3 Deaths Today

[flippajh]

What a bad day, woke up to find one of the harlequins and one of my cory's dead, both with tails rotted to stumps and very red, then whilst fishing them out, noticed Boris my Betta hadn't come out, so lifted his cave up to find him floating on his side, he tried to swim but noticed he had virtually no tail fin or lower fin, absolute black tatters.

I fished him out and popped him into the hospital tank that luckily I had set up from one of the sick cory's last week (a different one), medicated with Myxazin, when I got back from walking the dogs, he was just upside down in the tank, but when I went to fish him out realised he was still breathing, so tried him back in the tank, but again he just floated.

So sadly had to euthanise him, I used the ice water until he stopped moving, left him for about 5 minutes, then decapitated him.

Sometimes I really hate fishkeeping.

I've tested the water and the stats are 0 amm, 0 nitrite and about 40 nitrate, temp 26, pH 8.

Remaining occupants of tank - 3 albino and 3 bronze cory, added last weekend. 4 Khuli loach and 3 harlequin rasbora, been in tank for about 6 weeks. Tank is 65 litres.

My question now is what to do? I lost a cory last week, that looked like it had been responding well to the Mxyazin in the hospital tank, so he never went back in the community tank.

Should I medicate the rest of the tank just in case? I've checked all the other fish and they look fine, are very active, can't really tell with the Khulli's but they're swimming around in the bogwood as normal. I don't want to add Myxacin for the sake of it, but really just want to try to stop this happening to any of the other fish.

I'm just so cross, since I've changed from Gravel to sand I've lost 6 fish, and seeing them like that with no tails, it's horrible. But losing Boris was really sad, they're such characters.

Thanks
Philippa

 

[WILDER]

Sounds like a bacterial infection.
The red on the fish was it red edging to the fins or streak streaking through the fins.
I would do some daily water changes on your tank.
With losing quite a few fish I would add myxazin to the main tank.

 

[flippajh]

Hi Wilder

Unfortunately there were no fins left on any of the bodies I fished out, but on the albino cory, it was red streaks running into the body where the fins would have been. Difficult to tell on the Rasbora. But they went from absolutely fine last night to dead this morning, very strange.

My betta's bottom fins had turned black and were just absolute tatters, but his veil tail looked like someone had come along with a pair of scissors and just snipped them off. In the hospital tank when I've just cleaned it out there are little clumps of black fins left, almost like they'd gone crispy and broken off.

I've done a 30% change this evening on the tank, and then treated with Myxazin. I'm keeping a close eye on the remaining fish, and have rinsed out and re-set up the quarantine tank, just in case I can see any symptoms.

I'll just keep on top of the water changes and try to keep the water as clean as possible.

 

[WILDER]

Have you had ammonia reading lately.
Black fins can be ammonia burns that are healing.Red streaking in fins when water quality is good is septicemia.

 

[flippajh]

Ammonia reading spot on, but have noticed this morning a more purple tinge to the nitrite reading, so would put it at a 0.25 - 0.5.

So this afternoon, was fed up with the way I've never had clear water after changing from gravel to sand. So have taken the whole tank apart, cleaned and rinsed the whole tank and all the bits inside, put the fish in the quarantine tank and bought new river sand instead of silver sand, and have rinsed it for about 2 hours and have just put it all back together and it looks so much better.

It gave me a chance to check on the fish and they all look fine, so now it's had a 100% water change, I'll keep an eye on the water stats.

Hopefully none of the remaining fish are infected with anything. Once I've had a few weeks of clear readings and healthy fish, I'll top the cory's numbers back up.

Thanks

 

[WILDER]

You have alot of bottom dwellers. How often do you do a sand vac.
Was there any black areas and on the sand and it smelled.

 

[Anna Robinson]

It does sound like a severe bacterial infection.

Had there been any problems with the water quality in the last month or so? Could you have had ammonia or nitrite spikes?

I've often found that water quality problems will trigger fatal bacterial issues, but the effect takes a while to 'kick in'. It's often a week or so after you've resolved the water pollution that the fish fall seriously sick, presumably because their immunity was compromised while the water was bad, and the infection just reaches a critical point at that time.

 

[flippajh]

I've been doing a sand vac twice a week as the water gets really cloudy. I never had clear water since I changed to sand, in the last 8 weeks or so since changing, I've been battling nitrite spikes. Ammonia never went up, but occasionally when I tested there would be nitrites showing. I lost 4 corys and a harlequin and the betta during this period and before changing to sand hadn't had a death in this tank for about 6 months. So have been doing constant water changes.

I did notice the black areas when I moved the bogwood to do the sand vac, but never noticed a smell, but I even got a really nasty growth of something on the bogwood during the first few weeks after changing.

I think the main problem was I hadn't washed the sand properly and whatever was in it upset the parameters. I think the nitrite spikes poisoned the fish and caused the bacterial infection and fin rot, and one by one the weak ones passed away. I'm really upset that I caused this, especially my betta.

But the new river sand I've put in today, has been rinsed until it was absolutely clear and then rinsed again. The tank is absolutely sparkling now and the water is as clear as can be. I've also left out the cabomba as there were always bits of it in the filter. I think as bits were breaking off it they were clogging the filter.

In the tank now I have 4 khuli loaches, 2 corys left from my original 6 and 3 guppies from by big tank. I have put the remaining 3 harlequins back into the big tank. The fish are all out and swimming around even the khulis and I've barely seen the fish for the last few weeks whilst I've been battling the spikes. So I'm really, really hoping I'm over the bad spell and this sand will be better than the silver sand was, it's not quite as fine.

The readings tonight are ammonia and Nitrite 0, ph 7.8 and nitrate 30 ish. Temp is at 26 deg.



Also whilst removing the sand I've kept as many of the Malaysian Trumpet snails as I could as I've been led to believe they're good for keeping the sand turned over

 

[WILDER]

Did you touch the filter sponges.
I over filter my tank and use filter floss it keep the water crystal clear.
If the fliter kept blocking it would account for the water being cloudy.

 

[flippajh]

It did seem to be a bit of a viscious cirlce, the tank looked cloudy, so did a sand vac and a rinse of the sponges in the removed tank water, but then I think I was rinsing the sponges too often and was rinsing out the good bacteria, which caused nitrite spikes, which made the fish sick.

I think the filter should be ok, its a 65 ltr tank and I've got the Fluval 2 plus which is supposed to be 400 litres/hr turnover. But if this was clogging with the cabomba and dust particles from the sand, then the turnover would have been a lot less than this.

Can you put filter floss in the Fluval 2, is it just a sheet to go between the sponges?

But am touching all the wood I can find, it's looking ok at the moment! But then it has only been 5 hours!

 

[WILDER]

I would only touch one sponge at a time. You are meant to do the other sponges one at a time a few weeks later.
You could sandwich some filter floss in between your sponges in the fluval filter. No need to buy there expensive white pads.

You are meant to turn filter off till the sand settles as it can damage your impellor.

 

[flippajh]

Ah, one at a time, I didn't think of that.

Yes I did have the filter turned off, but it was like dust particles that were blowing round the tank, not the actual sand, but the dust off it, so really, really fine.

This new sand seems much better, a bit heavier and not as fine and actually clean this time.

Will have a look for some floss for the filter.

Thanks for all your help. Hopefully won't be bothering you for a while this time!

 

[WILDER]

Good Luck.

 

[Anna Robinson]

Sounds like you've got to the bottom of it.