Major Tank Disaster....

[Spishkey]

i have no idea whats gone on but one of my large tanks has crashed. ammonia nitrite and nitrates off the scale, about 30 dead fish and the rest looking god awful sick, the worst being my 15year old Synodontis Brichardi. he's covered from tip to tail in white spot, no other fish are showing signs of white spot but most have ripped torn fins gasping for air attacking each other and swimming in dazes. this tank was fine 5 days back.
its a 6ft tank roughly 700L (with sump volume included) contained about 150 fish of various kinds.
glass is covered in thick green/brown sludge which has appeared as if over night.

im frantically trying to set up another 6ft tank to transfer the fish over as i think something is terribly wrong with the other tank...or will the change likely to stress the fish even more??

also in the tank is various catfish (banjos, hoplos sydontis etc) can i use qhite spot treatments with these? my brichardi desperatly needs medication but i cant find out much about this species??

anybody help???

 

[WILDER]

150 fish in a 6ft tank.
Can you name the fish and how many.
You need to do a gravel vac and water change.

What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
How often do you maintain the tank.

 

[Spishkey]

mostly small fish such as tetras minnows etc
tank maintained weekly, ammonia nitrites are off the chart, colour is darker than the highest ranges on the cards have removed the remaining fish from the tank and they are currently sitting in filtered buckets while i prepare another tank for them. think i found the problem, hung a plant over the tank last week, watered it 2 days ago, think something has leaked from plant into tank killing fish which have rotted?

 

[Davo86]

I generally find synos to be ok with treatments but you may want to half dose as a precaution,
Firstly though I would do a 50% water change, then increase temp and aeration before starting a course of treatment,

 

[WILDER]

Glad you found the problem.
Water changes and run some fresh black carbon.
Gravel vac and clean filter floss.

 

[Spishkey]

transferred the fish to another tank (cycled with mature media from a healthy tank)
they are still dropping like flies....out of a group of 60+ cardinal tetras i have around 10 left, lost the whole group of wcmm, h+t light tetras are down from 10 to 3.....im fishing out dead fish every hour most of my 4 month old platy are missing, hoplos floating about. angels look fine? banjo cat is fine. molly is fine. emperor tetras look fine.
syno is still with us but looks awful, he's in a hospital tank by himself....he is covered in so many spots you cant tell he's a fish just this big white bumpy wound, im beginning to think it may be something other than whitespot?

should i begin treating the other fish for ich? im very reluctant as the only symptoms they show of being ill is ripped fins and looking pale
could there have been something in the soil that would poison the fish? i dont add any fertiliser or chemicals to my plants, just water??

 

[Spishkey]

have just spotted signs of ich on the remaining platys so im going to treat the whole tank for ich now.
how could they have caught this?ive not introduced new fish for months? or can it come about from bad water/something in the water?

 

[glolite]

Hi spish

Sorry about your fish. I had a similar crash last year but only a 30g tank. Lost a beautiful angel and more and only 2 hoplos survived. I moved the hoplos and started again but it took ages for the tank to get back to normal. Water changed 50% and treated empty tank with eSHa2000. Then I restocked with guppies and a rubber nosed plec. The plec died after 2 weeks but the guppies survived and are only now breeding after a year! No idea of the cause

 

[Spishkey]

am really devastated this tank has been going so well for 18 months, it was just beginning to get how i liked it, so much hard work now ive had to tear it down and start again. fish are looking happier in the new clean tank, have dosed with esha2000 combined with eshaExit fingers crossed for me pleased people? tank looks bear, so few fish left
** sigh **

stupid stupid plant and stupid me for hanging it there

 

[WILDER]

Fish can break out in whitespot when stressed.
How it happens I don't know.

 

[glolite]

Me and me fishies have got every thing crossed for you spish just chill. It wasn't your fault.

 

[Spishkey]

anyone know if i can do a second course of treatment with esha2000/exit? its day three (last day) of the treatment and im still losing fish (my poor hoplo and another 10 tetras)

my tank feels so bare, hardly any fish left at all, the angels seem totally unaffected as do the kribs...but all the others are sufferring terribly, the whitespot is covering them, my syno being the worst....

 

[glolite]

Yes you can. Instructions say you can carry on with the 2nd and 3rd day dose (half dose) for as long as needed. I contacted eSHa a while back and they said the 2000 med has a short half-life so basically disappears over 24 hours. Hope this helps.

 

[Spishkey]

thats brilliant to know thanks glo i only have instructions here in nederlands and french so its a bit hard to decipher sometimes!

fingers crossed