is it ich....?

[Northerly]

ok so i come home today and notice my male green severum has 2 small raised white bumps on his left side near his tailfin. i also noticed my female green severum has one tiny little white dot on her head on the right side. i have never noticed ich in them and do 35% water changes weekly. they are alone in the tank (65 gallons) other than 6 danios and 1 BN pleco that they have lived with their entire life. literally their whole life. i tried to get pictures but i couldnt get one good enough. this is the very first day ive noticed it and i watched them for at least an hour yesterday.


EDIT: im doing a 50% water change as we speak.

[Crispy]

gonna be hard to get a definite answer without a pic. could be alot of things. keep your eye on it and let us know if it gets worse or better.

[PeterH]

A pic would help if you can get in close enough.

Pete

[imma24]

Could you also please post your latest water parameter readings?

[Northerly]

params:
Nirtrite:0
nitrate:0
ammonia:0
pH: 6.4

as of 5 minutes ago, did a 55% water change last night.
tried again to get a picture but still wont come out clear, ill try once more tonight when its really dark.

best way i can describe it is just the white part of a whitehead on the side of the male near the tailfin. both of them are protruding but one more so than the other. the female just has one white dot on her head that doesnt appear to be raised.

[Northerly]

gonna be hard to get a definite answer without a pic. could be alot of things. keep your eye on it and let us know if it gets worse or better.

if i cant get a good picture could please post a list of what it could be? so i could read up on it a little bit.

[Crispy]

look up lymphocytes. they are more pimple-like than ick. kind of like a herpes virus whereby it's usually common and undectable in most fish, but can 'flare' up and rear it's ugly head when fish are stressed or have a weaker immune system.

[imma24]

params:
Nirtrite:0
nitrate:0
ammonia:0
pH: 6.4

as of 5 minutes ago, did a 55% water change last night.
tried again to get a picture but still wont come out clear, ill try once more tonight when its really dark.

best way i can describe it is just the white part of a whitehead on the side of the male near the tailfin. both of them are protruding but one more so than the other. the female just has one white dot on her head that doesnt appear to be raised.
Your water parameters indicate an uncycled tank unless you have a lot of plants sucking up nitrates - nitrates should normally be 20ppm or below.

Just trying to figure out where potential stress could have come from - most of the time fish don't just develop these things if your tank is stable as you state it has been.

I'm assuming you clean your filter in the appropriate way by cleaning media in tank water, not replacing it. How long have all these fish been in the tank?

[Northerly]

i replaced the filter media last night, was this a bad thing to do?

and i kind of rushed the test, let me re-rest my nitrates. gotta go to work though ill be back with results around 5 oclock est.

[Northerly]

look up lymphocytes. they are more pimple-like than ick. kind of like a herpes virus whereby it's usually common and undectable in most fish, but can 'flare' up and rear it's ugly head when fish are stressed or have a weaker immune system.

hmm.... read into a bit and it definitely looks like a mild case of lymphocystis. any tips on treatment?

[Crispy]

hmm.... read into a bit and it definitely looks like a mild case of lymphocystis. any tips on treatment?

lymphocystis is a tricky one. I'm no expert in treating it, but very clean water is a must. I don't think there is a specific med for it. alot of fish have it and never show signs. a strong, healthy immune system seems key to keeping it at bay.

[Lady Hobbs]

Why would you change the filter media if the tank was cycled? That's where your bacteria lives that gives you the cycle.

I'm also looking at that 6.4 pH. That is very low and should be raised some altho I'm not into chemicals to raise pH. Perhaps Crispy may think some coral stone or Proper pH should be used here.

Crispy?

[Crispy]

Why would you change the filter media if the tank was cycled? That's where your bacteria lives that gives you the cycle.

I'm also looking at that 6.4 pH. That is very low and should be raised some altho I'm not into chemicals to raise pH. Perhaps Crispy may think some coral stone or Proper pH should be used here.

Crispy?

changing the media certainly will not help. this is why we recommend multiple filters so you'll always have a good colony goin'. you're gonna need to keep your params in check for awhile so keep up with frequent wcs and testing.

as for low pH, it's probably not a huge factor for south american cichlids as long as it's not fluctuating. I wouldn't start messing with that now. just make sure it doesn't swing after all your wcs coming up. this will take awhile to correct, so be patient.

[Lady Hobbs]

Ok Thanks. Just wondered if that wasn't a bit too low.

[Northerly]

im not worried about my pH.
and i change my cartridges when they get so gross that it backs up water. i dont change the media in my AC's. ive never heard anyone say that you're not supposed to change cartridges.

by the way, my bad for dissappearing with the second param reading. i got into a car accident (totalled my car, it was my prized possession) so i didnt get to it.

anyways, ive decided ill be doing 30-40% water changes every day for at least a week and getting the gravel squeaky clean in the process. thanks for your help in diagnosing guys.

[Crispy]

thats your best bet to do right now. keep us updated and I hope your luck turns around soon! :fish:

[Northerly]

god knows my luck couldnt get any worse. things have been going downhill for 5 years now and im only 17.

[CrazedMichael]

Of course, it's not advisable to have the same filter media all through the tanks life. But, when you do change it, do it gradually. For me, i have 2 canister filters on my 60g which on paper is too much, but it gives me the security of having a good bacteria colony going at all times. What i do is change 50% of the media in one of the canisters, and the other 50% at next WC. After one month i repeat the same process on the other canister. As well as changing it, you can always give it a very good rinse in old tank water to clean it. If you have a python, u can use it like a spray cleaner to clean the filter media.