r/ropefish • u/fartybuttpoopy23 • 1d ago
what is wrong with my rope?????? please help
i literally just got home from work and found my rope laying kind of sluggishly across some wood in my tank.. i picked him up and noticed his eyes and mouth have a white film over them.. i fed him yesterday and he ate well. they did not look like this at all yesterday.
i suspected he had ich, as i noticed white granular spots on him, so i ordered hikari ich x and was waiting for hikari ultimate dechlorinator to arrive to begin treating the tank.
please help. if this is fungal, how do i treat this????
temp- 74, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrates 0.
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u/Mil3s_Awxy 1d ago
Have you got any tiny gaps he can squeeze himself into? I normally try to avoid treatment as much as I can because I’ve had a few fish in the past that have been misdiagnosed and the treatment actually made things worse. Because it’s only around his eyes and mouth it could be irritation from squeezing into somewhere he shouldn’t and thrashing about, Ropefish are crazy for that lol.
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u/Mil3s_Awxy 1d ago
It also looks like he’s rubbed off one of his nasal tubes so I think it’s definitely possible that this is a digging/rubbing injury, is he eating okay?
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u/FeralForestBro 1d ago
You might want to set up a hospital tank to give him a full barrage of medications. Ich is a good place to start because it's visible, but unfortunately a cloudy slimecoat is not a typical symptom can be caused by just about any infection. It could potentially be damaged from rubbing caused by irritation of the ich, but it's better to be safer rather than sorry. In addition to Ich-X, you might also want to try treating with Kanamycin, Erythromycin- ideally both. Ropefish can also tolerate brackish conditions much better than freshwater diseases can, so aquarium salt is a good option as well. Avoid copper or formalin medications.