help L128 loosing color

[zeebo]

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right , I know it is kinda hard to see here, but he is much lighter than normal. This is the larger blue phantom. The smaller one's color is normal.

I recently treated tank with the fix twins, finished last Saturday, did a wc and vacuum and he looked fine. Today during a gravel vacuum I was startled at his coloring. What could be causing this?

am-0
ni-0
na-10
ph-7.6 -Much higher than the normal 6.8 but it rose slowly due to so many larger wc's with all the meds ( had to med for IP's prior to the fix twins)

Could this be stress from all the meds recently(but not together!) or is his color fading ,his skin almost looks translucent to me, or is this a disease ?

Breathing fine/3 air stones atm, and all other fish look normal.

Please help, i fear he could get worse. thanks

 

[zeebo]

http://

ok , here is another shot, you can see the face is translucent and dont look good at all. Please help !

 

[Lornek8]

Difficult to tell, that type of look or similar can be from stress as well as disease. Is it still eating or acting funny in any way?

 

[zeebo]

hi Lorne,thanks for responding.

We did have a stressful event last Fri with that tank,thought it had a leak, water in the rim , level down a bit. Called a service aqurarist to check it out . The process took hours and many paper towels slipping in dry ones to replace the wet ones in the bottom rim/wood stand, all around the front . This was time consuming until he got completely dry towels , we knew the tank was ok. Then he found the leak from one filter , dripping behind the backround plastic,--hard to see until he removed it. Then he set up my spare new filter and cleaned the other one. Checking for a seam leak or crack made a lot of activity going on at the plec's eye level.

Then, the next day I was finished with the fixes treatment and had to do a 25%wc w/complete gravel vac. Removing all the deco to do so. I imagine this,along with Friday's seeking the leak could have caused stress.

As for eating and behavor --all normal. After the gravel vac today he was back on his branch in full view, otherwise he lays on his fav rock under the slate and does not move when i bend down to look at him--all normal behavior.

Just that his color is much lighter than the pic shows, however crossing fingers it is stress caused and hope he will make it. Will monitor his behavior and cut down on approaching the tank AS much as I can...this is hard as you must know.

thanks again, will give update.

 

[Brengun]

If he doesnt come good I would retreat for bacterial disease.

 

[bigbird]

Maybe and just a maybe, with so many gravel washes and water changes and new filter, that you had a minni cycle crash? I presume all other fish look normal as well. Keep and eye on him and monitor. Cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[Irene0100]

what is he eating? does he eat much fresh veg? I had a black snowball who often went grey until I fed him some raw red pepper (sweet type not hot) then he would go black.

 

[zeebo]

Hi guys, thanks so much for responding. I did not see much of him today, as I was out for most of the day, however he is kinda hiding a bit more, although he does not look so much like the ''ghost'' he looked like yesterday. Geez ,last night with tank lights off and LR light on, he really looked almost white. Tonight the best peek I got of him seems color looks better,but I have not intruded to really get a good look , not wanting to stress him more.

Brenda, I will have to have a look soon ,and if need be, yeah, will have to re-treat for bacterial prob--thanks.

jk, no filter crashes, but I too was concerned so I have been testing and all is good there. We used all the old biomedia from the old filter, and because the AC sponges kept rising , the service dude cut a small circle hole in the centers to prevent future dribble outtakes rather than the nice flow I have now.Before he did this to the sponges, I was constantly cleaning them for good flow. I knew the gravel vac was chancing it a bit, but I HAD to , just makes me nuts when it goes too long ,knowing the plecs are bottom dwellers and living on poo, and during meds ,can't do it so I went ahead.

Irene, yes they get raw veggies every night. Mix it up with green or yellow squash, red or green bell peppers,spinach,etc. I don't give them wafers except when I am trying a new veggie, I pop one in the veggie.

Praying this is stress,and he will recover. Appreciate all your replies. Will have to do a peek tomorrow to see how he looks, and will update . many thanks -

 

[bigbird]

maybe add another cave or 2 or some other change in the tank furniture might help him as well. good luck and keeping my fingers crossed. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[zeebo]

hi guys, just an update, his color is still faded, but he is eating. I will have to decide on a medication at this point, as not sure, but doubt this stress related. Just seems too long . Sorry , can't get any pics, they don't come out showing the real color he is now. Anyone know how long color fading can last from stress ?

This is either a bacterial problem or an injury that has gone bad... will take a look again tomorrow and make a decision on what med.

Please keep your fingers crossed that he makes it.. i am so worried. thanks,

 

[bigbird]

keeping everything crossed that all ok. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[zeebo]

here is today's pic of him. It still does not show exactly what I actually see but hope you can see his body is pinkish-almost translucent, but all fins are very blue as should be. Just the body not blue . http://

thanks jk, I really appreciate your support, and everyone who's trying to help. Last night he ate as ususal. Can't figure this out.

Did my 10% daily wc this am. Water tests before wc ,nitrates -5 ,same as yesterday. Others-0, ph -7 . ( added more wood to bring it down slowly and removing small bits of chiclid gravel from bag in filter);

thanks guys , gonna have to decide on a medicine soon.

 

[Lornek8]

I had an issue once with a GN where it turned completely white to the point where you couldn't even see spots on the body. I ended up treating with bacterial meds and it eventually went away. I think it may be time to try this route. What I ended up using was Mardel Maracyn in combination with Maracyn2. One is for gram+ bacteria and the other for gram- bacteria. Since they are from the same company I used them together as I've had too many instances where the symptoms that were supossed to be treated by one med didn't respond but where cured by the other med.

 

[zeebo]

Hi Lorne, ok , was hoping the picture would help. Will look for that med when I get off work. Is this med safe for the filters ? thanks so much for responding. I really want this guy to make it .

 

[zeebo]

just an update. I was not sure if the marcyn combo would be safe for my filters , so I began treatment with something I already had--Mrcorbe-Lift Artemiss for bacteria problems.

One interesting note , this am he had all his normal color back, no pink body, back to blue, however , since I am not willing to take any chances , I decided to treat . Just yesterday he was pink.I fear he could go pink again as nothing has changed except the ph has lowered. The high ph from so many 25%wc after each med treatment, 4 in all in past 2 months, had brought my ph up to near my tap at 7.9. I have been adding wood and slowly removing chclid gravel to get it down, and today it is 6.7. The stress from the high ph could have caused him stress ,then that caused this problem.:dk: Hoping this med will work.

I had wanted to get more rummy nose tetra, and have the q-tank ready ,but I would not feel safe even though I know I would have to do so many treatments that I have done on the 54g. It kinda scares me , all the crap they brought in and all the meds I have had to use recently. Time to get this prob fixed (crossing fingers) then just be able to relax ! have not been able to do that for way too long !

thanks eveyone for your advice and concern. It is much appreciated

will keep posting on this once in a while .

 

[Lornek8]

Glad things are looking better.

A word of caution. pH is a logarithmic scale. Thus a change from 7.9 to 6.7 is not simply a change of 1.2 units but equates to a solution that is 12 times more acidic. Common recommendation is to not change pH more than about 0.2 in a 24 hour period or bad things can happen.

 

[zeebo]

hi Lorne, I am aware about the ph change being unsafe, but I hope I did it right as it was already down to 7.6 last Friday, and each day nudged it just a bit by adding wood and removing small amounts of chiclid gravel from the net bag in my filter every day, very small amounts . Hope this procedure was ok...fish seem ok ,I hardly noticed the change with the API testing daily so I thought I did it right ?

6 more days of treatment ... and he is eating well all along. Hope this works.

Lorne thanks for your concern and tell me if I screwed up and dropped it too quickly ? I am really bad with math.

 

[zeebo]

update. he is still eating , I removed the slate to get a look , noticed some very faint white blotches on him, still holding his color aside from the blotches...still medicating...not so sure now, but continue medicating , all I can do at this point. I still hold hope he makes it.

 

[Bigjohnnofish]

after reading through your thread i would suspect some ammonia damage... with all the meds and filter activity it doesnt take much to damage some catfish... and i have found its always the largest one that suffers first... even as little as 0.5ppm can damage... and the ammonia spike can be gone by the morning when you do your testing...

this may explain some of pink on 128... was it mainly at the base of the fins?

and now with a possible secondry bacterial infection is the white blotches at or around the base of its fins??? if so i would guess its an internal bacterial issue...

blue phantoms are awesome looking plecs... thumbs up you have success :thumbup:

 

[zeebo]

after reading through your thread i would suspect some ammonia damage... with all the meds and filter activity it doesnt take much to damage some catfish... and i have found its always the largest one that suffers first... even as little as 0.5ppm can damage... and the ammonia spike can be gone by the morning when you do your testing...

this may explain some of pink on 128... was it mainly at the base of the fins?

and now with a possible secondry bacterial infection is the white blotches at or around the base of its fins??? if so i would guess its an internal bacterial issue...

blue phantoms are awesome looking plecs... thumbs up you have success :thumbup:

Hi Bigjohn, and others, thanks for responding .
He is still eating and today is the 5th day of treatment.

Bigjohn, no the pink was not mainly at the base of fins, his entire body looked pink, actually looked translucent with pink showing through..that is best way to explian.

Yes there is the white line you see at the base of his dorsal fin, but the other blotches are actually very ,very faint, and sporatic on his body, a blotch on side of head, a blotch here and there, not many and very faint ,but noticable to me as I know this fish.

Interseting about the possibility of amonia happening overnight and righting itself by am testing...did not know that . You could be right=as there was a lot of activity on the filters (had to get them running right),them my insane gravel vac:wb: so possible there was amonia unknown to me .

I too believe he has a bacterial problem , just not sure this med is doing the job. Still I will finish the 7 day treatment although the bottle seems to be for external bacterial disease, whereas this could be an internal bact disease. I am trying so hard to do the right thing(s) for this guy. I am trying to make educated decisions before I decide if/what to use.

I don't want to stress him anymore ,so I wont remove the slate to get a look at him until the treatment is finished. Crossing fingers. Thanks for eveyones concern and advice. Much appeciated.