Protopterus Aethiopicus Albino

[wednesday13]

Had a fun one with this guy the other day… noticed his skin was extremely irritated, turning red, puffy scales in the red patches. Just not looking “normal” to me even tho he ate his weekly portion as normal that day. Went right for my test kits, ammonia 0, nitrates 10 which is a tad high for this system, ph 7.4, nitrites 0… nothing too outta the ordinary so i checked my 3 other tanks all the same results with nitrates at 5ppm in the other tanks. Lastly i checked my tap water… ammonia turned pretty green from the tap , much higher than in all my tanks.

Luckily i made the decision to turn my autodrip down on that side of the fish room. Found my pressure gauge there was faulty and not reading properly. Result was too much pressure and too much tap water being pumped in the system resulting in higher nitrates in the tank from the ammonia in the tap water. Very lucky as i almost added more drip emitters/fresh water to the tank to combat the nitrates not knowing it was the tap water. Fixed the pressure gauge temporarily while i wait for a new one to arrive. The lungs skin and puffy scales completely cleared up in less than 8 hours.

Just a reminder to always test your tap water and that nitrates aren’t always from a dirty tank. Surprisingly the “dirty” tank is what is fighting the ammonia in my tap making it safe for the fish. Always something to keep you on your toes lol… glad i figured it out quick. These pics are 8hrs after the red blotchy skin …

 

[danotaylor]

Good catch mate! Glad you figured it out and your lung recovered quickly!

 

[wednesday13]

Good catch mate! Glad you figured it out and your lung recovered quickly!

Thank you… always something to throw a curve ball even in automated systems. Equipment failure is pretty high on the list right under human error lol…

 

[danotaylor]

Changes to town water supply treatment pose a real threat as you discovered. I wish city councils would publicly post impending major changes to water treatment so that the aquatic pets community can adjust processes accordingly. When blue green algae poisoned the water supply in the western basement of Lake Erie soon after we moved here from Australia I almost lost all of my beloved tropheus d/t an unannounced 5 x increase in the chlorine & chloramine treatment. Fortunately I was watching the the tank as it refilled and noticed immediately that something was wrong. Seachem Prime in double detox dosing saved the day and brought about my switch to Seachem Safe d/t its far greater concentration.
So glad all is well with you now!

 

[wednesday13]

Changes to town water supply treatment pose a real threat as you discovered. I wish city councils would publicly post impending major changes to water treatment so that the aquatic pets community can adjust processes accordingly. When blue green algae poisoned the water supply in the western basement of Lake Erie soon after we moved here from Australia I almost lost all of my beloved tropheus d/t an unannounced 5 x increase in the chlorine & chloramine treatment. Fortunately I was watching the the tank as it refilled and noticed immediately that something was wrong. Seachem Prime in double detox dosing saved the day and brought about my switch to Seachem Safe d/t its far greater concentration.
So glad all is well with you now!

Pretty warm welcome to the states for ya lol … sounds like ur fairly close to me then surprisingly. Im south of ya near Youngstown maybe an hour away. Water quality is bad across the board in ohio from farm runoff. Luckily im near a large lake used just for water supply. No fishing or recreation allowed. This is the first time ive had a problem. Im guessing additives for winter or someone fell asleep at the the helm of the water plant .

 

[danotaylor]

Im guessing additives for winter or someone fell asleep at the the helm of the water plant .

Entirely possible We moved down to the Cincinnati area in 2018, and live in Okeana about 30 mins from downtown CInci now.