Altum excess slime coat

[Bizbomb]

As the title states I am having some problems with my Altums. I got 4 of them from Charles about a month ago. They started off doing well eating blood worms then switched over to a beef heart mixture I bought from another member. After 2 weeks of having them I noticed that one of them had what appeared to be excess slime coat. Its condition quickly degraded and a week later it passed. The other 3 showed no signs of this ailment. I treated the remaining 3 with jungle labs parasite meds soaked into their food for a week which they gobbled up with their regular vigour. Now 2 of my other altums are starting to show the same signs. I dosed with melafix and turned off my uv sterilizer today. The tank is a 120g with rummy nose, cories, apistos, blue rams and otos.
Parameters
80F
6PH
0 ammonia
0 nitrite
20 nitrate
20> GH/KH

What else should I do? None of the other fish are showing symptoms.
Help would be greatly appreciated.

[hlee72ca]

quarintine and look up potassium permanganate as a dip. Many people have used it to treat discus when they have excess slime. good luck.

[charles]

Could it be the food as you started notice the problem after you switch the food.

Before you use potassium permanganate, be very careful with this stuff. Read up on it before you use it.

[Bizbomb]

Thanks for the advice. I will look up this mixture. I also started soaking their food in garlic as I read it increases their immune systems.

[chizzow]

sounds like a bacterial infection, add some salt to your tank.

[Bizbomb]

sounds like a bacterial infection, add some salt to your tank.

Use salt with the melafix? Table salt? Thanks for the tip. Will the salt harm my plants?

[chizzow]

If your using melafix, make sure you aerate your water as it has always caused my high temp fish (discus, altums) to gasp. Use natural sea salt, not table salt. Personally, I've never had an issue with salt killing my plants even in my past high tech planted setups. Given your circumstances, I think you would rather lose a few plants than your altums.

How often are you doing your water changes? also crank up the heat! I use to keep my altums around 86F.

[Bizbomb]

If your using melafix, make sure you aerate your water as it has always caused my high temp fish (discus, altums) to gasp. Use natural sea salt, not table salt. Personally, I've never had an issue with salt killing my plants even in my past high tech planted setups. Given your circumstances, I think you would rather lose a few plants than your altums.

How often are you doing your water changes? also crank up the heat! I use to keep my altums around 86F.

I do bi weekly 35% water changes. There is plenty of surface agitation from my 2 xp3 spray bars. I also have to bubble bars in there. I read somewhere that high temperatures can speed up the growth of bacteria and this would not be a good thing if this is in fact my problem. I would like to try the salt. How much do I add per gallon? Is this a one time thing? Thanks for your time.

[chizzow]

1tbsp for every 10 gallons should do it and maintain that dose. In other words, replace what you take out after water changes.

I would personally increase the temperature, but its your decision. Good luck!

[Chappy]

I have to agree with the increased temp although seems counter productive with the bacteria. Salt is a good thing for the altums right now, don't worry about the plants or other fish. Also, if you're going to increase the temp, you should add an airstone or two to make sure the tank has increased oxygen to handle the higher temperature. One last bit of advise - they really need as much fresh water as you can give them. I don't suggest doing a 90% w/c, but I do suggest doing smaller ones more often. Don't forget to top up the salt when you do a w/c. Hope this helps - altums are beautiful fish. I hope you can save them.
Shelley