Rope Fish sick?!?! Pride n Joy in trouble

[viperdude152]

recently for about 3 days now my rope fish has not been eating. He will only try to eat if i put the food infront of him. I feed him tubiflex worms.
He used to always stay at teh bottom of the tank and hide in his little hide out. But he now swims at the surface of the water and will actually float without swimming. he usually struggles to keep him self at the surface when trying to eat. when he does eat he spits it right out.

Specs on tank water

Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrite - 0ppm
Nitrate - 40ppm
PH - 7.2

I wish i had a way to get the nitrate down. but our tap water has nitrate in it too Im going to retest the tpa water. It cant be good especially for the PH level

I noticed he also has very very tiny lil white spots. about a million of them. But i also have sand in my tank. But i rubbed has body and they dont go away. I hope he doesnt have Ick. He doesnt try to scratch at anything. he only stay at the surface.

I have had him for 5 years and he is like my son now. How long do they usually live for?

Does anyone know what I could do to get him right again?

if there was a hospital for fish down the street I would take him and pay thousands just to get him healthy again.

Thanks Alot.
Justin

[TheOldSalt]

You do have a way to get the nitrate down---> Don't use tapwater.
Use bottled water instead. You can get it for 58 cents per gallon at WalMart.

About a million little white spots, eh? Sounds like Ick to me, or velvet more precisely. Velvet is nasty stuff which can kill an airbreathing fish as easily as ick can kill a gillbreather.

Are there other fish in the tank? How about plants?

Treatment is best done in a sparate tank, because the medicine wil stain the sealeant in the main tank otherwise. Treat with either Coppersafe or Greenex. Be sure to include Melafix AND Pimafix to fight the secondary bacterial and fungal infections which often accompany velvet and ick. If your fish is floating, then it probably already has some internal infection which Melafix and Pimafix can't help. If you really want to be sure, switch to Maroxy, Maracyn and Maracyn II instead.
Don't use Coppersafe or any other copper medicine if your fish are obviously infected, for the bad-guy bacteria LIKE copper and will only grow faster if exposed to it. Use a malachite-formalin concoction instead, or even some good old Clout.

[viperdude152]

hi there.

thanks for the reply.

you say not to use Pimafix or melafix? or was this a typo. . pimafix says its for internal and external infections?

I have Maroxy and that says its for fungal infections.

I have maroxy, pimafix and Maracyn2. I also have salt that I heard works. I have not added anything yet.

Use a malachite-formalin concoction instead, or even some good old Clout

what are the 2 things you listed above?

Thanks
Justin

[TheOldSalt]

No, I didn't say don't use Melafix and Pimafix, I said USE them unless you want to go to the expense of Maroxy and Marcyn.

Maroxy and Pimafix are both for fungus. Maracyn is for bacteria.

Malachite Green is a chemical good for killing velvet, and Clout is a strong medicine good for fungus, ick, worms, and Hexamita. formalin is a form of formaldehyde often used in anti-ick meds, and malachite-formalin mixtures are commonly sold for the purpose.

[viperdude152]

If your fish is floating, then it probably already has some internal infection which Melafix and Pimafix can't help.

must have been a typo

Thanks for the information. I setup a hospital tank and added medication. MelaFix, PimaFix and Ick Gaurd for scaleless fish and within an hour or so he was starting to breath once again. after a few hours he started to move around. I read up that a 14 day treatment is good?

I noticed my Ghost fish had it too so he is also getting treated.

Thanks again
Justin

[viperdude152]

I noticed after i put him in the other tank that there was fungus all over his body. a very thin layer of it. I wasnt that worried since i had medication for that 2 in the tank. But i woke up this morning and checked him and he has 2 larger areas about the size of a dime that look like the fungus or maybe just his skin dried up or crystalized? he has little spots on his head too just bigger then the tip of a pencel but they lok like they are peeling off. Is this what is supposed to happen?

He seems to be moving around better. still not normal though.

[TheOldSalt]

I can't think of any reason for his skin to dry up or crystalize. The peeling? Hard to say, really. Do you mean the fungus is peeling off or his skin is peeling off?

Ropefish aren't scaleless.

Go at least two weeks, but three is better. After the fungus is gone change the water and then start over again with the ick medicine for another week.

[viperdude152]

damn the stupid fish store told me he was scaless. I new I shouldnt believe old women with attitude. lol

I read on a bottle of ick gaurd for scalled fish and it had a huge warning "do not use on scaless fish"

The ick gaurd for scaless fish im using doesnt haev a warning to not use it on scaled fish. so maybe its ok?


It seems to be peeling off lil by little. I cant tell you if its his skin or the fungus its real hard to tell. but its almost like dead patches of fungus or skin that peels of little by little. over time.

I dont see any more ick indications unless im missing them. So ill continue the fungus treatment and bacterial treatment and if i see any indications of ick then ill use it again?

I know im acting kinda dumb but i have never ever had luck saving fish from anything. so im just trying to get down how it should really be done. having your pride n joy sick kinda gets you nervous as well.

Thanks for all your input!
Justin

[TheOldSalt]

Ick Guard II is okay for scaled fish, no problem. ( How could she think a ropefish was scaleless? I mean, really now...just look at it. The scales are what make it look like rope. )

More than likely, patches of skin are peeling off along with the fungus. That's okay, that skin was destroyed anyway.

It takes 3 weeks to get rid of ick. Do NOT stop using the ick medicine just because you don't see spots after a few days. All you did was knock it down a bit.

hmmm... actually, if the fish is a lot perkier by tomorrow, change some water and dose again with the antifungal and antibiotic treatment. Go ahead and get rid of that before finishing off the ick.

[viperdude152]

Aight. Ill keep using the ick and everything else..

I did a 25% water change in the tank today and added some more meds like the bottles say. shoud I keep doing water changes everyday or once a week? or every few days?

thanks
Justin

[viperdude152]

I figured he had scales too but obveously she though different. lol. and she owns the fish store too!. geez. o well

[viperdude152]

well today he isnt doing good at all. he hasnt eaten in 5 days and today his left gill is almost completly white. he has almost no energy. I dont know if he will make it through another night. I tried hand feeding him which I have done with him thousands of times before since he is not affriad of me. And he just will not eat. wont even try.

grrr hmmm

[TheOldSalt]

Uh, oh. That's not good.

Anemia, eh?
It sounds to me like your fish may have some internal bleeding, or maybe even external. Just how much skin peeled off, anyway? I don't think the ickies could have sucked that much blood out of him.
You could double check the ammonia and nitrite levels to make sure the white gills aren't being caused by chemistry, but I have a bad feeling they aren't.

Unless you have a veterinarian in town who really knows fish, I'd have to guess that your finny friend is well on his way to that big aquarium in the sky. You just can't buy anything strong enough to work now over the counter, assuming it's still an infection to blame and not bleeding. I'm afraid I don't really know what else to do at this point if things are that bad. I guess we should have used the Maracyn from the start instead of the Melafix.