I didn't want to mess with.