# red area around celebes rainbowfish mouth?



## djwagz (Aug 1, 2012)

I have had a group of 6 celebes for about two weeks. I have been doing a lot of new planting and the tank has stirred up quite a bit. So I have done about 3 water changes this week. 

One of the celebes has a red/pink area around his mouth. His gills may be a bit brighter red interior than normal. It is hard to tell since they are always somewhat red inside the gill flap. He hangs out in front of the filter wash and seems to be gasping more than usual. They always gasp. but his seems deeper, I think.

Ph 7.6
ammonia .025-.05
nitrite <.1

75g highly planted tank. Have done some searching and it could be bacterial, or an ammonia burn. Ammonia was a little high yesterday but I got it down.

Any ideas as to what it is or the cure? Pics:


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## coralbandit (Jul 29, 2012)

having ammonia and nitrites indicate uncycled aquarium.Change water(50% will cut your levels in half).although w/c may not cure fish ailments ,it goes along way in preventing them.When changing water vacum off bottom of tank as life cycle of some pest is to fall from victim to bottom of tank and grow ;hundreds,if not thousands of new baby pest (free swimming)looking for new host.Proper id of desease is sometimes quite diffacult,if bacteria;acriflavine(I think in maracyn/or maracyn 2)has been used for decades.One side effect of med is possible sterility,often avoided by removing meds(water change)after succesful treatment.Timming is key as some of these pest need less than 3 days to grow out of control(and kill fish).


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Celebes are one of the most 'electric" looking fish out there - really beautiful. They need some salt though - they are not pure freshwater fish. In pure freshwater they will get velvet (oodinium sp - a skin parasite) easily, and they will also weaken and develop infections. 
That's where your guy seems to be. His fins are clamping, his belly is sunken and his mouth is completely infected. It could have originated with an ammonia burn - it looks like a "shipping burn" although at two weeks in the tank, that would be a late bloom.
I can't really give advice - his chances are slim. I have seen that clear up on other fish in very clean water, but it is far from certain.


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