zeta Posted September 6, 2002 Report Share Posted September 6, 2002 Hello... my fish really aren't doing as well as I would like. Mild finrot, rampant fin-nipping.. and my angels seem to get these black spots Should I be alarmed? They seem pretty okay otherwise..well, not close to death, which is doing well by my standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajbroome Posted September 6, 2002 Report Share Posted September 6, 2002 Zeta said... > my fish really aren't doing as well as I would like. Mild finrot, > rampant fin-nipping.. What kinds of fish under what conditions? The above could be a normal response to envirinmental or behavioural conditions... > ... my angels seem to get these black spots Black spots can be part of the natural pigmentation on healthy 'wild type' or 'silver' angels. The spots are masked on darker varieties and absent from 'albinos' or 'golds'... > Should I be alarmed? Judging by the photo, I wouldn't be. Tell us more about the other fish... Andrew. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted September 6, 2002 Report Share Posted September 6, 2002 Those spots look like normal colouration to me too Zeta. What other fish do you have and who is nipping who? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta Posted September 6, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2002 aargh..where to begin. My bristlenosed plecostomus is missing about half his dorsal fin and a good deal of his tail because my angels keep nipping him! My LFS refuses to believe this is possible, but the angels arent exactly subtle about it.. they just sidle up to him and have a nip, I watch this happen daily. My hoplo catfish has quite a bit of finrot in his tail after being nipped relentlessly by a pakistani loach (I got rid of the loach the day after I worked this out).. it's taking a while to heal. He also has this odd silver coating on parts of him (at the base of his tail and dorsal fin).. he's had it before and gotten over it. Sorry about the quality of these photos, I still havent worked out how to take fish photos and my last batteries have just run out. My albino corys have very stumpy barbels. Apparently this would be because the pakistani loach ate them while they were asleep. The loach went about 2 weeks ago, how long would barbels take to grow back? My hoplo's barbels also seem to be shorter than they should be. I do have a couple of rosy barbs but I've never seen them nip anybody. I really don't blame all my troubles on fish nipping each other, I reckon there has to be something else making life difficult for me. I have killed 7 of the 20 fish I have owned. I'm certain overfeeding isn'y my problem, I fed only every second day for months, and I'm feeding daily these days (sometimes bloodworms, sometimes flake, occasionally zucchini, peas..) The tank has a few plants, a chunk of driftwood (extracted from a malaysian bog, bought from the LFS), no rocks. The gravel has a small amount of shell. pH is about 7.5 out of the tap and maybe 7.3 in the tank (I have to get them to test it at the LFS, my test kit is hopeless). Water gets changed about 1/3 every week, gravel vacuumed about every fortnight. Water is quite clear, although gets a bit murky when the fish get fed (they go nuts and stir it all up). So all I can think of is maybe there's something in the water. How would I find out for certain? Thanks for your time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted September 7, 2002 Report Share Posted September 7, 2002 Hi Zeta, Could be your cats are wearing their barbles down because of the substrate (Shell etc) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatman Posted September 11, 2002 Report Share Posted September 11, 2002 Hello Zeta I had an angel with the same spots, they look like a pinhead sized spot not unlike a small tick attached to skin, the spots are attached to the fish and donot seem to be a part of the fish's coloring. The spots mine had went away after about 3 months, this fish has died due to a swim bladder problem, couldn't stay upright, i dont know if this has anything to do with the spots though and i havn't been able to find any info on these black spots Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
john1 Posted September 13, 2002 Report Share Posted September 13, 2002 Hi zeta I had a close look at the spots. The do not look like coloured spots. More like 'holes',crater like. I would be worried. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta Posted September 15, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2002 Yes, I am a little worried. They don't seem at all like natural coloration, they change from day to day. But they certainly aren't holes. Pegasus, my gravel is very smooth, I'd be quite surprised if it was wearing their barbels down. What else can cause eroded barbels? The hoplo's barbels have been getting shorter too, probably about half as long as they should be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted September 15, 2002 Report Share Posted September 15, 2002 Hi Zeta, Was doing a bit of reading somewhere on one of the sites and it mentioned the rough substrate, and it also mentioned the fact that some sorts of bacteria in the gravel can attack the barbles and actually cause them to rot away. I read that many posts on that many sites that I'm not sure where it was, but I'll try and find it and get back to you. Regards, Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted September 15, 2002 Report Share Posted September 15, 2002 Hi Zeta, I just got lucky and checked my History in my browser and there it was he he. Here are the links about your Corys http://communitytank.aaquaria.com/board ... hp?TID=234 http://communitytank.aaquaria.com/articles/corys.htm The second link is an article that I found really interesting. Regards, Bill (Pegasus) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeta Posted September 16, 2002 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 Thanks Pegasus, that seems very relevant. What treatment do you recommend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goldie Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 Just a query Zeta. Do you have other fish in the tank and if so what are they?? When did they arrive in relation to the angel?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pegasus Posted September 16, 2002 Report Share Posted September 16, 2002 Hi Zeta, Seems from the Corydoras article that the subsrate and bacteria excess are the problem. Placing the corys in another tank with a fine substrate and good food may allow the barbles to grow back, but to be honest I have never had to deal with this problem. We have one or two Catfish breeders that might know if the barbles will actually grow back or not. I'll do a bit more digging and see if I can find out anything else. http://www.planetcatfish.com http://www.scotcat.com May have some info if you want to check. Regards, Bill (Pegasus.NZ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Midas Posted September 17, 2002 Report Share Posted September 17, 2002 I have had problems with disapearing barbels on cory's before. I found that it is possible for them to grow back if you put them back into a favourable environment. When I had the problems they were with some dwarf cichlids who would out compete them for food. Consequently they never got to eat alot while they were in with them. This I think was the start of the problems. My gravel was always clean but maybe a slightly coarse (pea gravel with a small amount of some porous (almost like pumice) volanic rock mixed in. I found that putting them in an environment were they could get ample food easily (still using the same substrate) helped the barbels to grow back. Maybe they didn't have to scanvenge around as much and were not constantly running their barbels along the ground? Not sure about that, but feeding them better definitely helped their barbels grow back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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