Guppy/platty Deaths...

[fmervin]

Hi All,

I have a 65 ltr tank which has been up for almost 10 months now. Ammonia, Nitrite always at 0 and nitrate at 20-30. About 3 months ago, my guppies and platties have started dying mysteriously. The symptoms are the same, one fish at a time starts going to the bottom of the tank and resting there. This might start off with a few minutes at a time but increases to quite a bit of time. They just stay at the bottom. If they do swim they swim at an angle obviously unstable and are pushed away by the flow of the filter. This gets transferred to each fish and each one dies.

The water parameters are perfect and I took one of my guppies to the lfs and he had a look and was puzzled since the water parameters were perfect. He just suggested an antibacterial treatment for 5 days (some green color med, name starting with M. I can post the name of this med later). This did not seem to help since other fish have died after that.

The other strange behaviour about this disease is that it only seems to affect the fish dwelling at the upper layer of the tank (which in my case is guppies and platties). I've now got a few neons and need to check if they exhibit the same behaviour. The bottomm dwellers like loaches, cories, ottos etc are all doing fine and show no signs of any problems.

I started off with 4 guppies and 4 platties, but am now left with 4 guppy fry and the bottom dwellers.

Anyone have any idea of this strange behaviour? The tank was excellent before this problem started and all fish were happy. I think the problem started when I was on holiday and one of the platties died and was pushed by the current under a piece of bogwood where I couldn't see him. I only noticed his completely decomposed body when I cleaned the sand substrate during a regular water change. I'm sure this must have had some effect on the tank and must have started some disease. Recently when doing some research I came across this article
http/freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/neondisease.htm and few of the symptoms are what I have seen in the fish. The scary thing is that it mentions that there is no cure for this. If this is the case, what do you guys recommend I do? Wait for all the fish to die before I get new fish? How can I save any of them? I don't have a quarantine tank.

Really sorry for this long post, but it is really frustrating to see fish die when the water is perfect. I really hope one of the gurus on this site can help me diagnose this problem and help me

 

[WILDER]

Has any of your neon tetra died of ntd.
Livebearers are prone to camallanous worms, which cause bacterial infections on top.
Signs of internal parasites are.
Long stringy white poo, or clear mucas poo.
Red inflamed anus, or enlarged anus.
Looking skinny or bloated.
Worm prutruding from the anus.
Sometimes bent spines.

 

[fmervin]

Thanks Wilder, I've only had my neon tetra for a couple of days now and they seem fine. However, I did also get a male guppy and 3 female and 1 male platty. Already one female platy has died and yesterday I noticed another female platty resting at the bottom and swimming funny and the remaining other female platty pecking it. One of the old female guppy is now exhibiting the same behaviour. I'm frustrated and at my wits end, my wife can't take it since she feeds the fish and hates seeing dead fish.

Definitely most the guppies and platties suffer from the bent spines. I haven't observed their poo yet or their anus If your diagnosis is correct is this easily cured? The other fish seem to be doing fine, like I mentioned the loaches, cories etc and doing great

Thanks for all your help. I hope I can get to a time where I don't have to go to the tank and search for fish resting at the bottom and going to die next. It's a really sickening feeling

 

[WILDER]

Sadly the only medication for camallanous worms is through a vet.
There are some internal parasites med you can buy in the uk but they don't treat camallanous worms.

 

[fmervin]

So what do you suggest I do? Should I stop stocking livebearers? Or should I stop purchasing any more guppies/platties till all existing ones have died with the hope that the parasite will eventually die away too?

I can't think of any vet I might have close by to where I live

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't buy anymore fish you would just be wasting your money.

 

[fmervin]

So you reckon all fish are going to die? If that does happen, how long before I can add more fish? Does the bacteria live in the filter? If so, it might never go

 

[WILDER]

Internal parasites egg layers some of them, so they find a new host in the tank.
Internal parasites can also pass on when a fish sucks poo up.

 

[angel-al]

Is it right that some diseases are species specific and thats why only his guppies are affected but tetras are OK.
If so, is it just bacterial diseases or can worms also only favour cetain types of fish?
Just curious?

 

[WILDER]

I think parasites just find a host to live on, not sure if they pick a certain type of fish.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml

 

[fmervin]

Seems about right since my bottom dwellers have been fine all this while

I think parasites just find a host to live on, not sure if they pick a certain type of fish.
[URL="http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml"]http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/nematodes.shtml[/URL]

Sorry Wilder, I might just be too dumb. Can you please advice me what I should do now. Should I just wait for them all to catch this and die. Currently it seems like my tank is a hopeless situation

 

[WILDER]

You could ring a vet to see if he would perscribe some levaimsole.
Here is a thread on the same thing.
http/www.fishforums.net/content/Tropical...For-Camellanus/