A Note To All.. Quarantine New Fish :x Ugh. Help Please!

[tishygirl]

Ok.. here we go. I have a 75g tank, its been set up awhile now, and all water readings are were they should be.

0 ammonia 0 nitrite 15ish nitrates 7.8ish ph ( my usual , I dont mess with trying to lower it)

My husband knew I've been dying to add a few new fish to our tank, so he went out and got me 5 neon tetras and 4 baby bala sharks last week.. What a wonderful suprise, but we didnt discuss that I was going to set up a quarantine tank

I'm now down to my original bala shark, and my original sucker fish, everything else has died And now my big bala looks very sick


We went away for the weekend, when we came home, we had 2 dead neons, one baby bala was covered in Ich, and 2 of the other fish were looking ill.. I started treatment for ich, but so far, my fish are dropping off like flies

I'm not sure what else to do ?? My bala is breathing heavily and sitting at the bottom of the tank. He hasnt had any signs of ich, but there is obviously something these new fish introduced to my tank that is killing everything off Any advice on curing the unknown ?

I just tested my tank water again before posting, and the stats are the same as stated above, so I'm not sure whats going on

 

[WILDER]

Only thing i can think of is ntd, did the neons lose the vibrant red sripe and it looked bleached out, though whitespot or ich like some lke to call it can be a killer if not got on top of fast.

http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm

 

[tishygirl]

Yes the neons did look a bit bleached out , but not like that link describes... And every fish that has died went from looking ok to swimming upside down, and then dying a few hours later. Only the one fish that i mentioned showed any sign of whitespot. And i immediatly started treating the tank, assuming the others would also catch it, and the ones that died had gotten it bad. Unfortunatly, I dont think thats the only problem, I have had whitespot outbreaks before, and been able to treat and save nearly every fish.

Ugh, this is just awful, my big bala is a healthy fat 7 incher and I've had him a long time, I feel horrible that i introduced something so nasty into the tank, I just dont know how to attempt to save him other than to try the whitespot meds and hope for the best, he Just seems to be feeling worse, maybe a bad whitespot medication ??? Its called Rid-Ich+ by Kordon...


AHHH! *pulling hair out*

 

[WILDER]

Did the neons have a lump or there bellies that went to a point.
Have you increased aeration in the tank as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the tank.
If the red stripe went white like a bleached out colour you could be dealing with ntd and there is no cure for it, and believe me it can wipe a full tank out had it and it did.

http/www.planet-pets.com/newsarticles/neontetradisease.htm

If the fish is breathing heavily i would dilute the med down with a water change some fish can not tolerate a full dose of a parasite med such as scaless fish.

 

[tishygirl]

I didnt notice a lump. But then again, I wasnt aware of this nasty disease and wouldnt have known what to look for exactly. I have increased temp and aeration. I guess now the best I can do is cross my fingers and hope my lil guy feels better .Thanks for the help Wilder, and for the info, I have never heard of that disease , I figured the worst that would happen with the new additions is some stress and whitespot that I could tackle and move on.

I will certainly never make this mistake again!

 

[WILDER]

http/cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

A good sign of ntd is when a neon tetra dosnt sitck with the group, he goes on his own and stay in a corner of the tank usually.
If the fish bloated and went upside down that how mine went i would really look into ntd, so sorry been there and its awful, had to strip the tank down and start again.

Got to go now really tired getting late here, i would do that water change just to dilute the med abit to see if it help the bala shark, get back to you tomorrow, good luck.

 

[tishygirl]

http/cichlid-forum.com/articles/ich.php

A good sign of ntd is when a neon tetra dosnt sitck with the group, he goes on his own and stay in a corner of the tank usually.

We definatly noticed that right away when we got our neons. 4 of them schooled around, but the other didnt seem to want to be in the group . Ugh!!!

Well, I put my carbon sponges bank into my filter, and I'm going to do a water change, Hopefully if nothing else , I can help the poor guy feel a little better . I bet it is that disease! One of the baby bala sharks had a bent looking spine as well like the article said can happen, and he also did not school with his brothers. Horrible horrible disease, i wish I would have known about it ahead of time. I knew of lots of others, parasites and fungal diseases and such, Just never had a clue that such nasty things existed and could be brought into my tank

Thank for the help Wilder, and the quick responses, I so much appreciate it!

 

[tishygirl]

Well, its official In a matter of 10 days I've gone from a happy healthy tank, to having only a clown pleco left .. He doesnt seem ill, I wonder if he is somehow immune to this nasty disease?

What do I do now ? to get my tank cleaned up and restarted ? Can I Just move my pleco out into another tank for awhile, and let the disease die off ? or do I need to chlorinate the water temporarily to kill it off before I re-cycle the tank?

I'm so heartbroken RIP Sharky ..

 

[sussexgirl]

Well, its official In a matter of 10 days I've gone from a happy healthy tank, to having only a clown pleco left .. He doesnt seem ill, I wonder if he is somehow immune to this nasty disease?

What do I do now ? to get my tank cleaned up and restarted ? Can I Just move my pleco out into another tank for awhile, and let the disease die off ? or do I need to chlorinate the water temporarily to kill it off before I re-cycle the tank?

I'm so heartbroken RIP Sharky ..

You poor thing! Did you get that quarantine tank set up whilst all this was going on? Is there any way you can move the Plec into a different tank and then strip back the infected tank and start all over again. I must admit I would change the gravel, filter sponges, clean up all the decorations, change the plants and then fishless cycle. Shouldn't take you too long from start to finish and at least you would have the peace of mind of knowing that there couldn't possibly be any remnants of the NTD. The downside is that you'll incur the expense of doing it all. Hope it all works out for you whatever you do.

 

[WILDER]

Sorry R.I.P.
Get rid of everything, throw the gravel alway, and ditch the sponges and buy new.
Sterlise the filter by putting it in a bucket of hot salty water and let it run for a while even adding abit of bleach but you will have to rinse it very well, then run it again in clean water, and let things dry out for a day before you refill the tank.
Been there so no how you are feeling.

 

[andywg]

That big bala sounds to me like it didn't have enough oxygen in the water. Balas require a lot of oxygen and a number of meds reduce the dissolved oxygen levels in the water available to the fish.

Whenever keeping such a alarge fish (especially in a tank which is really too small for an adult bala such as a 75) one should really consider increasing aeration by placing a filter outlet or powerhead poitning at, or above, the surface of the water.