kathryn
New Member
Dear all,
I have had a series of deaths in my tank and have been trying for ages to resolve what's causing them; and I suspect septecemia.
The story goes a little like this:
Tank 80ltr, lots of plants, gravel, log, in-house filtration (foam/bioballs/carbon) and pump.
5 guppies and 2 gouramis (one red one blue) introduced after 2 weeks.
Water levels are tested by pet shop before purchase and declared to be good.
All is well and they are swimming round happily but blue guarami slightly reluctant to open fins and slow to eat, otherwise ok. He looks older and I just think he might be less active naturally.
2 Clown fish, 3 sucking loach, 5 Diamond Tetra, 2 Phantom tetra and 4 neon tetra introduced (yes, I know, way too many) after 6 weeks. At time of purchase water levels are all good, says pet shop.
Clown loach dies suddenly - fitting, convulsions, rolling when trying to swim.
Treat with Swimbladder treatment but week later change to Interpet no 'something' for Anti internal bacteria (and septicemia) on advice of pet shop. I remove carbon accordingly.
Half way through Anti internal bacteria treatment 2 sucking loach die suddenly. At end of treatment last sucking loach dies. They all became unable to swim, float wrong way up and are gone in a day.
Some fish eat sucking loach while I am at work as not there to remove corpse.
Couple of days later one guppy gets a swollen abdomen. I isolate him in water treated with the interpet treatment for internal bacteria, suspecting this as the cause. He has trailing feacees but is eating fine.
Buy 2 cat fish and a pakistani loach, who do well and swim around happily.
Treat water in the aquarium with anti slime and velvet (Yes, I know, too many treatments, but just so desperate to help and the fish have changed colour it seems)
A couple of days later, the guppy in isolation has pine cone appearence and has stopped eating. Within 4 days he is dead. An autopsy reveals (and I am no expert) an abdomen filled with 'pussy' fluid, and white globules of soft tissue. These do not appear to be stringy like worms and are approx 1mm across. They are in the body cavity. His internal organs are hard to define in close to his head (as he is so small). The skin on the belly of the guppy is red, so is the area around his pectorial fins. This seems to have developed very close to the time of death.
At the same time an otherwise healthy and active red gourami dies suddenly. An autopsy reveals no such fluid or tissue in the abdomen. His internal organs all look normal, and are a usual colour. The only evidence I can think of is that 6/7 weeks ago, when I got him he had a little bit of trainling feaces.
None of the fish have ulceration, or evidence of red stripes/heamoragging in the skin (except the dropsy guppy), some of them have slightly darkened in colour (which is why I thought they had velvet)>
Since the beginning water levels all good, as before, and within safe perameters, tested twice a week. I have seen amonia rise, fall then nitrites rise, fall now nitrates are stable. They have never been unsafe levels. Ph in tank is always 8, as in pet shop. Nitrates in water are 7mg from tap, and water in pet shop is same as my water. Intermittantly I have added aqua salts (once 2 weeks to try to reduce stress and calm the disease outbreaks).
The current situation is that the blue gourami, and infact, most of the fish, like to yoyo up and down the glass in the corners of the aquarium, moving their mouths a lot. The other guppies have taken to sleeping in the water vents when the lights go off, but the loaches are active (and the clown one clicks a lot)
I am now not going to do any more treatments until I can work out what it is for sure, and that interpet treatment for what I suspect - which is septicemia- seems to be crap if I am right. I am not going to buy any more fish til this is sorted out, and the tank has been around for at least 4 months.
But how to stop the others dying? I keep on reading on the treatment and in books 'eliminate the cause of septicemia', but none of them tell you what the cause could be?
What do you think it could be and what should I do?
Kathryn
I have had a series of deaths in my tank and have been trying for ages to resolve what's causing them; and I suspect septecemia.
The story goes a little like this:
Tank 80ltr, lots of plants, gravel, log, in-house filtration (foam/bioballs/carbon) and pump.
5 guppies and 2 gouramis (one red one blue) introduced after 2 weeks.
Water levels are tested by pet shop before purchase and declared to be good.
All is well and they are swimming round happily but blue guarami slightly reluctant to open fins and slow to eat, otherwise ok. He looks older and I just think he might be less active naturally.
2 Clown fish, 3 sucking loach, 5 Diamond Tetra, 2 Phantom tetra and 4 neon tetra introduced (yes, I know, way too many) after 6 weeks. At time of purchase water levels are all good, says pet shop.
Clown loach dies suddenly - fitting, convulsions, rolling when trying to swim.
Treat with Swimbladder treatment but week later change to Interpet no 'something' for Anti internal bacteria (and septicemia) on advice of pet shop. I remove carbon accordingly.
Half way through Anti internal bacteria treatment 2 sucking loach die suddenly. At end of treatment last sucking loach dies. They all became unable to swim, float wrong way up and are gone in a day.
Some fish eat sucking loach while I am at work as not there to remove corpse.
Couple of days later one guppy gets a swollen abdomen. I isolate him in water treated with the interpet treatment for internal bacteria, suspecting this as the cause. He has trailing feacees but is eating fine.
Buy 2 cat fish and a pakistani loach, who do well and swim around happily.
Treat water in the aquarium with anti slime and velvet (Yes, I know, too many treatments, but just so desperate to help and the fish have changed colour it seems)
A couple of days later, the guppy in isolation has pine cone appearence and has stopped eating. Within 4 days he is dead. An autopsy reveals (and I am no expert) an abdomen filled with 'pussy' fluid, and white globules of soft tissue. These do not appear to be stringy like worms and are approx 1mm across. They are in the body cavity. His internal organs are hard to define in close to his head (as he is so small). The skin on the belly of the guppy is red, so is the area around his pectorial fins. This seems to have developed very close to the time of death.
At the same time an otherwise healthy and active red gourami dies suddenly. An autopsy reveals no such fluid or tissue in the abdomen. His internal organs all look normal, and are a usual colour. The only evidence I can think of is that 6/7 weeks ago, when I got him he had a little bit of trainling feaces.
None of the fish have ulceration, or evidence of red stripes/heamoragging in the skin (except the dropsy guppy), some of them have slightly darkened in colour (which is why I thought they had velvet)>
Since the beginning water levels all good, as before, and within safe perameters, tested twice a week. I have seen amonia rise, fall then nitrites rise, fall now nitrates are stable. They have never been unsafe levels. Ph in tank is always 8, as in pet shop. Nitrates in water are 7mg from tap, and water in pet shop is same as my water. Intermittantly I have added aqua salts (once 2 weeks to try to reduce stress and calm the disease outbreaks).
The current situation is that the blue gourami, and infact, most of the fish, like to yoyo up and down the glass in the corners of the aquarium, moving their mouths a lot. The other guppies have taken to sleeping in the water vents when the lights go off, but the loaches are active (and the clown one clicks a lot)
I am now not going to do any more treatments until I can work out what it is for sure, and that interpet treatment for what I suspect - which is septicemia- seems to be crap if I am right. I am not going to buy any more fish til this is sorted out, and the tank has been around for at least 4 months.
But how to stop the others dying? I keep on reading on the treatment and in books 'eliminate the cause of septicemia', but none of them tell you what the cause could be?
What do you think it could be and what should I do?
Kathryn
