I'm wondering if some of my guppies have a bacterial infection which is now being passed onto other fish. I lost one a week ago, two others have been quite clamped and lethargic for a couple of days and one has died in the night. Since 8am this morning two neons have also started dying.
No fish are showing any visible symptoms on their skin, eyes, fins or gills. I have noticed that aside from the guppies clamping and hiding in plants at the surface that other fish have been flicking themselves against things (not all the fish are doing this). After being clamped and hiding for a day or so, the guppies and neons that died then had trouble swimming, floating nose or tail up, and eventually belly up. All the fish were removed from the tank as soon as they started showing any symptoms and took a long time to die, eventually being unable to swim at all and just laying on the bottom, gills moving rapidly. One of the guppies has blood-like streaks in its tail, the neons look no different.
I've had the neons 2-4 years (added at different times) and the guppies around 3 months.
I haven't noticed any dropsy/pineconing, swelling of the eyes, growths, worm like protrusions, etc. I had a small tank of guppies years ago that suffered from dropsy and parasite/worm things bursting out their sides - none of that going on here. Some of these recovered after using antibacterial medication.
The usual:
Cycled 180l, planted, gravel and sand, running for two months, cycled with filter from previous tank running simultaneously.
One 30% water change a week, upped to 75% water change yesterday after finding dead fish, another planned later tonight or first thing tomorrow.
Water tested every day since suspecting illness - zero ammonia and nitrite.
Water two hours ago (drop kit):
Am 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 mg/l
ph 8 (Yes, fairly high, but it's the same out the tap and the same at the LFS, it's the area I live in. Reluctant to mess with what the fish are used to.)
Temp a steady 26.1 C, the heater is set to 24 C but it is very warm here at the moment, I don't think I've ever seen the heater come on. The lights (2 x 45w T5) are only on for a couple of hours during the day and come on again for a few hours in the evening. I haven't noticed them being on making any difference to the temp (digital thermometer). I have increased surface agitation from the filter output and leave one of the tank flaps open slightly during the day - this tends to drop it a bit to 25.5.C, but no lower.
No very new additions (latest being glowlight danios about a month ago, and they're showing no signs of illness at all.)
Zero problems until now. I've had many of my fish for a good few years. Haven't had any mysterious deaths since first starting out. Would like to get to the bottom of this, I don't normally get sentimentally attached to fish but I am quite fond of my dwarf gourami, and my breeding group of peppered corys and fry, I would be quite upset to lose any of these.
Any suggestions? I can only think of bacterial problems, but other than the flicking and rapid decline in ability to swim, there aren't any other symptoms. Not sure what to treat the tank with.
No fish are showing any visible symptoms on their skin, eyes, fins or gills. I have noticed that aside from the guppies clamping and hiding in plants at the surface that other fish have been flicking themselves against things (not all the fish are doing this). After being clamped and hiding for a day or so, the guppies and neons that died then had trouble swimming, floating nose or tail up, and eventually belly up. All the fish were removed from the tank as soon as they started showing any symptoms and took a long time to die, eventually being unable to swim at all and just laying on the bottom, gills moving rapidly. One of the guppies has blood-like streaks in its tail, the neons look no different.
I've had the neons 2-4 years (added at different times) and the guppies around 3 months.
I haven't noticed any dropsy/pineconing, swelling of the eyes, growths, worm like protrusions, etc. I had a small tank of guppies years ago that suffered from dropsy and parasite/worm things bursting out their sides - none of that going on here. Some of these recovered after using antibacterial medication.
The usual:
Cycled 180l, planted, gravel and sand, running for two months, cycled with filter from previous tank running simultaneously.
One 30% water change a week, upped to 75% water change yesterday after finding dead fish, another planned later tonight or first thing tomorrow.
Water tested every day since suspecting illness - zero ammonia and nitrite.
Water two hours ago (drop kit):
Am 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5-10 mg/l
ph 8 (Yes, fairly high, but it's the same out the tap and the same at the LFS, it's the area I live in. Reluctant to mess with what the fish are used to.)
Temp a steady 26.1 C, the heater is set to 24 C but it is very warm here at the moment, I don't think I've ever seen the heater come on. The lights (2 x 45w T5) are only on for a couple of hours during the day and come on again for a few hours in the evening. I haven't noticed them being on making any difference to the temp (digital thermometer). I have increased surface agitation from the filter output and leave one of the tank flaps open slightly during the day - this tends to drop it a bit to 25.5.C, but no lower.
No very new additions (latest being glowlight danios about a month ago, and they're showing no signs of illness at all.)
Zero problems until now. I've had many of my fish for a good few years. Haven't had any mysterious deaths since first starting out. Would like to get to the bottom of this, I don't normally get sentimentally attached to fish but I am quite fond of my dwarf gourami, and my breeding group of peppered corys and fry, I would be quite upset to lose any of these.
Any suggestions? I can only think of bacterial problems, but other than the flicking and rapid decline in ability to swim, there aren't any other symptoms. Not sure what to treat the tank with.
