# Sick fishy?



## anthropos (Nov 25, 2010)

Hi guys,
I need some help; I think I may have a sick little harlequin raspbora on my hands. Or perhaps I'm just paranoid. I have had bad luck in the past with this species, with all my harlequins starting to get a white spot (not ick, though, at least not the previous time) which spread to their bodies (more like a spreading patch of colour loss) and they all died. They almost looked like they had been cooked or something.

Flash forward a year, a new tank, and several thousand kilometres later, and I seem to have a similar issue. Possibly. One of my little harlequins has a little white patch on it's rear below the tailfin, it's not fuzzy more like the same loss of pigment. I don't know if it's a disease, fungus, injury, or nothing. My harlequins did steal my shrimps' little pellets and they were pigging out, their little bellies were quite full, so perhaps he overate and injured himself?

Attached are two photos, the best quality that I could do. I hope it shows up.
I appreciate any feedback/advice that you can give me. I haven't had any other issues, other than one shrimp that died, but it was a bigger one and probably died to the stress since I just got them and it died 2 days after arriving. Other than that, my other inhabitants seem to be fine (I have 1 or 2 berried shrimp and several others who seem to be on the way to dropping their eggs). 

Thanks!


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## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

What size tank?, how many inhabitants?, what type of filter?


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## anthropos (Nov 25, 2010)

Hi, sorry for the lack of info. It's a 7-gallon(?) Fluval Flora tank. 5 very small Raspboras, 1 Dwarf Gourami, and about 29 yellow shrimp. The filter is a little sponge filter with a spout that trickles the water on top of the surface (like a waterfall). All the param's are well within range (no ammonia or nitrates and low nitrites). I'm beginning to think that this little guy got nipped or something because it seems he might be missing his little back-side fin so perhaps it's just fin rot/damage?

Thanks!
D-


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## carmenh (Dec 20, 2009)

Do you mean no nitrites and low nitrates? Because if it's low nitrites and no nitrates, you're not cycled and that could be causing stress and illness...



anthropos said:


> All the param's are well within range (no ammonia or nitrates and low nitrites). I'm beginning to think that this little guy got nipped or something because it seems he might be missing his little back-side fin so perhaps it's just fin rot/damage?
> 
> Thanks!
> D-


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## anthropos (Nov 25, 2010)

carmenh said:


> Do you mean no nitrites and low nitrates? Because if it's low nitrites and no nitrates, you're not cycled and that could be causing stress and illness...


Oh yeah, sorry. I figured I got them mixed up LOL. The bad ones were non-existent, and the not-so-bad ones were low (probably due to the plants and the special carbon-whatever filter).


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## vinjo (Dec 8, 2010)

What's the temp? Some forms of illness are due to lack of temperature.


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## anthropos (Nov 25, 2010)

Good question! I'm going to double-check...

...the temp is around 23-24, which is normal, right? The other inhabitants are doing really well. One or two of the shrimp are even berried, and there are others that have their saddles getting bigger, so it looks like they're about to drop some eggs soon.


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