mdtaylor
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- Apr 24, 2018
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- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Country
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Hi everyone,
It's been quite a while since I've posted. Dear sweet Kimchee is a little over 8 years old now. As a bit of background, about a year and a half ago I very unexpectedly found her on her back (but not floating), and once I turned her over, she no longer seemed distressed. That has happened thrice total, but not within the last year. Unfortunately she seems to have some sort of neurological issue since that first day that makes it tough for her walk or swim normally; her back legs and tail don't really do much anymore. I've simplified her tank so that she doesn't have to climb anything. She still scoots around with intention, and her suction's a little weak but she likes her earthworms (though she can only munch down about a half of one every few days now). She's generally been in a steady-state for the last 10 months or so, and if anything, she seems to be moving around a little more than before. And she's still alert, if a little slow to reorient herself.
The more recent thing I'm worried about is a skin condition that seems to have slowly developed over the last two months. I had hoped it might clear up on its own with clean water, but this doesn't quite seem to be happening. Because it's "fuzzy looking" and periodically floats off, I figured it might be fungus, but it doesn't seem to look like the big fuzzies I see in pictures of saprolegnia. It's more ragged and the tufts stay about the same size. Gently blowing them off with current from a pipette usually works, but they come back quite suddenly. I considered that it might be a slime coat issue, but I'm unsure what the root cause might be if so. It's tough to focus on the issue since she's generally quite mottled, but here's an attempt:
Last water parameters from when these pictures were taken were largely in-spec, measured with a liquid test kit:
pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
And with a test strip:
General hardness: roughly 100-150ppm
Carbonate hardness: a little low at perhaps 40ppm
Temperature's sitting between 64F and 66F
She's got no tankmates except for a population of very tiny snails that I just can't get rid of, but they aren't much bigger than her eye and she typically gives them no notice.
Filter's a canister filter with a small amount of purigen and aragonite, though I haven't done more than empty it for quite some time (and I'm sure the purigen's absorbed everything it's going to absorb, being probably a year old). Flow in the tank is very low so that it doesn't scoot her places where she doesn't want to be. The water in the tank + filter is probably about 35 gallons.
Any thoughts? I've got some catappa leaves in the tank now, and the material for Holtfreters solution on hand, but I've been holding off on actually using those materials because I'm just very nervous about stressing her out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated... she's very dear to me.
Thanks,
Mike
It's been quite a while since I've posted. Dear sweet Kimchee is a little over 8 years old now. As a bit of background, about a year and a half ago I very unexpectedly found her on her back (but not floating), and once I turned her over, she no longer seemed distressed. That has happened thrice total, but not within the last year. Unfortunately she seems to have some sort of neurological issue since that first day that makes it tough for her walk or swim normally; her back legs and tail don't really do much anymore. I've simplified her tank so that she doesn't have to climb anything. She still scoots around with intention, and her suction's a little weak but she likes her earthworms (though she can only munch down about a half of one every few days now). She's generally been in a steady-state for the last 10 months or so, and if anything, she seems to be moving around a little more than before. And she's still alert, if a little slow to reorient herself.
The more recent thing I'm worried about is a skin condition that seems to have slowly developed over the last two months. I had hoped it might clear up on its own with clean water, but this doesn't quite seem to be happening. Because it's "fuzzy looking" and periodically floats off, I figured it might be fungus, but it doesn't seem to look like the big fuzzies I see in pictures of saprolegnia. It's more ragged and the tufts stay about the same size. Gently blowing them off with current from a pipette usually works, but they come back quite suddenly. I considered that it might be a slime coat issue, but I'm unsure what the root cause might be if so. It's tough to focus on the issue since she's generally quite mottled, but here's an attempt:
Last water parameters from when these pictures were taken were largely in-spec, measured with a liquid test kit:
pH: 7.4
Ammonia: 0.0ppm
Nitrite: 0.0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
And with a test strip:
General hardness: roughly 100-150ppm
Carbonate hardness: a little low at perhaps 40ppm
Temperature's sitting between 64F and 66F
She's got no tankmates except for a population of very tiny snails that I just can't get rid of, but they aren't much bigger than her eye and she typically gives them no notice.
Filter's a canister filter with a small amount of purigen and aragonite, though I haven't done more than empty it for quite some time (and I'm sure the purigen's absorbed everything it's going to absorb, being probably a year old). Flow in the tank is very low so that it doesn't scoot her places where she doesn't want to be. The water in the tank + filter is probably about 35 gallons.
Any thoughts? I've got some catappa leaves in the tank now, and the material for Holtfreters solution on hand, but I've been holding off on actually using those materials because I'm just very nervous about stressing her out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated... she's very dear to me.
Thanks,
Mike
