GSP turning white! Please help!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

Watch your parameters very closely. I tend to do water changes and add new meds often.
Jager

Post by Jager »

you should do all the maintenance you need to keep the water as clean as possible. it does remove meds so youll have to redose them.
User avatar
messy_da_legend
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:53 pm
My Puffers: M. baileyi called Esau
Location: Ipswich UK

Post by messy_da_legend »

Okey Dokey. Is there a recommended brand or type of antibiotics, and are they available from most fish stores?
Tom

1 x M. baileyi
User avatar
messy_da_legend
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:53 pm
My Puffers: M. baileyi called Esau
Location: Ipswich UK

Post by messy_da_legend »

Just tested my water again, and I've got:
pH 7.8 (gone down)
NitrIte <0.25 :shock: (gone way up)
NitrAte 5
Ammonia 0

Why would my pH and NitrIte change like that? Could it be due to the meds?
Doing water change now
Tom

1 x M. baileyi
User avatar
Phaedrus
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1402
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:34 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Contact:

Post by Phaedrus »

Yes, the meds could be killing off some of the bacteria, causing a mini cycle. Waterchange! You could also look into adding some prime to help detoxify.
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

I'd do both the WC, and Prime.
Good call Phaedrus :).
User avatar
Phaedrus
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1402
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:34 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Contact:

Post by Phaedrus »

I've been thinking about products like cycle and stability that contain bacteria (if you're lucky). Even though aren't useful for cycling a tank, they could be useful in situations like this where the bacterial culture is damaged and unable to function at full capacity. The addition of Stability could boost the nitrifying capacity for the short term to prevent nitrite buildup, because they do contain nitrifying bacteria, just not the kind we need to cycle a tank.

I'd be tempted to test it out anyway.
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

The thing is that since the bacteria is (mostly, if not completely) dead, you are only adding to the bio-load problem.
User avatar
Phaedrus
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1402
Joined: Tue Jul 19, 2005 8:34 pm
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Contact:

Post by Phaedrus »

That's why I'd like to test it to see if a "fresh" bottle of stability actually helps at all.
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

That might be interesting.
User avatar
messy_da_legend
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:53 pm
My Puffers: M. baileyi called Esau
Location: Ipswich UK

Post by messy_da_legend »

Very good news! Takashi the GSP is on the mend! He is now eating as normal, snails bloodworms and the like. He also greets me at the tank again!! :D sooo happy!

I dont think it can have been the flesh eating disease or the fungus (unless the fungus has dissapeared now) as his skin is just plain white now around his tail. Before there was stuff flaking off, but whatever I've been doing with meds/water changes has paid off. Thanks very much for you're help so far everyone!

Like I said above, the skin around his tail is still white but smooth like the rest of the skin. He is also getting the use of his tail back as it looked paralysed before.
:3*: yourock :38:
Tom

1 x M. baileyi
User avatar
Pufferoni
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 115
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 1:54 pm
Location: Toronto
Contact:

Takashi

Post by Pufferoni »

Things sound as if they are looking up. Well done. I new to puffs so could not contribute but have been following and think you've done a great job. Good job everyone.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32976
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Greenville, SC
Contact:

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yippee! Keep up with what you have been doing, so it doesn't have a relapse.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
lisalisa

Post by lisalisa »

Awesome news!!!!!

Like PP said, stick with what you're doing now, as it certainly seems to be working.
User avatar
messy_da_legend
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 223
Joined: Sat Feb 25, 2006 4:53 pm
My Puffers: M. baileyi called Esau
Location: Ipswich UK

Post by messy_da_legend »

Cheers guys! Just some quick pics to show the general improvement. As you can see, there is still a lot of white but he's just been eating well.
Sorry about the blur, he's so hard to photograph:

Image
Nice and fat!
Image
Tom

1 x M. baileyi
Post Reply