Livebearers H20 Quality Problem

[Lucky Tang]

I understand the basic principles of keeping livebearers, but I need some advice on keeping them in the evironment I have. It's a 250 gallon circulating system in my basement with 8 tanks.. diff sizes. I have a variety of swords and platys, about 30 in all, but they share the same water with fantails and oscars. The PH is 7.3, and 6kh. I do a 10% h20 change weekly. I use RO h20, but don't add anything to it... have a bunch of sea shells and lace rock in my sump to keep the water buffered. I also don't use any chem filtration.

These guys eat 2x a day: spirulina, tetra min, or brine shrimp. I have hornwort galore in all tanks.

Here's the problem: one at a time, rarely more, seem to come down with columnaris/vibrio or some variation... I think. I watch the little guy waste away for a few days, maybe a week, he dies, and another develops the symptom: slow wagging swimming... tend to hang out facing the return, then asymmetrical white spots that turn into sores.

Any advice on my scenario? medications, h20 conditions, feeding...am I doing something blatantly wrong? I have a lot of experience with fish, but hardly any with livebearers; I feel like I'm starting from scratch. The most frustrating thing is these are turning out to be my favorite kind of fish and I can't seem to do well for them.

I'm trying an experiment tonight with 10 Marigold Swords: Isolated from the system, added a powerhead, and a dose of some new med: Melafix. Every 12 hours, I'll do a 75%+ water change using water from my system and add med again. I hate to put them thru it... one looks bad and another is headed that way. The other 8 are cheery.


Well, I've learned a lot from fishforums so far-great place, thanks!

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Can you get any pics of the infected fish? Columnaris has a white fluffy/fungus type appearance but the cottony white infected areas don't tend to be as prominant as body fungus, but left untreated can turn into body sores.
To treat columnaris you need a med that treats both fungal and bacterial deseases, Melafix in my experience doesn't tend to work so well for columnaris, but its sibling med, Pimafix, works much better .

 

[Lucky Tang]

Can you get any pics of the infected fish? Columnaris has a white fluffy/fungus type appearance but the cottony white infected areas don't tend to be as prominant as body fungus, but left untreated can turn into body sores.
To treat columnaris you need a med that treats both fungal and bacterial deseases, Melafix in my experience doesn't tend to work so well for columnaris, but its sibling med, Pimafix, works much better .

Thanks for your response. I just discovered how to view responses, but I've been checking every day, doh!

I haven't had anymore problems since my post, thought I did lose a platy mysteriously. I bought some furan-2 in case of another problem. Is the Pimafix much better in your opinion? What you use? FYI, I just brought a betta back from a very serious case of dropsy with the help of Melafix.. I was impressed.

Could you answer another question for me? Is is possible to overfeed livebearers? they love to eat and they're so fat, but I lost a platy who was so healthy just hours before. She started breathing heavy and then died so fast. When I examined her, the abdomen popped with very little pressure.

Thanks again, a bunch, for your help

 

[confusion]

Since water quality is such a big concern for your setup, I would recommend looking into a UV sterlizer to put somewhere in the flow of your water. If you get one bad infection, it could wipe out your entire stock.