# What I thought was body slime is killing fish...



## Kaddock (Oct 23, 2007)

Hello, let's just do it like this:

1. What is the size of your tank?

*A 28 and 38 gallon are experiencing this problem.*

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.

*I use API test kits. 

28 gallon
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0
Nitrate - 10
pH - 6.6
KH - 2
GH - 10

38 gallon
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0*
*Nitrate - 30
pH - 7.2
KH - 3
GH - 10

* 3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?

*Freshwater*

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?

*28 - 2 yrs, 38 - 6+ months*

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?

*28 - 1 angelfish, 4 juvenile gold barbs, 2 zebra loaches, 1 botia loach, 3 albino corys, 4 otocinclus, 5 black phantoms, 8 green tetras

38 - 6 dwarf gouramis, 1 bullseye cat, 2 pictus cats, 2 (-1) gold barbs, 4 (-2) rasboras, 2 otocinclus
* 
7. What temperature is the tank water currently?

*82F*

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?

*28 yes, 38 no*

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.

*28 - large whisper filter / sponge change every month or so after soaking in tank water for a week, weekly swishing of debris in removed tank water

38 - undergravel filter... / gravel vac 1 time a week
* 
10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?

*38 - lots of air bubbles
28 - not as many, trying to keep a little CO2
* 
11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?

*Yes both tanks receive light at some point during the day. The both have 5k bulbs that run 9 or so hrs a day.*

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?

*I did WCs on both on 3/21, about 35-40%, then another 25% WC 3/23 as part of Triple Sulfa regimen. Yes, I always vaccuum the substrate as much as possible. *

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?

*I feed once daily: Tetra flakes and shrimp pellets, sometimes spirulina and cichlid pellets in the 28. *

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?

*28 - I first noticed what looked a film over one zebra loach's body, and the other looked like patches of it's skin were dying, bright white. There were no protrusions or fuzz or bumps or anything like that. I talked to the people at the fish store, and they sent me home with coppersafe... I did treatments with this for about two weeks. I finally got tired of the small amount they sold me, so I went to another store, and bought another kind of copper med, also for external parasites, ich, etc. The pet store fish guy said it was the type the store uses.

At this point I had already moved 3 gold barbs and 4 rasboras out of the 28 and into the 38, and they took the symptoms on the next week (1 of each died in transition). I treated both tanks with the meds, totally about a month of treatment in the 28, and 2 weeks in the 38. 

I then returned to the second store to ask "wtf"? This time it was another person... She said that she didn't understand why I would have been given the external parasite meds, as it sounds like body slime to her (I've never dealt with it before, and didn't know the symptoms). She recommended triple sulfa. I've done the recommended treatment of two treatment doses, then a WC over three days. I am now on the second round, and will do the second WC tomorrow (the meds recommended two rounds).

I have seen no change in the symptoms of fish in the 38. One of the gold barbs behaved strangely, and today it was floating upside down barely breathing. It's tail is shredded as if it had fin disease for a long time (it didn't), and it's scales are falling of in white shreds and chunks. One of the rasboras which has heavy slime symptoms hangs out under the catfish rocks all day, and won't eat. None of the other fish in the tank seem distressed at all. 
* 
*The fish in the 28 gallon seem to be fine, and the loach with the leper scars is looking better. They still look a little slimy however... what is this? Not a fungus, not a parasite, assuming the meds "worked". This is ridiculous. *:-(


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Can you post photos of the infected fish? Do you have a quarantine tank for the infected fish?


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