Fish Illness

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dzsigmond217

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I have a 29 gallon tank that I set up the day after christmas. A few fish have recently died. I purchased the testing kits and found that the NITRITE levels were dangerously high. I was recommended to buy a product called "PRIME" by Seachem to decrease the nitrite level. I also got a gravel vacuum to clean the bottom of the tank. I have been doing 25% water changes every week as well. What worries me is that some of the fish are displaying signs of different ailments. My betta fish had finrot, lost the entire bottom fin and died (I did try to treat him with medicine but he still died). Some fish look as if they might have finrot as well but it is hard to tell because not much of their fins are gone. Other fish show bits of fluffy white on their tails. My black molly is showing fluffy white in its mouth and another fish looks as if maybe it has ICH. Some scales bunched together on the back of its body (before the beginning of the tail) seem to have gone white. I'm not sure if my fish can be suffering from multiple diseases or if these could all be symptoms of one. I love my fish and feel very badly that they are ill when I am trying to do everything right! I'm new to this forum thingee and am unsure as to how it works. I will check to see if I have any comments posted or please feel free to email me at [email protected] . I'd appreciate ANY advice as to what I should do now!! Thanks so much!
Dianne
 
It sounds to me like you have fungus along with ick. Do you see white spots on all the fish? If so you need to medicate.

When you medicate you must be certain that you don’t have sensitive fish like loaches and scale less fish. If so you have do dose half the amount.

What is your ammonia and Nitrate reading?

You musty keep the tank extremely clean. I would perform water changes every other day, about 30% and you want to re-medicate only the amount you have taken out.

Lets see what others say before medicating. However, if they agree you have fungus and ick the medication would be rid ick + some salt if you don’t have sensitive fish like loaches which are scaleless. The rid ick + will in fact get rid of the fungus as well. I love that stuff and it works great. You can also add some salt.

Now for the NitrItes. You should not have Nitrites in an established tank. What type of filtration do you have and how do you clean it? You must never rinse your filter media in tap water, rinse in out gently in tank water then fill the filter back up with tank water.

For now you must never overfeed. For the time being I would only feed once a day.

The only way to help nitrite poisoning in to perform water change. You should not have nitrites in an established tank so we have to figure out why you do. What yout can do is if you have an established tank take a hunk of gravel from there, put it in a stocking, tie it up and put it in the bottom of the tank.

Another way to help is bio spira and use some filter media from another established tank.
 
Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt.
The white fluffy bits on the mouth is flexibactor columnaris false name mouth fungus.
Columnaris comes in many disguises.
White fluffy.
White strands.
Bleached out patches.
Saddleback columnaris goes along the back and down the sides of a fish to form a saddle shape.
Mouth fungus cottony to fluffy or bleached out areas on the mouth.
Columnaris spots which are a greyish white with a tinging of red around the edges of the spot.
http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/d...columnaris.html
 
Are there any fish that are healthy? If there are you should separate them from the ill fish other wise it will spread more.

If its white spot then there is no point in separating the fish as all of them are exposed to the disease already. You need to treat the whole tank.
 
By what you describe I don't see any signs of whitepot sound more like columnaris fetched on by bad water quaity, temp not being constant, over crowding and stress.

You havent mentioned if the fish are flicking and rubbing which you would expect to see with whitespot.
 
You havent mentioned if the fish are flicking and rubbing which you would expect to see with whitespot.

Yes, they do flash when they have parasites or if poor water quality. Flashing is when the fish scrape themselves in gravel, decorations, side of the tank, ect.
 

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