Can fish get sunburn?

[McEve]

Hi,

I have the during the last few months lost quite a few fish in my community
tank. It starts with a greyish cover on the forehead, then they thinner,
stop eating, and eventually die.

I've been pondering about what could be wrong.... the water looks perfect,
no nitrate or nitritt, good ph and gh.

Just now it struck me though, I noticed all the fish spend 90% of their time
occupying the lower third of the tank. Could it be that the light is too
strong for them? That they actually do get a sunburn? My tank is 250 liters,
I've got 2x30W halogen lights. One Aqua glow, and one Arcadia freshwater.
The top is not covered in glass, but have a cover with the lights buildt in
on top, Aqua Stabil type fishtank.

See:

[McEve]

Too quick on the enter when doing ctrl + v .. sorry - here's the link:

http://public.questus.dyndns.org/tank.html

What do you think? All my angelfish are gone by now...

--
Nina

[Brian C. Attwood]

McEve wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have the during the last few months lost quite a few fish in my community
> tank. It starts with a greyish cover on the forehead, then they thinner,
> stop eating, and eventually die.
>
> I've been pondering about what could be wrong.... the water looks perfect,
> no nitrate or nitritt, good ph and gh.
>
> Just now it struck me though, I noticed all the fish spend 90% of their time
> occupying the lower third of the tank. Could it be that the light is too
> strong for them? That they actually do get a sunburn? My tank is 250 liters,
> I've got 2x30W halogen lights. One Aqua glow, and one Arcadia freshwater.
> The top is not covered in glass, but have a cover with the lights buildt in
> on top, Aqua Stabil type fishtank.

The bulbs you mention appear to be fluorescent bulbs rather than
halogen. If that is the case then I would say that the lights should
not be a problem. I have nearly the same amount of light over my 29 gal
(110 liter) tank and my fish don't really hide from the light at all.
Many planted tank or reef aquarists have even higher amounts of light
over their tanks without problems. If you did have halogen lights of
the type with only the quartz bulb and no glass then UV could be a
problem because halogen lights can produce high levels of UV. However,
I would say that some disease rather than sunburn is killing your fish
though.

[>]

Not an expert, but it sounds like some kind of fungus.

JOhn :-)

"McEve" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Brian C. Attwood" > wrote in message
> news:bjo0c1$>
> > The bulbs you mention appear to be fluorescent bulbs rather than
> > halogen. If that is the case then I would say that the lights should
> > not be a problem. I have nearly the same amount of light over my 29 gal
> > (110 liter) tank and my fish don't really hide from the light at all.
> > Many planted tank or reef aquarists have even higher amounts of light
> > over their tanks without problems. If you did have halogen lights of
> > the type with only the quartz bulb and no glass then UV could be a
> > problem because halogen lights can produce high levels of UV. However,
> > I would say that some disease rather than sunburn is killing your fish
> > though.
> >
>
> Thanks for your quick reply! Your right, they are fluorescent tubes.
>
> Do you have any idea what sort of disease this could be? Only sign is the
> greyish cover on the forehead, after they get that they just pine away and
> die within a week..... It seems as though the Tetras are unaffected
though.
>
> --
> Nina
>
>

[D&M]

>after they get that they just pine away and die within a week.....

Pine, as in pine cone shaped? If so, do a search on dropsy.

Other than that, check up on different internal bacterial infections and
external fungi, highly doubting sunburn.

[McEve]

"luminos" > wrote in message
...
> Get a fungicide.
>

But a fungie would affect all fish, rather than just my favourites hey? :-)

How could the tetras be immune if it's a fungie...?

But your right, I'll take the next one to the pet shop and have them check
it.

Thanks to all that answered, and D&M.... how would you spell the sentence
you made laugh at? English is not my first language, so I tend to be clumsy,
but are willing to learn.

[Barrie Smart]

McEve wrote:

> "luminos" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Get a fungicide.
>>
>
>
> But a fungie would affect all fish, rather than just my favourites hey? :-)
>
> How could the tetras be immune if it's a fungie...?
>
> But your right, I'll take the next one to the pet shop and have them check
> it.
>
> Thanks to all that answered, and D&M.... how would you spell the sentence
> you made laugh at? English is not my first language, so I tend to be clumsy,
> but are willing to learn.
>
>
>
Ignore him - he obviously is a person of superior intellect (or something)

Barrie

[McEve]

"Barrie Smart" > wrote in message
...
> >
> Ignore him - he obviously is a person of superior intellect (or something)
>
> Barrie
>

Oh... well in that case I will ignore him, can't compete with that :-)

[bassett]

I really don,t think Fish can get "Sunburn"
For a start I,ve never seen them wearing Dark glasses, and the zinc cream
would wash off..

[Brian C. Attwood]

McEve wrote:
> "Barrie Smart" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Ignore him - he obviously is a person of superior intellect (or something)
>>
>>Barrie
>>
>
>
> Oh... well in that case I will ignore him, can't compete with that :-)
>
>

I didn't think he was trying to be a smartass. There is a condition
called dropsy which results the fish getting bloated causing their
scales to stick out and making them look rather pine cone-ish. Maybe he
is a person of average intellect and thought that you were being
creative with your word usage.

I am no disease expert but I would guess you were seeing a fungus.
Perhaps the tetras are just more resistant to it than the angels.

[McEve]

"bassett" > wrote in message
...
> I really don,t think Fish can get "Sunburn"
> For a start I,ve never seen them wearing Dark glasses, and the zinc cream
> would wash off..
>
>

LOL good point!

[McEve]

"McEve" > wrote in message
...
>
> Hi,
>
> I have the during the last few months lost quite a few fish in my
community
> tank. It starts with a greyish cover on the forehead, then they thinner,
> stop eating, and eventually die.
>
> I've been pondering about what could be wrong.... the water looks perfect,
> no nitrate or nitritt, good ph and gh.
>

The culprit is identified. I had chilodonella in the tank.

I've been reading up on this parasite on the net, but so many of the
symptoms of this little bugger just wasn't there on my fish. itwas found by
taking a scraping from a fish I saw was about to develope into what I
described earlier here. It was plain to see in the microscope that it was
indeed chilodonella.

I'm happy to have found out what it was, as everything looked right with the
water and enviroment otherwise. This might be what killed my snail as well
then - I assume this parasite attcks everything living in a tank?

Thanks for your feedback anyways!

[Gld58nasty]

that sounds like what happened to my sliver mollies and ballon bellies