[darcinder]

So here is some info:

G160 eheim filter 60-150g
55g tank

tankmates:

1 yellow lab
1 sexfasciatus
3 barbs
1 pseudotropheus elongatus (sorry for spelling errors)
2 unknown malawi cichlids (blue, and striped one)
bristlenos

nitrites: 0
nitrate: i will post the tests for nitrate and ph later tonight.

The ammonia levels are high about 0.3ppm. This is because i added fish about a week and a half ago. On top of that a month and a half ago, i had to treat for columnaris on my Sexfasciatus Six-Bar Lamprologus which was cured completely... he got columnaris from the LFS when i got him a month and a half ago. Even though i cured the columnaris, the kanaplex i used to treat it killed all of my beneficial bacteria. so i recycled in a month added some new fish.

So my yellow lab who is about three years old has developed some noticable physical changes in the last two days. My first guess is that it is from fighting with the new fish i added but im not sure anymore. He/she has a obvious bite mark in his rear anal fin but then there are these white markings all over the right side of him/her and a large kind of scrape/fungal looking thing on his top dorsal area???. He eats everyday and is still pretty active. the area on his top appeared instantly overnight and kinda of has a blood red look to it. could it be my bristle nose pleco sucking on him at night? lol.. or worse could it be a disease. if anyone could take a look at the pics of him/her it would be greatly appreciated.

So here some links to pics of my fish

[/img]http://img3.imageshack.us/i/128bu.jpg/[/img]

 

[darcinder]

http://img28.imageshack.us/i/091cz.jpg/

http://img121.imageshack.us/i/092qa.jpg/

http://img404.imageshack.us/i/095la.jpg/

http://img69.imageshack.us/i/117sde.jpg/

http://img543.imageshack.us/i/118p.jpg/

http://img3.imageshack.us/i/128bu.jpg/

 

[greggb]

I'm not an expert but one of those pictures looks an awful lot like ick. I'd personally assume it is and begin treatment. I lost a bunch of fish to ick a couple of weeks ago.

Hopefully someone else will weigh in here. If I were you I'd warm the tank to 86, making sure you have good aeration, just in case it is ick. If it's not you can turn it down, no harm. If it is and you don't treat it immediately you'll probably lose some fish.

I wouldn't be for using medication just yet... a lot of people here say temperature alone will do the job. Most ick meds are really nasty stuff...

 

[Chekboy2]

If it were me I would get the ammonia in check and treat for ich just in case. The red on his dorsal fin is looking like ammonia burn and it will also cause fins to fray but that's more likely other fish in your tank taking shots at him. How long has your ammonia been that high?

 

[darcinder]

yea i have been adding seachems stabilizer. i have had high ammonia for about probably 3 weeks now. i checked my tap for for ammonia and it tested .5ppm right out of the tap. I looked online and our water is treated with chloramine. So im scared to do water changes because i will just add more ammonia so i have been adding prime and stability with water changes every now and then.

Will treating for ich kill my beneficial bacteria too?

 

[Chekboy2]

If ammonia has been that high for that long you really need to take care of it. Try slowly lowering your PH to 7.0 and do a 50 percent water change. If the fish starts showing signs of distress you will want to use chemicals to lower it quicker. Try not to do a whole lot of feeding during this time as more food and waste is only going to hinder your efforts. Ammonia poisoning is very serious as it causes brain and other organ damage. I think you will be doing much better once you get the ammonia down bellow 1ppm.

 

[Chekboy2]

Just make sure you use a proper dosage of a chloramine remover when you do water changes if your tap water is coming out at .5ppm