RED DEVIL IS SICK

Question
QUESTION: I have a female red devil who is around a year old, she lives in a 55 gal tank with a rainbow shark, I am a stickler for water changes and feeding properly, no feeder fish I was scared of hole in the head disease, she has been doing great but the last few days I noticed she was lethargic and not eating well, I have good filtration going in her tank and no levels of anything to be concerned about but here is what is happening, she scrapes her body all along the gravel at the bottom and she is marking things all over the tank, I had some plastic plants I removed because her skin looked like it was splitting apart from scratches so I removed them thinking it was ripping her scales, also I got a flashlight and really looked her over good and I noticed around her mouth area are pimples, little areas of pimples and some are deep into her skin I can actually see into the sore, I was stunned totally stunned, I ran to the pet store and they gave me Erthomycin and told me to use that they feel its a fungus infection of some sort, best I can describe to you is acne like a teenager would get, some of these sores have actually burrowed into her skin, can you plz make heads or tails out of what I am trying to describe and give me your take on this, I am so attached to this fish I am just besides myself here.....Julia

ANSWER: Hi Julia,
 How often are you doing water changes and do you use a gravel siphon when you do them?

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Follow Up:

Ron thanks for responding, I do water changes every tuesday like clock work, 25% but I look back and I think I laxed on adding back the salt, her diet is so varied here, I use hikari pellets, worms I got at the pet store, Krill, I also give her frozen beef heart as a treat only, also she loves brine shrimp and blood worms, no feeders Ron I know they are useless for nourishment, I upped her temperature to 82F, pet store "Mike" who has been there for 25 yrs and I have known him for as long said to go home and add 5 heaping tbls of salt to her water immediately before starting the Erthomycin which I did, she is moving all over her tank inspecting as usual and digging up a storm, I feel all this digging might have broken out her mouth but I am not an expert on Red Devils she is my first and her name is Miss Humpty, also this is a sorta new set up 55 gallon here, only a month but I am a stickler for gravel vacuuming and water changes weekly, I am on day two of the Erthomycin treatment and she seems to be a bit more active today, I wonder if the salt and temps made her feel better, she is still scraping her body on the gravel tho I did notice that today, thank goodness I checked her with a flashlight Ron, I would have missed all this going on with her mouth area because it was under her nose!  I hope your readers close inspect their fish no less than every few days I learned the hard way here, she hates when I monkey in her tank rearranging or vacuuming I do know they hate "stuff" I also have her tamed enuf to hand feed her krill but now she wont come near my fingers, she's almost skittish now sigh, she has been thru alot tho Ron, I orginally had her in a 29 came with the tank lol, then I fell for her and wanted a nicer home so I got a 46 bow front acrylic tank which was awesome but I still wasnt happy until I got her the 55 which is new to her only a month now, she has lost weight I can tell but not drastically, she's eating good quality foods, she use to love Krill now wont go near it ;(  This fish has stolen my heart and I get so much enjoyment from her, I dont know what I am doing wrong here, all levels of nitrate, nitrite, ph and all are fine, I did notice my water hardness was at the high end tho, I dont hear to much about water hardness, ammonia is fine Ron nothing there to even worry about, can stress cause this pitting in her face I dont know, I cant send a picture its impossible for me to get the bottom under her lip, all this sore action is under her lip, no sores on head at all but the red patches in a few spots on her body from all this scratching I think, I appreciate your responding so quickly, I know time is of the essense in dealing with fish so I thank you for hearing me out, again I use a gravel syphon when I do the water change in answer to your question.....Ron I do have a question tho, can I be doing to many water changes on a month old only tank?   Julia

Answer
Hi Julia,
 You cannot do too many water changes.  You could change water constantly if you wanted.  

  Hardness is not a problem for red devils.  They typically come from hard, alkaline water but they have very broad tolerance for water conditions.  

  Do you have a really thick layer of gravel (as in several inches) on the bottom of the tank?  Sometimes, if you have really thick gravel, you can get a layer of toxins deep in the gravel.  This can happen particularly if you don't use a gravel siphon to get deep down into the gravel when you clean.  You can tell if you have a problem if when you put the gravel siphon in the gravel, you get a bunch of bubbles.  That indicates that there are toxic gases building up in the gravel (due to decaying stuff).  That sort of thing can cause problems with your fish.

 That said, fish like red devils do scratch themselves up from time to time because of all the digging that they do.  Those scratches normally heal in a few days.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
  Cichlid Research Home Page <http://cichlidresearch.com>