Queen Arabesques Dying

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:31 pm

Two of my QAs have died and a third has the same symptoms. They have lost their colouration in a small patch behinf the pectoral fins. It looks like a fungal inspection. The infected fish is very lethargic Water is normal . No pictures available. Anybody got any ideas

Post by **Barbie** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:52 pm

When you say water is "normal" can you narrow that down for us a bit? Temp, pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate levels, water change regimen, what you do to the tank, what you feed, how long the tanks been up, that sort of thing. The more information you can give us, the better the chance that you'll get an answer that's actually going to help you with your problem. Not just a shot in the dark.

Barbie

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 4:02 pm

nitrate 7, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, ph 7.0. temp 80f. I changed 10% of the water twice a week. The tank has been established for 6 months filtered by an Eheim 2129 and an internal filter. They are fed on tablets, frozen bolldworm, zuchini, sweet potatoes etc...

Rob · Post by **Rob** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:08 pm

Hi, sorry more questions.

How long have you had them?

What type of Bloodworm do you use, is it Gamma Radiated?

The faded patches do not necessarily mean funcal growth, but can generally happen when the fish is off ill health or in distress. Do the patches look raised?

Good luck
Rob

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:35 pm

Its Gamma Radiated. I have had them about 6 weeks

The patch which is only on one side appears to have developed a fluffy white growth. It does not appear to be distrressed.

dave · Post by **dave** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 9:43 pm

How often do you clean the filter?

And may I suggest 10% twice a week is not enough, you are leaving 90% of dissolved chemicals behind after each change, this will lead to a gradual build up.

We all test for NH4+, NO2-, NO3-.

Who knows what other chemicals are left behind, no doubt if analysed by a chemist, in water from an aquarium you would find several hundred chemicals. Under normal circumstances these are disregarded as they have little or no effect on fish, but most dissolved compounds in sufficient concentrations will.

Using nitrate as an indicator, I have found can be a little misleading, if the tank is well planted, or you have algal growth, not really an indication of the overall water quality.

A regime of say a 50% water change once a month in addition to your 10% changes.

The above is guess work, it may be an infection.

If it is what I suggest try a 50% change.

I had white patches with L255's, and a big water change solved the problem.

Good luck

Dave

grettonman · Post by **grettonman** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:40 am

Its an Eheim 2129 and I rinse the medium out in the water I remove from the tank once a week

Mindy · Post by **Mindy** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:57 am

Just my two cents worth, but I only clean my Eheims out every few months, not every week. I have a secondary internal filter in some of my tanks, for more circulation mainly and those I might clean out weekly with the water change. But not the Eheims. I leave those intact longer. I rely more on those for my biological filtration than the internals so I want the bacteria to stay intact... But that's me...