Gill Fluke or more serious??

[Nicky]

Have a couple of new additions to the tank who aren't settling in too well yet.
They arrived 2 weeks ago tomorrow.
They didn't get quarantined... :oops: while I was out in the shed preparing the QT, other half had already put them in the planted tank with the other fish. So too late now, but yes he did get in trouble.
Tank contained 6 other discus (4 10-12cm and 2 juvi's), a clown loach, 3 fat Siamensus and 3 guppies.
As soon as they were released in the tank, the smaller of the 2 of our red turks became very aggressive towards them and they went and hid in a corner of the tank. Where they stayed for a few days...
Treated with prazi after a couple of days, they were still shy, dark in colour and hiding (not eating anything that I could see either). I was due to worm that tank anyway, so figured it couldn't hurt...
No real change in their colour/behaviour although I did catch them eating some live brine from time to time so they are eating a little at this stage.
One of the two newbies is a little more adventurous, but as soon as he comes out of hiding is bullied by the nasty little turk and hides again.
After 10 days of no change, I've pulled the red turks out and put them into a spare 4ft I had running in the shed, was going to eventually move them out anyway...
So now two days later, they are a little less frightened in the tank as the big orange beauties are quite friendly towards them, but they are still not eating a lot (one hardly at all), and still quite dark in colour. No clamped fins though.
I noticed a white 'thing' sticking out of one of the gills of the fish which is eating more and more adventurous, it seems to bother him but he doesn't rub up against the plants or anything else at all.
Any ideas as to what this might be, and best course of action from here?
I'll attach a couple of pics, one of the 'white thing' sticking out of the gill, and one which if you look really hard you can see the VERY shy one in the back lefthand corner... I thought initially they might have gone dark due to the bullying, trying to blend in with their surrounds... which they do quite well.
All other fish are looking great no symptoms... other than desperately trying to get my attention by jumping in front of the camera just before I take a photo! aargh!
Water param's - 30 deg, ph. 6, kh 4, ammonia 0-.25, nitrite .05, nitrate 10-20
w/c 30% 1-2 times per week

[Nicky]

anyone??

[Merrilyn]

Hi Nicky, the white lump doesn't look too serious. Probably a bit of raised skin that has turned white. It should clear up in a few days.

What I am concerned about, is your water.

It seems you have a lovely mature tank, but I'm wondering why you should have a reading of ammonia, and a reading of nitrite.

How old is your tank?

A mature tank with a properly functioning bio filter should have a zero reading of ammonia, and nitrite, (both of these are deadly to fish) and just a low reading of nitrate. What sort of filtration are you running?

First thing you need to do is some very big daily water changes until you bring those readings down to zero. Ammonia, and especially nitrite are deadly to fish, and could well explain why your new fish are acting strangely.

[Nicky]

Thanks Merrilyn.
The tank has been up and running now for almost a year. The filtration is via cannister filter (I think it's an aquaone CF1200).
The ammonia was worse a few weeks back, my other half (yes the same one who put the new fish straight into the community tank) removed the filter sponge and replaced it with a new one. Luckily I tested the water the next day and asked him what he did to the filter to make the ammonia spike and he said he'd taken the sponge out. He'd kept it in a plastic bag and so it was still moist and exposed to air so I whacked it straight back in and did some massive water changes daily to get the levels back down. I think the filter has picked up again, but still not 100%. But this was all well before the other fish were introduced to the tank.
I'm still doing the w/c once every 2-3 days about 30% and the levels are dropping but I thought if I did anything more than that that I might hinder the re-development of the bacteria in the filter?
The fish which were in the tank when the spike happened (and have stayed in there while I've tried to fix it) are all fine and healthy, showing no signs of strange behaviour at all.

[Merrilyn]

Ahhhh that explains it then.

You're doing all the right things to bring those levels into line. Just keep working on it :P and keep your partner away from the fish tank until he reads a few books :lol:

Ammonia and nitrite readings will explain why your new fish are still acting shy. Your existing fish are coping better, because the change was more gradual, but the new guys have gone from clean water, straight into one with an ammonia reading.

I'm sure you'll get on top of it soon, in the meantime, try using Prime by Seachem daily, because it will help to neutralize the ammonia and nitrite without affecting the cycle.