• Test Results for the Following:
  Ammonia Level? 0ppm
  Nitrite Level? 0ppm
  Nitrate level? 20-30ppm
  Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? 7.2
  Ph Level out of the Tap? 6.8
• Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 55gal w/ 5 fishes(6months)
• What is the name and size of the filter/s?

Biowheel 400 and aqua clear 700

• How often do you change the water and how much?

50% twice a week
How many fish in the tank and their size? 5 fishes 3 - 4 inch
<li>What kind of water additives or conditioners? Prime + baking soda <li>Any medications added to the tank?N <li>Add any new fish to the tank? N <li>What do you feed your fish?<li>Gel food, pea, progold, hikari lionhead, omegaone, freeze bloodworm
<li>Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?Found blood on the body in one fish
<li>Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..?nope
Here is the pic of the fish that I am talking about....








I saw this problem last month and use Iodine on the spot. It disappeared for a month and saw again now. I am afraid, I might be a serious problem. By the way he is the largest fish in the tank so far and the tank is only ranchu tank. So assuming no one is attacking him as well. Please help me. Thnakls.

Hi Fred, how does his poop look?

Also, what brand blood worm are you feeding?

It looks like the start of a bacterial infection. Do you have any medicated food? Or what meds do you have on hand?

Do you have a tub you can separate him in? A spare filter?

Hi Jen,
Thanks for the reply. I feed them Hakari brand bloodworm. I can put him in 10g tank. I have medi-gold but I don't have the others. What should I get?
For poop, I have no idea yet. I will get back to you soon. Thanks again.

I would start him on the medicated food and if you can, try getting some Maracyn. Check to see if the medicated food does the trick first but to be honest, if you get Maracyn, it's excellent to keep in your cabinet as you never know when you may need it.

Post back when you can on the poop

I am waiting in front of the tank waiting for his poop. Which Maracyn should I use? I or II? and what is the best dosage? Thanks a lot...

Can you get Maracyn Plus? I've just been reading the product description and it sounds like an excellent broad spectrum that treats redness associated with bacteria...

Otherwise, I would try Maracyn II first and see if this helps. If you start feeding medicated food though, this may be all he needs

PS. I hope he poops for you soon

Is it the item are you talking about? I am waiting for his poop and really sleepy as well. She chooses to sick in the wrong time when I have my final exam.

One more question, for bacteria, is it going to effect the other fishes in the tank?

I got it. It's in light color, kinda white but not completely white.

Hi Fred, when the poop goes stringy and also has some solid mass in the casing, it's possibly the start of bacterial infection and it won't always affect the other fish in your tank because their immunity may be strong therefore they aren't suseptible. Bacteria will invade when the immunity is lowered but don't get me wrong, if kept in contact with other fish, they too can catch it just like humans do via contact. So as long as you've got him separated - your other guys should be fine (just keep an eye out on them)

I am starting to feed them medi-gold Is it 1 week that I should continue? Thanks.


PS. I noticed one more thing this morning. His poop is super long like 8" but brown from the color of medi-gold. Do you know why?

I use this before using the pill form of maracn's, only because it seems to work SO well and you dont have to worry about it messing up your cycle! Good stuff!

Fred, feed for at least 10-14 days ...

Just on his poop, if it's about 8" long but the colour of the medicated food then this is both good and bad. Good because it's coloured and solid but bad because you may be feeding too much in one go. You could try going with 3 small feeds a day to give his digestive tract a chance to break down some of the food... How much are you giving him at each feeding?

I try to feed them for 2 min duration. I believe he ate the most and cause all the problem ..

Maybe reduce the feeing but increase the frequency - so he gets the same amount but spread out more over time. This should hopefully reduce the length of his poop

How is the redness? Does it look like it's fading at all?

Hi there.

I used to routinely get this type of infection from any new ryukin I bought. It looks as if the scales at the caudal peduncle are wounded, right? with a thick white, waxy slime covering it?

Surprisingly enough, all it took for me to clear it up (after trying salt baths which didn't prove effective) was to dose it with Melafix. One capful for every 10 gallons of my tank of the .1% version. The slime goo over the infected part disappeared and the angry-red blotch faded. Ever since I started dosing new arrivals with Melafix, i was never bothered with this infection again.

Hope that helps.

Just so we'd be sure if we're describing the same infection... here's a pic of my earlier ryukin that came down with the "blood-red-scales" infection on her caudal peduncle. These were taken just a few hours before she died, BTW. Note patch of red at the point between her belly and her peduncle...




subsequently, when I acquired my current shorttail ryukins (the red/white ones in my sig), they also got the same infection. As I said, Melafix did the trick of reversing their steady decline (and believe me when I say they looked terrible before the treatment, fins all streaking with angry veins and frayed, and their slime coat looking sandpapered away). As of present, I take the precaution of dosing the tank with Melafix with the addition of new fish. The mystery infection never showed up again.

Thanks ManYu,
The infection looks the same... Time to run to lfs for melafix..

erm... when I said use .1% melafix, that was a typo. It should be 1.0%

don't get the 5% version... as awrieger found out to her dismay, that stuff's a bit too strong for aquarium use.

I hear you buddy. Thanks again.

Holy cow my sarassa has similar markings on her body and where the tail begins. What the heck is going on. Out of lfs myself....Jeeze!

I guess Medicate food method is good as well. After I came back with melafix from lfs, I found that the damage from one side is gone. Thanks everybody.

Just a note on Melafix, don't rely on it to resolve internal bacterial infections - it's basically a disinfectant that can help repair surface trauma, just like when we dab teatree oil on a wound. If it's a bacterial infection that includes stringy poop, redness and lethargy - dose with something stronger or feed medicated food

Fred, I think the medicated food has helped him and i'd continue to feed for the minimum 10 days (I'd go for 14 myself).

I'm glad he's doing better

Thanks Jen. Blood is totally disappeared already. But I will continue give them med food for next 7 days.

well... I do agree Melafix isn't a cure-all for every infection, but from what I observed from this particular type of infection, it appears to be completely a dermal/external thing. Which is why it won't really require the "big guns" in antibiotic medication. The fish continue to eat and act normally (with the possible exception that they clamp their pelvic fins closed) but the slime coat becomes severely affected. As an additional benefit for this specific case, the Melafix aids in quicker regeneration of the slime coat and any secondary infection which could attack the exposed skin could be pre-empted.

Thanks everybody(Jenw, Man-Yu). It is good to know everybody point of view. Your inputs are very precious for me. THanks again.

so how's the fish, small_ranchu? on the road to recovery I hope?

Yes, he is. Thnks buddy..

I have to confess, I made a mistake. When I applied Prime, I used .1m per 10 gallons insted of 1m per 10 gals.

So, I put the wrong dosage. Should I use any medication to the other fishes for my stupidness? Or just wait and see.

How long were they in water with the smaller dosage of Prime? Chlorines and chloramines, if heavy in your source water can cause problems however if chlorine in the water is going to affect your fish badly, it would've done so by now so I'm guessing that your tap water has a reasonable level. Another thing is that if your tank is well aerated, the chlorine would've been gassed off within about a 12 hour period This won't do anything for any chloramines though...

Are your fish acting ok?

I would just dose the correct amount for now - even adding to the water now

I did that for about 1 month. They get a lot of air for sure. They are doing ok except that particular one. Yeah, I did add the correct amount already...

omg, blood is coming back again. This time I am using the combination of medicated food and Maracyn 2. In the Maracyn direction, it suggested to use 2 round if the symptom still exists. Do I have to do the water change between 1st round and 2nd round? Thanks

Fred, how is your water quality?

I would do a 50% waterchange prior to starting the meds but first check your water - you may find your fish is sensitive to too much of something ie. nitrates, ammonia or nitrites..

So perhaps doing a couple of 50% waterchanges to check whether this is the case?

How many waterchanges are you doing and how often?

PS. And I would do a waterchange between doses

Hi Jen,
He is in hospital tank and eating medigold now. 0,0,20 is the parameter of the tank. He is in the hospital tank since the problem began and i did the water change twice a week for 50 percent.
Should I stick with 50% change for inbetween doses?
Thanks a lot.

* Test Results for the Following:
Ammonia Level? 0
Nitrite Level? 0
Nitrate level? 10
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? 7.2
Ph Level out of the Tap? 6.6
* Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 55 Gals
* What is the name and size of the filter/s?
* How often do you change the water and how much?

# How many fish in the tank and their size?
# What kind of water additives or conditioners?
# Any medications added to the tank?
# Add any new fish to the tank?
# What do you feed your fish?
# Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?
# Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..?

Sorry, my computer broke down in the middle of the prev post..

* Test Results for the Following:
Ammonia Level? 0
Nitrite Level? 0
Nitrate level? 10
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? 7.2
Ph Level out of the Tap? 6.6
* Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 55 Gals
* What is the name and size of the filter/s?
Aquaclear 110, Eheim 1125
* How often do you change the water and how much?
once a week, 80%
# How many fish in the tank and their size?
3, (4.5")
# What kind of water additives or conditioners?
Prime
# Any medications added to the tank?
She is now in QT tank and I put Maracyn-2 now
# Add any new fish to the tank?
no
# What do you feed your fish?
Progold, Hikari lionhead, OmegaOne Sinking, Japan Ranchu Lord, Frozen blood worm, pea
# Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus?
blood on the body(please see the pic at the first post)
# Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, ect..?
no.

Like I said above, there is blood on her body. It happened six months ago and was cured using Maracyn-2. Now it is happening again. I believe I can use Maracyn-2 for this problem.

Why does it come back after six months? Is it usual to see the same problem again?

Thanks everyone..

Humm, I had a fantail about a year ago that had the same type of infection, I had him on a mix on Maracyn I and II and medi-gold, it cleared up but the infection must have done something to his swimbladder because he could never swim right again and it came back on him a couple of months later so I felt like I had to put him down, that said all this happened during the hot summer months which I thought brought on such a virulent bacterial infection but yours first happened in Dec. right? My only thought is that maybe the first round didn't get rid of all of it and it incubated for six months? I would just treat the same way you did the first time. I have my fingers crossed for you.