Krystle

Seachem's Prime. removes chlorine, chloramine, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate (very useful when cycling) and actually is cheaper by far than the others because you only use such a small amount of it. 1 capful treats 50 gallons.

I completely agree, the fish should definitely be quarantined Don't get me wrong, I was not saying that the fish has ammonia burns, just that they could be a possibility. I wasn't familiar with the threads on cichlid forum, and since you're more experienced with cichlids, I would also lean towards your assessment of the fish

it could also be healing ammonia burns, which could certainly happen during shipping as the water quality degrades in the bag. Ammonia burns show up as black marks, and are due to melanophore migration. I'll try to find a link on them because I'm not the best at explaining from www.koivet.com I'm assuming we can rule out parasites for now as the fish aren't showing any other symptoms than the black spots, right? If they are ammonia burns from shipping, they're basically scars and will heal up just fine with clean water. I've had fish with ammonia burns before, they aren't really anything to worry about as long as you have water quality firmly under control.

I think you got your nitrite and nitrAte readings confused right? It's normal for nitrAtes to be around 20, but if your nitrItes were 20, well, your test kit wouldn't even read that What are your ammonia readings? Should be nil if you're seeing nitrAte, but always good to check, just in case. Alsdo, did you buy test strips, or a dropper style test kit? The strips are notoriously inaccurate, so you may want to return them and get the dropper test kit if you can. I'd get the drop style kit anyways. The Aquarium Pharmaceuticals master test kit or Nutrafin mini master test kit are both good choices, and should be around 20 dollars. Here's a link: Nutrafin test kit Aquarium Pharm's test kit I would try removing the pleco to a quarantine tank and salting the tank to 0.3%. Salt will take care of a lot of illnesses as you probably already know, and it's a good treatment to try as a first step. 0.3% equals 1 tbsp per gallon, added in 3 separate intervals so as not to shock the fish or the filter. So for a 30 gallon tank you would add 30 tbsp, divide into 3 10 tbsp doses, added 12 hours apart. Keep the salt in the water for 2 weeks, replacing what you remove with water changes. So if you do a 10% water change you've removed 3 gallons of water, which is 3 tbsp's of salt you'll need to add back in. Plecos are salt sensitive, so you don't want to add the salt with him in there. If they don't respond to the salt treatment you can consider other options, but what is wrong with them isn't obvious so salt is a good first step to take.

Dimilin is extremely gentle on the fish, and will kill the anchor worms. It's also extremely effective for fish lice, so good to have on hand since the other treatments usually involve harsh organophosphates. Dimilin also won't affect your bio-filter A lot of people have been seeing it in their PetSmart pond sections in the states, not sure about Canada. American websites won't ship it to Canada, so you'd have to try and find someone who sells it locally, maybe ask if they can special order it for you? It's made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals, here's a link: Pond Care Dimilin EDIT: Almost forgot, you can also get Dimilin in the form of the Program Flea Pill from your vet. It has to be the Program from Novartis and the active ingredient is Lufenuron. Here's some information on the med and dosage etc (scroll down) Info on Using Program Just in case you can't find Dimilin.

thanks for the welcome guys! Goldylove I love it! My first fish were fancy guppies (wasn't everyones? lol) Hence the user name. I wish I could have a pond! We live in a townhouse, and I was really considering just buying a rubbermaid stock tank or large rubbermaid and having a few "outdoor goldies" but alas, the room mates weren't too fond of the idea So that was that. oooOOoO Where did you get your ranchus? I almost never see decent quality ranchus in Edmonton, so if you have a source, fill me in! I've always been more drawn to the "graceful" goldies like ryukins, veils etc, but ranchus have a certain appeal, that's for sure Oh, and yep, lucky bamboo grows just fine immersed. I find it's doing much better in my aquarium than it did out of it

Very cool! :thumbs: Wish I was handier, I've got a bare bones black metal stand on my main tank right now, and it's ugly as sin Loving that metal fish design in the center!

Hey everyone! I'm so glad I was introduced to this forum, always nice to meet fellow enthusiasts I'm one of the rarer hobbyists in Edmonton, not keeping cichlids or saltwater but Fancy Goldfish. I am one of the moderators at www.GoldfishParadise.com, so if any of you frequent that site (#1 GF site on the web ) you may know me from there. Currently I have a 48 gallon planted tank that is home to Princess my 8 inch Ryukin and Harriet the female ancistrus. I also have a 20 gallon which is home to Ariel my red and white Crown Pearlie Anywho, here are some pics so you can get to know my fishies better :P Here's Ariel! Please excuse the ugly tank, she was in my Quarantine tank at the time. Princess: 48 gallon planted tank: Anyways, I look forward to posting on this forum and getting to know you all better!