Red spots on fins but water seems ok?

Hi, I have just noticed some small red spots on the tail of one of my guppies, and examined the rest of the fish and noticed small red splotches near the dorsal fin of my young platy. I tested the water and got 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and about 10 nitrate.

I did some googling and closest thing I found is septacemia but there is no red streaking at all, and both fish are behaving perfectly normally, swimming about and feeding with no signs of anything wrong apart from the spots.

Also read it is usually due to ammonia or nitrite, so I retested and got 0 for both again after 5 minutes. (using the API liquid test kit)

Any ideas what this is/what to do?

I did some replanting during the water change at the weekend to break line of sight between my blue rams and took the opportunity to clean the back wall free of algae, which clouded the water slightly, and the water hasn't cleared yet, so i'm not sure if the cloudy water is due to suspended algae or a bacterial bloom.

The red spots on the guppy's tail are about the size of the head of a pin, and rounded, and I don't think they are raised. There's no red anywhere else on the guppy.

The platy's spots are more like small splotches, on the body just beside the dorsal fin, with no red on any fins. Neither fish has reddened mouth/gills and they aren't gasping or lethargic.

I am going to do a 25% water change just in case my test kit is acting up, and replace the carbon in the filter to see if it clears the water at all.

I'm leaving for galway in a couple of hours though so any quick advice would be very much appreciated. Really worried they will go downhill while i'm not here.

I haven't seen the rams nipping or chasing anyone, but I got some endlers recently and 5 in particular have been following the guppies everywhere, so I actually wouldn't be suprised if they were responsible for the guppy's red spots, (they are just the right size for an endler nip) but I haven't seen them, or any other fish, chasing the young platy.
I will keep my eyes open once I get back for any other nipping or chasing. I've already been considering giving away those 5 endlers as they are being pretty relentless which can't be good for the guppies. There are female endlers in the tank too but the males ignore them and try fertilise the male guppies instead

Hey, well I figured out what was wrong. When I got back on thursday night I noticed the spots had turned to streaks on the guppy's tail, and 1 other guppy also had streaks on his tail. 3 endlers were showing signs of septacemia on the body and both platys were too.

I tested water again, still got 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite and pH was the usual 6.5.
Something obviously was wrong with water and I realised that since the nitrate kit bottles are almost empty that maybe I wasn't shaking them hard enough to dissolve the crystals properly. So I shook bottle 2 for ages and whacked it against the floor, and tested water, got nitrate of what looked like 40-50.

Did big 50% water change to bring it down to less harmful levels, and did 25% change the next day as it was still over 20. The water has now gone back to crystal clear and nitrate is now 20 and I think I will do maybe a 30% water change tomorrow to try bring it down nearer to 10. I checked ammonia and nitrite today to see if the cycle crashed from the big water changes but they are still 0.

I think maybe the last few weeks I was getting the wrong nitrate reading so it was slowly creeping up, not helped by the fact I get my family to overfeed them while i'm away to make sure everyone gets food.

The damage has been done and a few fish aren't looking too good. The fish showing signs of septacemia are swimming about ok and feeding, but the red isn't disappearing. 3 other endlers without any red marks are staying down near the substrate and are paler than usual but nothing is visibly wrong.

1 guppy has a fungus spot on its dorsal fin, and my adult platy appears to have fungal threads coming out of her gills. I have no idea what they are but they look too thread-like and delicate to be flukes or other parasites. They are about 2cm long and hang down from her gills underneath her head. Tried to get a pic but they are so thin they aren't being picked up by camera.

So, any advice for what to do to prevent losses? I treated tank with a half dose of melafix and pimafix since there's inverts and scaleless fish in the tank, is this a good idea? I don't want to stress the fish even more but I think they'll need meds.

Thanks for any advice

And will be out to buy a new test kit asap

Sad to hear your troubles, Firstly, when you go away in future, get some of the little brown tablet bottles, they are as saiid, brown with little white caps, fill each one for each days food and instruct the babysitter that under no circumstances give any more than the amount inside no matter how they beg etc. Secondly, those fish prefer higher ph. So, what to do to lessen the damage, I think I'm right in saying that Methylene blue helps Fish absorb Oxygen, I'm nearly 100% positive this is the case. This will help get the damaged capillaries and cells back on track.

Kev.

Hi, thanks for the replies



John, what would be a weak solution? And I assume it has to be aquarium salt? Just asking because I don't have any aquarium salt right now so it will probably have to wait until tomorrow before I treat her.

I did shake the other test kit bottles hard as well, and they are much fuller since I don't test them as often as nitrate so I am pretty confident that they are accurate. It was actually whilst shaking the ammonia bottles for the 2nd time on thursday after getting 0 that the thought crossed my mind about the nitrate crystals.

Kev, I know 6.5 is not a good pH for livebearers, I keep trying to get it neutral but it drops to 6.5 again. Someone told me before it was due to the plants so I am looking into getting one of those white rocks and putting in small pieces at a time to see if it raises a little.

Where would I get methylene blue? Would increasing oxygen help them? I have an air pump I could switch on to oxygenate the water. I've stopped using it frequently because a mate told me the bubbles would drop the pH even more. So would it be a good or bad thing to switch on right now?

I am away 4 days out of every week so I will definitely measure out an amount to feed from now on. I did try give a guideline by 'pinch' size but I use a mix of 3-4 foods for different fishes' needs so it gets complicated when I try explain to them how much of each to give.

Hi Penny,

Might be a good idea to give your filter a good clean out too. Sponges in particular can be nitrate factories. Those nitrate readings seem a bit high considering the fish you have there are small and produce relately little waste, unless you have bigger species in there too?. Also, your plants should help with dealing with nitrate over time depending on how many are in there. Best of luck.

Jay

Thanks John, I was waiting until yesterday to do the salt treatment so I could be the one who does it and monitor her but I haven't been able to find aquarium salt in the local shops so I think I will have to use cooking salt. The filaments haven't grown any bigger at least and she is still acting normal.

I did however come home to a couple of losses. Lost 1 guppy (the youngest), my 2mo platy, sparkling gourami and my 2 kuhli loaches appear to have vanished without a trace though i'm hoping they will appear during the water change. My sparkling gourami was.. well completely flattened, so I suspect whoever removed the breeder box after my baby platy died probably caught the gourami against the wall

On the plus side, new api kit says pre-water change nitrate is ~15, everything else 0, and one of my endlers dropped some fry. Managed to catch some before they got eaten and they are doing great on baby brine shrimp.

The male endlers who had red marks are behaving normally again though there is still a bit of red visible so fingers crossed it starts to fade.

Jay, there are a good few fish in the tank, about 45 now, mostly small fish though and the nitrate should hopefully stay low now that I have it back to the normal level. It was between 5 and 10 when I left and it looks now to be about 15 (closer to 20 than 10 but not quite 20) so I think weekly water changes will keep it below 20. I do a monthly filter clean when i'm changing the carbon and floss so filter should be ok. I think it was the overfeeding that caused the nitrate build up so I have measured out how much to give per day and they are not allowed veer from it no matter how much the fish beg!

Hey, just thought i'd update. Unfortunately lost my older platy, the filaments disappeared but she died a few days ago. The red marks never went away on her so I guess it was just too much damage to recover from. All the other fish have recovered fully though. Water quality is back on track and my kuhli loaches reappeared, I was delighted to see them as I've had them ages and they are great characters.
Also an amano shrimp appeared in the breeder box, which was a big suprise as I added 6 amanos like 5 months ago and hadn't seen them since! Thought they were long gone but they must be hiding in the caves. Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.