Ammonia Level? 0
Nitrite Level? 0
Nitrate level? ~30 (30ppm out of tap :\ )
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? ~8.0
Ph Level out of the Tap? same
Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 29 gal, running for about a year
What is the name and size of the filter/s? 1 AquaClear 70, 300gph
How often do you change the water and how much? 75% weekly
How many fish in the tank and their size? 3 fish, 6", 5" & 3"
What kind of water additives or conditioners? Prime
Any medications added to the tank? Currently at .3% salt for parasite/fungus general treatment
Add any new fish to the tank? Nope, newest one has been here 10 months or so
What do you feed your fish? Currently switching (day/night feedings) between Medigold and Metromed, as Paddles showed a tiny bit of bloat while on Medigold... but I need to continue treatment
Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? Red patches on pearlscale's tail, near the end of the fins and both ends of the "fork," patches showing on one tail fin mirror the other fin, looks like a butterfly pattern from behind.
Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..? Nope

I'll upload a picture as soon as I have new batteries for my camera. :\ My pearlscale is acting fine and chipper, but he's had these red patches on his tail for weeks, they went away for a short time right when I increased salt from .2 to .3 about 6 days ago, but the patches are turning brighter again. His tail isn't bloodshot the whole way through, but the fins are bloodshot to create the spotty patches...

Anyone recognize this? I only found one source on the Net somewhere that said that fish with long translucent 'veiltail-like' tails that exhibit these patches tend to be suffering from chilodonella. I started salting the tank to try to wipe out possible costia and chilo. My oranda Mowgli has been showing stress signs for months, bloodshot tail regardless of what I did, and the possibility of parasites didnt' strike me until a few weeks ago, unfortunately... that's when I started salting and feeding medigold. I tried one Jungle Parasite Clear treatment and it seemed to stress my fish terribly, they all got bloodshot within a day. I'm thinking of getting some prazi pro separately and trying that, since I hear it's milder and I'd like to cover all the bases..

& I know that nitrates tend to bug Mowgli in general, and tonight I just added some Kent Marine Organic Absorption Resin to hopefully start soaking up nitrates between water changes, since the tap water isn't helping...

anyways! TIA!

Hi there.

After reading your post and then re-reading it, the one thing that stuck out at me was the fact that you said the red patches were appearant bilaterally. The chances of infected areas, whether bacterial or parasitic in nature, showing up in the same place on both sides of the body are pretty slim. I could be wrong but this bit of information tells me that the red patches are secondary symptoms and are probably due to stress or slight septicemia.

If this was being caused by parasites, you would definitely know as fish WILL shows signs such as rapid fin shaking, scratching on surfaces in the water, darting madly (seemingly unprovoked) and what can only be equated to coughing while scooting backwards. See any of this lately?



If I were you, I would stop all treatment (including salt) and only work on keeping the water nice and clean. Also, I think it would be better to do 35-40% waterchanges twice a week instead of 75% once a week. Thats a little too much water to change all at once on a regular basis. Stability is the key......



Keep us posted.

Paul

Thanks Paul!

I was pondering scrapping my parasite-salting... I figure the environment changes lately haven't helped my kids. My issue at the base of things is my nitrates, I wonder if the 30-out-of-tap starting point is wearing on them in general?? I put that exchange resin in my filter the other night and just today realized that I dropped it into a SALTED tank. go me! I bet it's just been bouncing nitrates..

Think I should change the salt out gradually, or just drain the tank with fishkids in a bucket? Would a sudden non-salt atmosphere make things worse?

I would be inclined to seek out an analysis report on your tapwater. They're available online or locally. IT would pay to know exactly what reported contaminates are in your water. If there's nitrAtes, what else could there be?


Decrease the salt as slowly as you would increase it. During this process, keep an eye on the symptoms.


Good luck and keep us posted!

Paul