Brown on my fish?

March 16, 2008 @ 1:19 am · Filed under Philippines Internet Koi Society

OK. If the brown stuff comes right off, it’s likely Diatoms (aka Brown Algae but it’s not really an algae). That’s not the same as the brown stuff on your fish though.. at least I’ve never heard of diatoms growing on fish. Diatoms grow a lot in new tanks due to the excess silicates in a new tank…. from leaching from the silicone to decorations and even the substrate sometimes leaching. Just brush them off and vacuum them up out the gravel. They aren’t harmful to your tank. http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/algae/diatoms.shtml
If your carbon was fresh, it may have sucked up any of the ick guard medicine. You can just use salt and increased tank temperature to treat the ick per the links I gave you earlier. No need to buy any special meds.
1) Very little nitrifying bacteria would form on the filter pad just sitting in the tank. It’s the volume of water flowing over the pad in the filter system that leads to the majority of the N-bacteria growing in the filter media… they grow where the food is easily found.
2) I think it’s just Diatoms so I wouldn’t worry about removing the things with the brown on them. Just brush it off or rinse it under your faucet.
3) Go to the Pandora’s Disease page I gave you before and look at the pictures of anchor worms and things like that to see if that is the white stringy things. Without pictures of your fish, it’s nearly impossible for us to try and guess what it may be.
4) This is why I explain how to do “surgery” on a filter cartridge (on my blog) to remove the carbon without removing the good cycled filter floss pads, etc.
5) I’m not sure if it filtered it all out or not. You would be best to do a PWC and start over or just use the salt/heat treatment plan.
6) God, your fish are coming down with every thing imaginable. Are you sure this isn’t an early April Fool’s thread? You need to compare your fish to the pictures on that Pandora’s Disease page to see if it’s mouth fungus or what ever else it might be.
7) You should not be trying to save any babies right now… IMO. You have enough other issues going on than trying to worry about raising fry. If they lay eggs, let nature take its course. If any survive, then worry about them… or not. The “fat” fish could be holding eggs or be pregnant or they could have internal bacterial issues causing them to swell up.
8) Many things can cause fish to act like that…. none of them good. With all the other things going on and the meds you are using, just hope for the best right now. You can’t go crazy with meds or treatments as that can cause things to get worse. Just follow the treatment plans you’ve already started and do PWC’s as directed and hope for the best at this point.
Lenny Vasbinder Fish Blog - http://GoldLenny.blogspot.com