# White Dots On My New Piranha's Fins



## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

Hi.. i knew i shouldve read into it more about these Caribes before getting them and im a little new at the scene... But can anyone here help identify what these are?.. im planning on getting a test kit to see what's up with my water... what would be the smartest approach?.. any help will do.. Thanks!


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## I Can Mate (Apr 8, 2010)

Could be ich but from the picture its nearly impossible to see anything.


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

just look on the upper part of the tail.. it just started today.. white circles... then on the red fin; there's that same thing going on in the top, middle, and bottom..


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

Really hard to say from those pics, if you are talking about the white patches, it wouldn't be ich -- possibly a bit of ammonia burn, but I wouldn't say anything with 100% certainty.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah, we're really in the dark here with those pics...

Another possibility would be a fungal infection...
Any way to get better pics?


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

here's another look... maybe it'll be a better picture?

if it gets worse... ill take better pictures... *sighs*.. soo sad


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## I Can Mate (Apr 8, 2010)

Yeh guess I see what ur talking about. The discolored areas right?. My thoughts are they are ammonia burn or just bad genes.


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

ima check to see what the ammonia level is at... if its too high, what are my approches?

another thing to take note of is my stealth heater just blew up like a few days ago and the water has been cloudier than usual.. usually my magnum 350 pro takes care of it.. so i restart my whole setup??


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

I'd test your water before worrying about anything else.


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## Johnny_Zanni (Nov 8, 2009)

Do not restart the whole setup. If you have ammonia do water changes to get it down and find out why you have it.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

If your water is cloudy that is probably why. Id clean your filters (do not clean bio media in tap water) and do a cood water change with conditioned water then tommorow do another water change then do another one with a day between the last one. 30% water change would be a good starting point. Bigs arnt that good but its probably some ammonia burn type thing from the cloudy water so i wouldnt do any meds just get the water cleaner and they should heal in no time. Do some gravel vacs for uneaten food too as debris in the gravel can also mess with your water.

Untill you get a test kit, most lfs will test water samples for you for free to give you a reading, but if your water is cloudy i can almost guarantee you have ammonia (should be undetectable)


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

pH is about 7.8 and ammonia is at .50 and nitrate at 5-10ppm... does that help a little?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

Yeah, do a water change to get that ammonia level down and perform as many as you have to over the next few days to keep it in check, go easy on the feedings and keep an eye on your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

What are you running for filtration, just the Magnum 350?


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

yeah... just a Magnum pro... in a 65gallon.. my magnum probably needs some cleaning as well...


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

One thing about the Magnum line of filters is that while they do a great job at mech filtration, they are definitely lacking biological filtration, with the increase in bio load, you may want to look into adding another canister for bio.


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## jayyyson (Oct 13, 2010)

any suggestions, Joe?


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

JoeDizzleMPLS said:


> One thing about the Magnum line of filters is that while they do a great job at mech filtration, they are definitely lacking biological filtration, with the increase in bio load, you may want to look into adding another canister for bio.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Is your tank cycled as you seem to have low mitrate readings which is good but it seems strange if you have ammonia unless you just dotn have enough bacteria to convert it from ammonia to nitrite to nitrate.

I agree with joe that your filter has little to no bio. id deffinitly clean it out to as uncleaned mech media can easily contribute to coudy tanks and ammonia spikes as a tank may look clean but with mech media debris is just caught in the filter pad where it still rots.

Like I said before:

30% conditioned water change with gravel vac, clean out filter
tommorow do a 30% water change possibly with gravel vac
2nd day after tommorow do another 20-30% water change
Keep repeating with water changes everyfew days until the problem is fully gone. Id also cut back on feeding a bit so you arnt adding extra uneaten food.

Better cannister filters are those like eheim 2217, rena xp3, fluval series... as they can hold a good anount of bio media and not just mech media


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## the_w8 (Jul 28, 2003)

an eheim 2215-2217 would do wonders for your tank!


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