Help!! Bristlenose's Cory's dying

[IceQueen]

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post, so I apologise for any mistakes, but I am in need of urgent help. 3 days ago I noticed that my large bristlenose (it is about 4 years old) had beige spots all over it. The best way that I can describe them is that they looked like grains of sand. They were slightly elongated into an oval shape rather than round. I then noticed the next day that my juvenile peppermint bristlenoses were sitting high in the water in the corners of the tank and that one had it's nose out of the water. I have been doing fairly frequent water changes on this tank as it is a relatively new setup - a 2ft that is 6 or 8 weeks old) but the nitrites and ammonia were zero. pH was 7 . I dosed with Protozin at half strength (on days 1, 2 & 3 as instructed), added a little salt, kept the light off and ran to my LFS. At my LFS's suggestion I did a phosphate test and found that the phospahtes were high (apprently the drought & rain has played havoc with the water in Sydney lately) so I added a phospahte removal media to the filter. The next day a cory died, then one of the 4 baby peppermints, then the large bristlenose and now a baby bristlenose and another cory. The white cloud mountain minnows in this tank are fine. The other large bristlenoses that were in this tank and transferred back to my 4ft a week ago are fine, as are my whiptails and the cories in that tank. I haven't looked today to see if anyone else has died. Anybody have any ideas what is wrong with them?? I don't want to take any fish out of this tank without knowing what is wrong with them and I want to put breeding stock in this tank. How do I make this a healthy tank again??? Help!!

I just got back from work and all my remaining bristlenoses and cory's have passed away. The mountain minnnows look fine and are all accounted for. There is no sign of the spots on them and they are swimming around as normal. I will feed them soon and see how they are eating. I rechecked all my water chimstry and pH is 6.8, Nitrite is 0.05 and ammonia is 0. General Hardness is 6 degrees (German). The phosphates are still somewhere between 5 and 10ppm - The water changes with low phosphate water and the phosphate removal media has been in for 3 days seems to have had no effect. What on earth could have wiped out 6 bristlenoses and 4 corydora hasbroses in 3 days? Surely the phosphate couldn't have done that? And how do I get the phosphate levels back down to normal levels given that the phosphate media and water changes aren't working?

 

[tstenback]

Sorry about your fish. I cant speak for the bristlenose but salt is toxic to cories...or any scaleless fish...so this may be causing part of your problem. As for the beige spots i cant help you out there right now but if i find something i will repost. HTH

Try this link for info on Salt and catfish

 

[annieka]

I don't know for sure but is sounds like your fish are infected with the single celled parasite called Oodinium.

Here is a foto of a fish infected with the parasite.
http/seraitalia.com/educational/guide/im...i/Oodinium3.jpg

Treatments for Oodinium:

- Saltwatertreatment; dissolve 30-50 grams of salt in 1 liter of water. Place the fish in the water in a net for 1-3 minutes. Remove the fish if signs of weakness occur into a quarantine tank with fresh water.

- Trypaflavine, 1 gram per 100 liter of water. Turn of the light, and raise the temperature to 30 degrees. Leave the fish in the treatment until the disease is cured.

- Kininechloride, 1.5 grams per 100 liter, same as trypaflavine. This treatment has a detrimental effect on plants!

 

[IceQueen]

Hi. Thanks for the info, but I'm not sure it was Oodinium. The spots on my catfish were larger than those in the photo you linked in your post and were spread over the body more with more space in between. Something related to Oodinium was the best guess of my LFS and myself and the treatment I used (Protozin by waterlife) is a treatment for Oodinium, Whitespot etc. The website to this product is at http/www.waterlife.co.uk/waterlife/aqudistr.htm The fish did not respond to this treatment at all. The other thing that I find very curious is that I beleive that Oodinium is very contagious. If so, wouldn't I have lost all my fish and not just my catfish? There is still no sign of any disease in the mountain minnows. Are there any diseases that affect just catfish?

I'm not sure that the salt was a factor either as I had a low concentration (5g/L) in the tank with the deaths. I have the same concentartion in my 4 ft tank that has bristlenoses, whiptails and corydoras + discus, gourami's, khulii loaches and clown loaches in it and all these fish are in perfect health. The only differences between the two tanks is the temperature - the discus tank is at 28C the tank with the deaths (2ft) is at 25.5C and that I have been doing more water changes on the 2ft as it is a newer installation and that it has higher phosphates as a result.

All the fish were eating well until 2-3 days before they died and their fins were seen to become ragged at this time as well. Just before the large bristlenose died there was red staining on his fins, but I am guessing this was a secondary infection as a result of whatever disease he was afflicted with.

 

[annieka]

Not all the fish get sick because some fish can be are stronger than others, even within the same species (like some people are always sick and others almost never).

Did you introduce any new fish/plant/ornament in the tank before the outbreak?

The only thing I can reccomend to you is to increase the temp in the tank t0 28 degrees and do daily water changes (50%), but be sure that the new water you add is of the same temp, quality, etc as the water in your tank.