19 July 2021

other fish stuff

Not sure if Shirley will ever shake this. I've given her a salt bath every day. The spot on her lip is smaller again, but not gone yet.
She's tolerated the salt baths better each time- sitting calmly, not darting about frantically so I end it abruptly. The last bath I upped the salt dose to a heaping tablespoon per gallon. But now she's harder to catch out of the tank. Trusts me enough she comes eagerly to the front if thinks it might be food time- but if I have the net she hides and crams herself into corners now. I'm afraid she'll injure another fin. I was able to get a close look at her pectoral fins while she was in the bath, and the spots seem to be where fin rays were damaged, probably broken from fleeing the festivum (who is out). Now she's keeping to the corner not because of me, but because the other angelfish are busy with eggs again (see next post)!
I took the smaller festivum out of this tank. Put him in QT with Foxface. Giving them up to another fishkeeper (with full disclosure that they might have a disease). I never saw Rascal threatening the angels, but I did see them leaning sideways and moving quickly out of his way. Are they leery of him because the other was a bully? or was he nipping at them when I don't see. Well, it doesn't matter now.

My ten gallon just has the two largest white cloud fry now. Someone has offered me a betta. I would really like to accept it but want to have the tank empty and clear of fish for two weeks first. 

If the disease is viral septicemia- it dies off if two weeks without a fish host. Because the angels all have the red bruising/streaks under the skin now. And I finally found description online that matches all the symptoms- including bleeding where the fins join body (which Miss Beautiful has) looking pale and sitting nose up (which she does sometimes, and the paradise fishes I had before did), swelling belly and internal bleeding (which a white cloud and maybe some guppies died of). Suspicious because it can be other diseases that have those symptoms, but all of them in my fishes that have died over the past year(s) makes me think it.

Terrible thing is there's no cure. It could be the bacterial version of the disease, but all accounts say that kills very quickly (within days). Whereas with the virus, some fish can overcome it and live as carriers for years. Not happy about this. Means I can't add any more fish to my tanks, until I'm sure the virus is gone. I was debating in my head, whether to try medicating one more time- with triple sulfa if I can find it- but it will do no good at all if this is viral.

Final notes: Tucker jumped out of his tank! A while ago I quit feeding him off my finger because even though it was cute, I told myself: one day he'll jump onto the floor. He'd still look up and leap, though, if I didn't give bites fast enough, or if he didn't see where the food went next to him in the water. Then I was feeding the minnows (Tucker already had his share) and I heard a splish and felt drops and laughed: "oh, he splashed me!" but then looked and he was on the floor by my foot.

I remembered to wet my hands- a quick dash sideways to dip them in a bucket of tank water that was luckily still sitting there. Gently pick him up and dropped back in the tank. He seems unharmed- but smart fish- has learned from it! This happened two days ago and even though he still gets super excited, dashing back and forth across the tank front when I'm near and looking up eagerly when I'm feeding, he hasn't jumped again, not once.

My second shrimp bowl still hasn't cycled. The nitrites have dropped but aren't clear yet. I'm amazed what those pond snails can withstand.

No comments: