Bio Spira failed...dead fish. Help! What next?

[sandig]

I have been having troubles...I have a 10 gal with undergravel filter that I cycled with Bio Spira. I put in 2 corys about 12 hours later. Later that afternoon I added my 3 Betta girls. I used a test strip to monitor levels and they all seemed fine. Day 2 my first girl gets clamped fins and is acting stressed. I took some water to my fish store and my nitrites were at .50. I isolated her and gave melafix and aquarium salt. Later she had fungus and I (with help) diagnosed Columnaris (flexbacter). I treated her and the whole tank with Jungle fungus clear.

Long story short 2 girls died in their hospital jars, 1 is possibly getting better (too soon to tell but she ate a few pellets). I had switched to tetracycline and maracyn 2. My Corys are not eating but are alive. I did a 25% water change in the main tank to bring down the nitrites for the Corys.

Now...it is obvious the Bio Spira did not work. Tank levels:
amonia .25
nitrite .50
ph 8.4
nitrate 22

What do I do to the tank to get it to finish cycling properly? I can't handle any more fish dying!

Thanks in advance
Sandi

 

[FalconStorm]

Hmm...those levels should not be lethal to your fish. I've had a tank with much higher levels than that where the fish survived just fine. I wonder if your problem is more closely related to stress than water parameters. Female bettas generally need to be in groups of more than four to spread out the aggression. Also, cories are most comfortable with at least three of their own kind, preferrably more.

How much cover and hiding space do you have in that tank? The females would appreciate some cover as would the cories.

As for cycling the tank, I don't trust quick fixes like bio-spira. You might want to read up on the fishless cycling, or you can leave the cories in there and do frequent water changes to cycle the tank.

Good luck. I'm sorry for your losses, and someone else may have a better idea of what happened, but I'm pretty sure it was not your parameters that caused the deaths.

 

[sandig]

Thanks for your reply...I had tons of cover for the girls....but it was strange. They all got along really well. Granted it was only 2 days before 1 got sick....but they often swam together, no flaring etc...

Maybe they were already infected? I rescued them from Petco and they had said the shipment had just come in that day.

I just don't understand it....I want to add more corys but with my water in the condition it is in I don't want to stress a new fish.

Can you recommend a way to get it to finish cycle? The fish store recommended a product called cycle. They said it would not be good to add more fish because they would go into shock.

Thanks again
Sandi

 

[sandig]

I just called Petco (where I rescued the girls from) and they have now told me that a lot of the female shipement has come down with the same thing. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. I am so angry.

Do I need to do anything except the original Jungle Fungus Clear in my 10 gal to make sure any new fish don't get sick?

Sandi

 

[mlee0332]

yeah. I dont think the spira failed. I ahve a girl in a 1g bowl and shes stressed, and EVERYTHING is on 0 NH4 NO3 NO2, all of them. Wilder says NOT to use salt and melafix. Also melafox is too consetrated for bettas. You have to reduce the dosage by quite a bit, or get bettafix and use that dosage. They are the same things, but 1 is 0.2% Melaleuca, and the other is 1.0% Melaleuca

 

[sinistral]

I think it may be a little early to tell whether or not the Biospira failed...although by nature I tend to be rather suspicious of products like Biospira. Some people swear by it.

In this particular case I don't know that a "snapshot" of your water parameters will be all that clear. It would be best to chart it over the course of several days to find out exactly what's going on. I don't know how to interpret mild elevations in both ammonia and nitrites after x amount of days, as well as a moderate nitrate reading. I suppose you could argue that the Biospira has provided all the necessary bacterial colonies, but they are not sufficiently grown in to sustain the bioload in your tank. Alternately, it's possible that the medications may have caused a die-off of some of the Biospira colonies. Either way, very ambiguous.

However, I do not recommend you wait and chart your readings. The safest thing I would recommend doing is returning the fish (you have good reason to with an infected shipment of female bettas...hopefully you'll get some money back...plus cories aren't good candidates to cycle with as they tend to be sensitive to elevated nitrogen levels). Then I would recommend a fishless cycle if you'd like to end up with a tank of female bettas and cories. This is the safest way to mature a tank. No harm will befall any of your fish. All it requires is the most important quality in fishkeeping-- a little patience on your part It's possible to fix an unfortunate situation, but why start a new tank with this type of experience?

Whatever route you choose, best of luck. HTH~

 

[Sky042]

am I the only one who thinks that 8.4 PH is really on the high side for your average tropical.

 

[sandig]

Someone else from another forum mentioned the ph. They recommended I get my tap water tested when I take more tank water in to be checked.

I will let you know what I find.
Sandi

 

[Sky042]

Someone else from another forum mentioned the ph. They recommended I get my tap water tested when I take more tank water in to be checked.

I will let you know what I find.
Sandi

If you're testing on your own make sure you're not contaminating the test in any fashion. For example if you were to wash your hands right before doing the test and had any soap residue on your hands you could alter the results significantly.

 

[dwarfgourami]

8.4 is the local ph round here and this is what the fish in my best lfs are kept in. Seems most adapt quite well as long as it it stable. (Though I did lower it in my cory tank by means of bogwood.) If those bettas were a new shipment though, that might have added to the stress of two moves within a short time+ anything else they may have been suffering from in the first place. Perhaps it was simply a very stressful journey from the dealer?

 

[gadazobe]

The stress of 2 moves in a very short period coupled with an uncycled tank is probably the reason your fish died. Don't add any more fish until your tank is fully cycled - ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and a showing of nitrate. Also, never buy fish that have arrived the same day - they should have a minimum of a week to acclimatise to the new water. Those that make it are the stronger fish and should acclimatise to your tank with no problems.

 

[FalconStorm]

Hmm...8.4 is my ph and I keep both cories and female bettas. It is a slightly high ph, but as long as I am careful with my acclimatization, I don't have any problems. It seems to be better to acclimate the fish to a new ph than to play with ph changing chemicals.

 

[sandig]

I had my water tested today...amonia is at .25, nitrites went up to 1.0, ph is still the same at 8.4

The person at the fish store thinks I probably have 2 more weeks to complete the cycle. I am going to have it retested next week. I wish I could take the Corys out but at this point putting them into different water would just shock them. They are not eating much so I am just keeping an eye on them.

I am going to go to Petco, because they are getting a new female shipment in and because they are going to replace my girls who passed on. I know they should not sell them when they first arrive. I plan to keep them in isolation 1 gal jars for a couple of weeks to see how healthy they are.

Thanks sooo much everyone!!!!!!!!!!!
Sandi

PS Sparkalina made it!!!!!!!!!!! She survived Flexbacter. Her fins are not looking very well but she ate freeze dried blood worms today and seems to be getting back to her old self. I am continuing her antibiotics so she doesn't develop any resistances.

 

[Valyrian]

Well first of all, you only gave the bio-spira 12 hours to work, and second of all, you added 5 fish to a 10 gallon tank in 1 afternoon.

 

[sandig]

The back of my Bio Spira package said to put the fish into the tank within 24 hours. Did it have the wrong information? Many things I have read online said to add the fish at the same time.

Thanks
Sandi