Ammonia Level? 0
Nitrite Level? 0
Nitrate level? 20
Ph Level, (If possible,KH and GH and chloramines)? 8pH; very hard water
Ph Level out of the Tap? same
Tank size (How many Gals) and How long has it been running? 10 gallons, running since April... it's a hospital tank; recently vacated by a healthy Ginger who has happily moved into a larger tank.
What is the name and size of the filter/s? I don't know the name but it turns at least 100gph.
How often do you change the water and how much? We do a 50% water change once a week.
How many fish in the tank and their size? 1 oranda (Lucy) and she's about 2 inches (totally guessing here).
What kind of water additives or conditioners? Prime
Any medications added to the tank? Melafix
Add any new fish to the tank? Just Lucy.
What do you feed your fish? All my fish eat TetraFin goldfish flakes and Wardley pellets; fast on Saturdays and eat peas on Sundays. Tried to give some peas to Lucy on Wednesday because of her erratic swimming but I couldn't get her to eat them.
Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt", bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? White patches on the area behind the wen.
Any unusual behavior like staying at the bottom, not eating, ect..? On the bottom a lot and erratic swimming.


So... my fiance and I were at Wal*mart recently and noticed they had an oranda and we thought it was strange because they never have orandas, this one was the only one they had, and without an oranda information card stuck on the tank display. We went back to Wal*mart a few days later (Tuesday morning) and the oranda was still there but the poor thing was being attacked by a Chinese Algae Eater. We felt really bad for it so we bought it and named it Lucy.

There are white patches where the CAE had been attacking Lucy (behind her wen). There were also little red marks but they have since went away. We've been treating with Melafix (so there's no carbon in the filter right now). Lucy also swims very erratically; seems to hurl herself around the tank. She hangs out on the bottom of the tank a lot, perfectly straight, but other times when she's "at rest" her bottom raises up like she's doing a headstand. She did swim erratically at the store but I thought it was just because she was being attacked by the CAE and panicking or whatever. But she's still doing it now. We tried giving her peas but she didn't eat them. I have given her some flake food and would sit and watch to make sure she was at least eating something because it was worrying me. She gets excited and hurls herself around when I put food in so I know she at least has an appetite. It seems like when she was able to get some food in her mouth, it was by pure luck because it's like she has no control of where she's going... she just happened to open her mouth at the right time to get some food in her.

Do you think the white patches are from the slime coat being sucked off by the CAE or is it something else? Is the erratic swimming from constipation, a swim bladder problem, or some kind of infection? Should I fast her for 3 days and then try the peas again? I feel so bad for poor Lucy going through so much already and I want to help her the best I can.

Hi there, I have afew more Qs for you and your little rescue.

Can you remember the condition of the other fish in the tank with Lucy at the store? Were there any other fish in there and did you see any dead fish or sick fish in her tank or the tanks on either side?

Thing is, most fish from stores are exposed to a lot of bacteria and parasites- consider how many fish are coimng in and out of those tanks with precious little disinfection in between. It is always a good idea to treat new fish for both bacteria and parasites on arrival and with Lucys symptoms (the missing slime coat patches will have made her even more likely to have been infected with anything going)
you should definitely run some meds for her.

The rest of the fantails that were in her tank were fine. No marks/patches on them at all and swimming around just fine. All the fish in the tanks around her looked fine as well and no dead fish to be seen. But I went back tonight and they had quite a few fish that were hovering at the top.

Which medicines would you recommend for her?

What we have on hand:
Melafix
Fishmox
PraziPro
Fungus Clear

I would recommend Prazipro (2 days) and salt.

Salt (0.3%) is excellent for healing and bacterial things before they get out of hand and prazi will cover you in case there are parasites which may be likely given the reduced immunity, missing slime and her behavior (that hurling).

Dont use the fungus clear- way strong & Melafix is not strong enough.

Do you know how to salt?

Yes, I know how to do the salt and I do have aquarium salt on hand. I have water sitting out so we can do a 50% water change tonight so we can do the PraziPro then (it says to do a large water change before adding it) and start salting, is that ok?

And when you say 2 days for PraziPro, is that one dosage with the carbon removed from the filter for 2 days OR do you mean adding PraziPro 2 days in a row OR do you mean one dose of PraziPro and then another 3 to 5 days later? Haha, I've always been confused by the directions on the bottle!

Me too actually. I think theres a gap in the middle for the prazi- check the bottle, sorry I dont have one to hand. You will need to do a large water change first yes 75% and start that and then follow the directions when to do the second. I do know that the timing doesnt have to be perfectly accurate with prazi as it really tends to do its stuff in one go- the break is to catch any eggs hatching out a few days later.

Salt can be run together with prazi safely.

Remember to start with only 0.1%. Good luck, I think this will really help.

Thank you very much! I'll post again when there's an update.

Welcome. All power to Lucy

Though treatment is not done yet, we can already see an improvement in Lucy! She seems to be a little more in control of her swimming... staying level and swimming more calmly! She's not on the bottom as much either.

Good work. I hope she continues to improve and makes a full recovery

OK, I did both doses of PraziPro (the last one was Tuesday night). Salt is still at .3%. The white patches are getting smaller. There is no more bottom sitting (yay!) but the erratic swimming is still there. Lucy hangs out mid-water under the water outflow, always facing the corner. I keep telling her she's no dunce, get out of the corner but she doesn't listen!

Anything I can do to help this odd swimming pattern? She's fine when she swims very slowly. When she's not moving forward, her bottom still goes up.


By the way, we went and bought some bananas, garlic, carrots and broccoli (and some dip for me) to beef up their non-flake/pellet diet.

One of the hardest things of all is keeping track of water params when you medicate in a QT. If that 10 gallon is not cycled, it will be about now that dangerous levels of toxins are rising. Even thugh you have the salt in there, you still need to test the water daily for ammonia/pH etc. Any fluctuations will set her back. Temperature and pH should be stable between water going in and coming out daily.

She is weak and any small factor will cause the wobbly swimming. Try to double check every little thing and post back.

The diet sounds good.

I tested the water just now for the first time with the test tube kit. We bought a kit when we ran out of strips this time instead of getting more strips.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 5
pH: 8.2

The tank has been running since April with Ginger in it until just before we put Lucy in there so it's cycled.