I have a feather fin synodontis in my 125. I have had him for over a year. The tank has been up and running for 6-8 weeks. The tank was from my father and included his gravel which I spent two days rinsing under hot water in the laundry tub....yuch!
Even though I used water, plants, some gravel and the same unrinsed filter media from my 29gal at the change over from my three smaller tanks to this one, there was a slight spike during the first week but then settled down. Since then it seems like I have had higher nitrate levels than I would have anticipated. The tank is only stocked at about 65% and it is planted with roughly 35 to 40 plants and expanding. I am feeding about the same as before (especially the 29 which also had co2, plants and did well with nitrates between 5-10ppm without much fussing and only adding nutrients ocassionally)
Could the higher nitrate levels (around 10ppm) be due to left over dirt in the used gravel making its way into the water column and could that cause my synodontis to have acquired these two white spots on his belly. I noticed one several days ago and thought it was just him trying to shimmy between a rock and something else when he really didnt fit
But today when I checked on him, there was a second spot. It doesnt look like it is raised. It is just whitish, irregular circlish shape. He is still eating. I havent noticed any other unusual behavior. Even at night I am often up late and watching the tank. Ammonia is 0, ph 7.2 with small fluctuations. When he was in the smaller tank which started out with new gravel, this never happened and I dont know what else to attribute it to.
Any ideas?????
