Water changes leading to peeling slime coat?

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Dovii kid

Aimara
MFK Member
Sep 26, 2006
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Connecticut
Ive noticed the last two weeks when Ive been doing water changes(50%) on my umbees tank that after I am done he will begin to shed part of his slime coat. Therefore, I add some salt to his tank to initiate the growth of his slime coat. It doesnt seem to bother him at all, but I dont like it. Any ideas?

The only thing that I could think of is that I have a layer of sand in the aquarium, probably 2" think. When Im doing the water changes I usually stir up the sand to prevent buildup of harmful gases. Im wondering if this is building up throughout the week and when Im stiring it up, the gases cause the aquarium water to go slightly more basic, thus damaging the slime coat? I have tested my water, right after the water changes and its only slightly alkaline, 7.4. All other water parameters are fine:screwy:

Ive kept many tanks with sand before and have never had a problem. Therefore I doubt thats the case, but its my best guess.

Thanks
 
The slime coat, as you may already know, is a fishes protective coating. It sounds like it's getting pulled off due to to much chlorine or ammonia or whatever if, IF you're using tap water. If you're using RO, please disreguard everything I've said... Lol

if you're using tap water make sure you're using a dechlorinator in it when filling tank back up. It'll remove Toxins from the water such as the ammonia that can be present on fresh water.

If you are using a dechlorinator and having this prob then try to less amounts of water when changing! Try for like 30%

Hope some of this helps.
 
You say the water is pH 7.4 after a water change, what is it before the water change? A 7.4 or higher pH should be perfect for dovii.
I tend to agree with what the others above say, that it may be a chlorine/choramine issue.
But if the pH is drastically different before the change, it could be an osmotic change response. Remenber a change of 0.1 in pH, is a ten fold difference.
If the old water is more acidic than the new water, this may mean instead of doing 50% water changes every 2 weeks or so, you may need to do smaller changes more frequently to reduce osmotic stress. If it is more acidic before the change, that could be due to quick a build up of metabolites.
 
I'd also look into the local department that deals with the tapwater in your area, perhaps they are changing or testing what they use (like ammonia instead or chlorine, etc.)
 
I use well water, so no issues with chlorine. We drink the water out of our faucet, so id think it would be alright for the fish. I need to do a little more investigating, maybe I need to get an RO unit.
 
test your well water like you would the tank and see what everything is like duanes said let us know what the ph is before your water change because the water could soften from any driftwood you have in their and then would mess with their chemistry when you suddenly put harder water in there, i was on well water for years with my fish and had no problems whatsoever, though has it rained alot recently where you are? usually when we had a ton of rain then sediment and stuff got mixed into the well water and made it cloudy for a couple days so could it be something like that getting mixed into the water irritating them recently or has it always done this?
 
duanes;3709082; said:
You say the water is pH 7.4 after a water change, what is it before the water change? A 7.4 or higher pH should be perfect for dovii.
I tend to agree with what the others above say, that it may be a chlorine/choramine issue.
But if the pH is drastically different before the change, it could be an osmotic change response. Remenber a change of 0.1 in pH, is a ten fold difference.
If the old water is more acidic than the new water, this may mean instead of doing 50% water changes every 2 weeks or so, you may need to do smaller changes more frequently to reduce osmotic stress. If it is more acidic before the change, that could be due to quick a build up of metabolites.
Click to expand...

I didnt really think of that, Ill check the pH in his tank before the next water change. It is weird that its happening now because I have been doing 50% water changes on him since he was 1.5".
 
I don't think I'd go with RO for an umbi, the point of RO is to take almost all constituents out with RO. And that is not the kind of water umbiis have evolved to live in. Even discus can be compromised with straight RO, and they prefer low mineral content water.
Umbis come from areas in Central America where calcium and other minerals are the norm, and alkalinity is high.
I'm wondering if your well water doesn't have much buffering capacity , and as metabolites build, you tank becames acidic, to then protect itself, the dovii builds excesss slime. When you do a water change, the slime is no longer needed, so it sloughs it off.
Because I don't know the chemical parameters of your replacement water, my response is just a guess.
To know for sure, you'd need to test replacement water , and also old tank water for alkalinity to compare the difference.
If you found your water to have a low alkalinity (low buffering capacity) I'd ad baking soda to the replacement water a little at a time as it is changed.
When your umbi was at a small size, your tank would not become altered by a low metabolite build up. I imagine your umbi putting on size, and thus putting out lots of waste, this could be quickly changing the character of you tank water enough that a large water change from acidic to alkaline producing an enough of an osmotic shock to cause the sloughing slime.
 
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