Golden Endler livebearer with white spot

[Sagat]

Housing
What size is your tank? 20G long
What temperature is your tank? 79F
Does your tank have a filter? HOB, with no charcoal
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? Just added one on 1/2/12
Is your tank heated? Yes
Inhabitants? Betta (1), Otocinclus (4), Assassin Snail (2), Gold Endlers(3), lots of Malaysian Trumpet Snails

Food
What type of food do you feed your fish? TetraColor Granules
How often do you feed your fish? Twice a day

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Never, it's a soil-planted tank
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? Never, it's a soil-planted tank
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Added StressCoat+ for the betta's fins

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 0
pH: 7.2
Hardness (gH): 0
Hardness (kH): 40

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I just noticed this white spot on my livebearer today... It's huge, looks like it's part of the skin and slightly irridescent when I shine a white LED on it.

I broke out the camera and tripod to get a better shot. The white spot is on the dorsal fin and I'm pretty sure it wasn't there yesterday or two days ago. It's smooth and not fuzzy or bumpy, unless you count the patterning of it's scales as bumps.

Right now, I'm concerned it might be ich or saddleback columnaris

It's a heavily planted tank, but I had an otto cat die yesterday within 24hrs of finding it lying on it's side. I know ottos are pretty fragile in their first month and the other ottos seem to be doing ok still.

Anyone have any ideas. I'm worried that this might develop into something that will jeopardize my betta and my newly planted soil tank.

[registereduser]

I googled for images of this kind of fish and it seems many do get white spots as part of their coloring.

[Sagat]

My googling skills must be deficient. I found lots of pictures, but none that had the coloration mine did. Just ones with black, orange and white.

Thanks for the sanity check.

[registereduser]

No, not exactly the same placement of colors, but all those colors are there.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

I'm not sure on why there is a white spot on him, but it is very concerning that you never change the water. It doesn't matter if it is a natural planted tank you still have to change the water. If there is no issues now, you will most definitely run into some in the future.

I am by no means trying to be rude, I am just telling the truth.

[Sagat]

No offense taken.

It's a Walstad tank and the main principle behind it is that it's set up to be a self-contained ecosystem requiring minimal water changes, aside from topping off.

HOWEVER, my tank is only 3 weeks old, so there's a possibility that something's out of whack. The water is a lot softer than I (and probably my plants) would prefer it, but that's a discussion for another thread.

I've been keeping a close eye on this guy, and I'm pretty sure he's grown 25% in the last week, behavior is normal, aside from my betta keeping all of the endlers confined in the corner, but that presumably should change once the plants establish better and reduce lines of sight.

You can read more about it in OldFishLady's sticky here:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=114575

[djembekah]

even planted tanks need water changes. minerals build up and can cause problems for fish. there's a great article about it on TFK, the title says something about TDS or total dissolved solids. check it out!

[Sagat]

That's true, but my tank isn't nearly old enough to require a water change.

As far as the Walstad method goes, I don't get my book until Thursday, but I've seen varying reports from people who haven't needed to do any changes to people who change it just to get rid of water color (tannins et al) just due to personal preference.

Just to keep this thread on-topic, I'd suggest you guys ask on the NPT thread. As far as my livebearer, I've been watching him for the last few days and haven't seen any change in behavior or in the appearance of the spot (except that they're growing).

Instead, I've noticed more blues in his fins and his siblings who're more traditionally orange/black/white have also developed larger white spots of similar appearance.

[MaisyDawgThirteen]

Originally Posted by djembekah

even planted tanks need water changes. minerals build up and can cause problems for fish. there's a great article about it on TFK, the title says something about TDS or total dissolved solids. check it out!

I agree. I had a npt that i took down a week or two ago, that if I didn't clean every week would get incredibly messy.

If he starts a acting abnormally then there could be something up. But otherwise he could just be coming into his colour.