Osprey
Apr 9th 2007, 10:30 PM
As I was preparing to leave for Easter (left Thursday, got back late today), I noticed a small growth on the fin of one of my female gourami. I spent a few indecisive moments considering my options, and eventually decided that there was nothing I could do about it until after the holidays. I couldn't cancel my trip home to visit with family, and although the person who was coming over to feed my fish and top up my water level (SW tanks) is good at following instructions, there was no way she'd be up to maintaining a QT tank. So I left, banishing the matter to a small corner of my mind and trying to figure out what the potential problem was.
Before I left, I did a water test on my 46 gallon (NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=40, which is high, pH=7.8 ) and a 50% water change... the apple snails in the tank have created a massive bioload, so I do weekly large water changes, in addition to growing floating plants like duckweed and water sprite (which I remove periodically for nutrient export).
When I returned, the poor fish had tumors all over her body, and some of them have turned into angry, raised red weals. My fish-sitter hadn't even noticed them :no: . In addition, my two other gourami have also developed tumors, though none as severe as the first infected. I promptly set up a hospital tank to isolate them, and ran the usual water tests again on the 46.
Surprise, surprise... I had an ammonia spike (0.1). I started into another large water change, and had removed about 15 gallons when I realized that something was wrong with the filter... instead of the cascade that normally pours forth from my AC70, there was a steady drip. The new filter guard I installed a week and a half ago had clogged. Guess that explains the ammonia. I think it's a good thing I had duckweed in the tank, or it could have been worse (the stuff quadrupled in size while I was gone, covering the entire surface). Strangely, the rest of my fish, including my hyper-sensitive rummy-nosed tetras, seem fine.
Because of that, I'm not willing to write off the lesions on my gourami as being based solely on water conditions; I'm inclined to suspect that there is a more malignant disease at work. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly the 'disease guru'; my fish are generally healthy, so diagnosis isn't my forte.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8112/gouramiwx3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Ignore the white/gray circles; they’re either bubbles on the side of the plastic tub, or a trick of the light. At first, the tumors are a pinkish cream, but the largest one is now a nasty red. When I saw the first one, I thought it was a parasite (like an anchorworm). I've been trying to get better pictures, but so far, they're all terrible. Lighting in a QT tank isn't normally a high priority.
I’d hate to think it’s TB, but I’ll euthanize the poor things if I have to. Is it possible for a borderline ammonia reading, accompanied by high nitrates, to cause this sort of symptom? I hate to think of myself as negligent, but if it's just water quality, at least that's something I know how to fix.
Before I left, I did a water test on my 46 gallon (NH3=0, NO2=0, NO3=40, which is high, pH=7.8 ) and a 50% water change... the apple snails in the tank have created a massive bioload, so I do weekly large water changes, in addition to growing floating plants like duckweed and water sprite (which I remove periodically for nutrient export).
When I returned, the poor fish had tumors all over her body, and some of them have turned into angry, raised red weals. My fish-sitter hadn't even noticed them :no: . In addition, my two other gourami have also developed tumors, though none as severe as the first infected. I promptly set up a hospital tank to isolate them, and ran the usual water tests again on the 46.
Surprise, surprise... I had an ammonia spike (0.1). I started into another large water change, and had removed about 15 gallons when I realized that something was wrong with the filter... instead of the cascade that normally pours forth from my AC70, there was a steady drip. The new filter guard I installed a week and a half ago had clogged. Guess that explains the ammonia. I think it's a good thing I had duckweed in the tank, or it could have been worse (the stuff quadrupled in size while I was gone, covering the entire surface). Strangely, the rest of my fish, including my hyper-sensitive rummy-nosed tetras, seem fine.
Because of that, I'm not willing to write off the lesions on my gourami as being based solely on water conditions; I'm inclined to suspect that there is a more malignant disease at work. Unfortunately, I'm not exactly the 'disease guru'; my fish are generally healthy, so diagnosis isn't my forte.
http://img216.imageshack.us/img216/8112/gouramiwx3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Ignore the white/gray circles; they’re either bubbles on the side of the plastic tub, or a trick of the light. At first, the tumors are a pinkish cream, but the largest one is now a nasty red. When I saw the first one, I thought it was a parasite (like an anchorworm). I've been trying to get better pictures, but so far, they're all terrible. Lighting in a QT tank isn't normally a high priority.
I’d hate to think it’s TB, but I’ll euthanize the poor things if I have to. Is it possible for a borderline ammonia reading, accompanied by high nitrates, to cause this sort of symptom? I hate to think of myself as negligent, but if it's just water quality, at least that's something I know how to fix.