Illness, Health & Nutrition • White haze over scales

[Isis24]

I recently posted a topic about red streaks on some of my fish. That problem was solved with 7 days of Maracyn I and II (last day of treatment was yesterday). I'll be following up with Melafix.

I've noticed that my S. daemon is not completely healed. He still has a white scale or two, and if I look at him from a certain angle, I notice that there are a few spots of a white haze where his scales should be smooth and shiny.

Any ideas on what this could be? I don't want my tank to be in trouble any more!!

I've been doing 25% WCs every day for the past week.

40G
5" Severum
4" S. daemon
1 baby angel
1 baby krib
1 twig catfish

pH: 7.4
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 5 or less at this point.
medium hard water

food: TetraMin tropical crisps, Hikari Cichlid Gold pellets, blood worms (2x/week), veggies.

Tank has been set up for 3 weeks, but was seeded with an aged filter. Did not experience mini cycle as far as I could tell.

oh, also... The white haze is NOT raised, not fuzzy or anything. They're just hazy scales Appetite and activity level are great. No flashing.

Thanks!

[Robin]

The haze you speak of could be any number of things, from a bacterial infection to parasites--can't say for sure. The fact that the fish is eating and swimming normally is a very good sign so it may just be that he needs a few more days of recovery.

I'd watch all the fish closely for the next several weeks and keep up with the daily/every other day partial water changes. As long as you're using a good quality declorinator they can only do your fish good.
What kind of test kits are you using? The method you used for cycling this tank--using media from an aged filter--is a very good method but any tank that has only been set up for 3 weeks should be viewed as a new set up--cycle-wise and therefore you should test and double test your water for the next month or so. Generally speaking the test tube type of test kits are more reliable than the test strip. I'm not familiar with the other thread you refer to but red streaks can be a symptom of ammonia poisoning.

Robin

[Isis24]

I'm using liquid test kits (API for nitrate, and the rest are nutrafin). I had a 0.1 nitrite reading for a few days, and my nitrate kept increasing, so I can't imagine that there was any ammonia around (test kit read zero as well).

Could this white haze be a sign of velvet? My angel fish has a greenish/orangeish sheen to the top half of him, but I don't know if he's supposed to be like that (it's really quite nice actually...I got him on New Year's eve, and I never paid attention to his original coloring). He's a silver angelfish.

I know the parasite needs to photosynthesize, and since this sheen is only on his top half...I thought it might be suspicious. I'm really new at this hobby (since October!) so I don't know what's normal and what's not! The angel has a great appetite and is always very very active!

Thanks for your help!

[Robin]

Your confusion over whether the angel fish's color is normal coloring is not unique. It's usually not until a fish is sick that we take a really close look at their coloring and then it's hard to know what we're looking at. A good practice for all of us would be to take that close up look when we know the fish is in good health then we'd know what was normal--but--!

The haze could be Velvet. It looks like a rust, gray, orange or whitish talc like coating. But it wouldn't be in the skin, it would be on top of it. Shining a flashlight at the fish from different angles is a good way to see Velvet.
Are any of the fish hanging out in a strong current, like in front of the filter return? Fish will sometimes do that with external parasites.

Robin

[Isis24]

Thanks for your reply!

None of the fish are hanging out near the current. They're acting as they always do--swimming around, greeting me when I come into the room.

As for the angel--the greenish/orange sheen is not on the skin, but it IS the skin. I guess we might not be looking at velvet then.

The white haze on my S. daemon... I think my eyes might have been playing tricks on me. The haze is gone.

I think that since my fish have had health issues this past week, I'm paranoid about everything I see in the tank!!

One last thing--and I know this is not a hallucination ... My S. daemon was one of my fish that was afflicted with a severe internal bacterial infection (septicemia, treated with Maracyn I and II, and recovered mostly), but he has a white dot on each cornea. Is this related to the infection? I know they're fragile fish...but I didn't realize they were THIS fragile!

[Robin]

hi,

the white dot on each eye may be all that remains of the bacterial infection--no way of knowing. Just keep a close watch on the fish and while it's probably not necessary to do daily partial water changes I would still do 2-3/week for the next several weeks or until you're certain that all fish are 100%. It may be that the dem will always have the white spots and he'll be just fine. Eventually you'll want to drop down to weekly partial water changes of 25-40%.

I don't think of these fish as fragile. Sometimes when things get off in the tank you can have the situation where they seem to be getting one thing after an other but once you get tank maintenance, diet and other care issues rolling smoothly I have found them to be incredibly hardy fish and able to fight most threats off without issue. A fish's immune system will become compromised when the fish is stressed. Stress can come in the form of an aggressive tank mate, poor/fluctuating water condtions, improper diet, rough handling, etc.
Quarantining new fish for 3-6 weeks will go a long way to keeping your fish, new and old, healthy.

Glad to hear that your fish are doing better. Sounds like you stayed right on top of the situation.

Robin