purplefishtail
Mon Mar 16, 2009, 06:32 PM
I have a possible pair of 5" ring leopards that have a strange case of what looks like fin rot. My question is, can stress, like being caught in a net and moved to another tank, cause massive, sudden fin rot? It appears my fish have 1/4 inch of their tail that has been affected and will be completely lost in the next couple days.
Here's the details involved:
I have a 180 gallon currently housing about 10 juvenilles and 4 adults. It's planted, with maybe 2 dozen dithers, four ornamental plecos, 6 clown loaches, a handful of ghost shrimp, and a golden ram. pH ~6.7 (maintained with CO2), temp ~84F, nitrates <20ppm. This is the tank that the pair WAS in. They have been in this tank since I bought them as juvenilles last July.
I moved them to a 55 gallon stocked with a dozen dithers, three dwarf loaches, and a couple hillstream loaches and small ornamental plecos. There are two potted swords and a moss ball on a bare bottom. This tank HAD a pair of turqs in it maybe two hours earlier. The turqs were showing signs of breeding so they were moved into a 29 gallon to do their thing in private. The params on this tank are the same, with the exception of temp being 81-82F. This tank has had discus in it since last June or July as well. All the fish that had been quarantined or grown out in the 55 over the last several months are now in the 180.
As soon as I moved the pair of leopards from the 180 to the 55 they looked miserable. One of them was laying completely horizontally on his side on the bottom and the other wasn't looking much better, had gone completely dark, and both had very labored breathing. After about 10 or 15 minutes with no change, I decided to put them back into the 180 because they were just looking awful. As soon as they were back in the 180 they perked back up and looked like nothing had ever happened.
The next morning, I decided to try again. I siphoned 1/2 the water out of the 55 and replaced it with water from the 180. Then I poured water from the 180 into a bucket and placed the fish in that. Again, color went dark and one of the two laid on the bottom horizontally. At this point I'm thinking "oh, this is what they did yesterday, obviously they just don't like being moved around". Still, to be extra careful I siphoned a little at a time out of the 55 into the bucket, and maybe a half hour later moved the fish out of the bucket into the 55. Everything alright, right? Wrong.
On inspection of them in the new tank, I notice that at some point during their time in the bucket both fish had lost all the color in the last 1/4 inch of their tail fins. The fins were slightly reddish and spotted and now the last 1/4 inch was totally white and transparent. The place between where the colored part of the tail transitions to white, it looks like there's some loose skin. What it appears to look like is that the outside, colored coating on the tail has been stripped off the part that is now white, and that there are little bits of tattered skin at that transition point. The furthest rear tip of the dorsal and anal fins also appear to be affected, but only very very slightly (probably wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't for the tail fin...I would have assumed someone had nipped it or something)
The next day (today) it appears that the white parts are now starting to disinegrate. It's definately just rotting and falling away. The pectoral fins are totally unaffected, it's just those white parts on the tail and the tips of the anal and dorsal fins that are developing holes and look like they're about to fall off.
I would assume there was something toxic in the 55 that was causing their distress and to cause not just one but BOTH of the leopards to be losing 1/4 inch of tail, but there had been a pair of turqs in there only hours beforehand that weren't just look great, but were showing signs of breeding. The turqs had also been living in the 180, I'd moved them to the 55 maybe 2 weeks ago? And they hadn't shown any signs of distress whatsoever. Anyone have any ideas of what might be happening? And any ideas on how to combat it? I'm resigned to the fact that my discus will probably lose that 1/4 inch of stripped tail, but is there some way to keep it from progressing further up the tail?
p.s. If you got this far, thanks for reading the whole post. Apologies for it being soooooo long.
Here's the details involved:
I have a 180 gallon currently housing about 10 juvenilles and 4 adults. It's planted, with maybe 2 dozen dithers, four ornamental plecos, 6 clown loaches, a handful of ghost shrimp, and a golden ram. pH ~6.7 (maintained with CO2), temp ~84F, nitrates <20ppm. This is the tank that the pair WAS in. They have been in this tank since I bought them as juvenilles last July.
I moved them to a 55 gallon stocked with a dozen dithers, three dwarf loaches, and a couple hillstream loaches and small ornamental plecos. There are two potted swords and a moss ball on a bare bottom. This tank HAD a pair of turqs in it maybe two hours earlier. The turqs were showing signs of breeding so they were moved into a 29 gallon to do their thing in private. The params on this tank are the same, with the exception of temp being 81-82F. This tank has had discus in it since last June or July as well. All the fish that had been quarantined or grown out in the 55 over the last several months are now in the 180.
As soon as I moved the pair of leopards from the 180 to the 55 they looked miserable. One of them was laying completely horizontally on his side on the bottom and the other wasn't looking much better, had gone completely dark, and both had very labored breathing. After about 10 or 15 minutes with no change, I decided to put them back into the 180 because they were just looking awful. As soon as they were back in the 180 they perked back up and looked like nothing had ever happened.
The next morning, I decided to try again. I siphoned 1/2 the water out of the 55 and replaced it with water from the 180. Then I poured water from the 180 into a bucket and placed the fish in that. Again, color went dark and one of the two laid on the bottom horizontally. At this point I'm thinking "oh, this is what they did yesterday, obviously they just don't like being moved around". Still, to be extra careful I siphoned a little at a time out of the 55 into the bucket, and maybe a half hour later moved the fish out of the bucket into the 55. Everything alright, right? Wrong.
On inspection of them in the new tank, I notice that at some point during their time in the bucket both fish had lost all the color in the last 1/4 inch of their tail fins. The fins were slightly reddish and spotted and now the last 1/4 inch was totally white and transparent. The place between where the colored part of the tail transitions to white, it looks like there's some loose skin. What it appears to look like is that the outside, colored coating on the tail has been stripped off the part that is now white, and that there are little bits of tattered skin at that transition point. The furthest rear tip of the dorsal and anal fins also appear to be affected, but only very very slightly (probably wouldn't have even noticed if it weren't for the tail fin...I would have assumed someone had nipped it or something)
The next day (today) it appears that the white parts are now starting to disinegrate. It's definately just rotting and falling away. The pectoral fins are totally unaffected, it's just those white parts on the tail and the tips of the anal and dorsal fins that are developing holes and look like they're about to fall off.
I would assume there was something toxic in the 55 that was causing their distress and to cause not just one but BOTH of the leopards to be losing 1/4 inch of tail, but there had been a pair of turqs in there only hours beforehand that weren't just look great, but were showing signs of breeding. The turqs had also been living in the 180, I'd moved them to the 55 maybe 2 weeks ago? And they hadn't shown any signs of distress whatsoever. Anyone have any ideas of what might be happening? And any ideas on how to combat it? I'm resigned to the fact that my discus will probably lose that 1/4 inch of stripped tail, but is there some way to keep it from progressing further up the tail?
p.s. If you got this far, thanks for reading the whole post. Apologies for it being soooooo long.