# Dusty Danos?



## PBrods (Dec 10, 2011)

I have 6 Danos and 6 yellow Lab Cichlids. My Cichlids look fine but the Danos look like they have a coat of dust on them. It's weird. Anyone ever see this before?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Sounds like ammonia or nitrite burns. What are your tank water parameters?


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## PBrods (Dec 10, 2011)

0 ammonia...0 nitrites... 10-20 nitrates

If that was the case, why wouldn't my cichlids have the same?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Cichlids are much tougher fish than danios. Try a 50% water change, gravel vacuum, and dose the tank with API Stress Coat+. It's a shotgun approach, but it's all I can think of ATM


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

You are describing what sounds like a classic case of oodinium, a freshwater parasite also known as velvet.
If it's on the zebras, it's on the cichlids - probably inside the gills. It's an opportunistic parasite that strikes when the water is too soft, if there is organic pollution (especially uneaten food, clogged filters, etc) or heavy stress. 
I have soft tap, and I know it too well. If I miss water changes, velvet flares up in tanks where I don't harden the water.
The parasite needs light, so all lights off. Get down to a good pet store and buy a med specifically for velvet. It's hard to kill, so you have to target it. It's common, so every good store should have something.
Velvet kills, so it's not something to sit on. It can be discouraged by salt, but I have never had luck killing it with salt here - I had to go for the meds. I'm in Canada, so I won't suggest a name, as they differ from market to market. 

Longterm, vacuum the gravel (it is a creature that will travel on the vacuum if you have other tanks, so kill it first). Check the water hardness, which you may have to modify. The test results you gave sound fine, but the more important test here is hardness. It isn't common in the hard water your yellow labs need.
You just got yourself about a billion new pets!


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## vdanker (Jan 3, 2012)

I haven't had a problem like this, but thought of a caution when changing the water with Danios. If I do a major water change too quickly, the Danios appear to be suffocating; they hang at the surface or in the bubbles from the airstone. I lost several this way before I figured out what I was doing wrong. Now I add water very gradually over a period of 30 to 60 minutes to allow it be aerated.


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## PBrods (Dec 10, 2011)

Gizmo said:


> Cichlids are much tougher fish than danios. Try a 50% water change, gravel vacuum, and dose the tank with API Stress Coat+. It's a shotgun approach, but it's all I can think of ATM


I had just done a 50% wate change...The tank is only 2 months old and I've only had the fish in it for 2 weeks. The gravel couldn't be that bad already


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

Look online at pictures of velvet/oodinium. 

It's not ammonia. I'll bet my danio's 2,567th baby it's velvet.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

I agree with nav,sounds just like velvet.Very nasty disease.


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## PBrods (Dec 10, 2011)

navigator black said:


> Look online at pictures of velvet/oodinium.
> 
> It's not ammonia. I'll bet my danio's 2,567th baby it's velvet.


It does sound like it but what would happen if I treated for it and it wasn't it? Would it harm the fish? What do you use against it?


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

In a message higher up the thread, I said what you use depends on where you are. In a pet store, we get remedies, and they vary by region and country. I use copper based meds for velvet, but I hate them, and they are reputed to sterilize some species. Since velvet quickly kills the same species, it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Some jurisdictions allow the sale of stronger meds that aren't copper based, but since mine doesn't, you need a trip to a good pet store, and some label reading. 
Good luck and don't dally - the parasite is probably feeding and breeding with energy, and the more established it gets, the more fish you will lose.


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## PBrods (Dec 10, 2011)

I just put in Mardel's Coppersafe and Mardel's Maracyn Plus


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