More Dead Fish

[dazsmith69]

lost two neons, a platy and an otto last night

theyre really dropping like flies and now some of them have what i think is whitespot

my new apisto is on his way out aswell, really gutted and losing interest now, costing a fortune for fish, and i have done everything right from day one

tank is looking really nice aswell

really annoying as the water quality is perfect

regularly clean them, water test, chose my species wisely, got a big expensive tank, very good large external filter with good media

im just gutted i think ill lose the rest now

 

[drobbyb]

Need ammonia level, nitrite level, nitrate level, pH level and when was the last waterchange?

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litries.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats like a member has asked for in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Whitespot looks like the fish has been sprinkled in salt.

 

[dazsmith69]

ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate 0 or there abouts (always yellow on test kit) have a lot of plants to absorb it
pH 7.5

7 otos
8 albino corys
6 platies
3 guppies
3 pearl gouramis
2 apistos (one died last night) no marks nothing looked healthy then started going wobbily yesterday and afternoon dead
8 neons
2 flying foxes

250litre tank

last water change a week and a half ago

well they dont look like theyve been sprinkled in salt, few little white dots on a couple of fish but nothing extreme

thank for your help

 

[WILDER]

If the white dots are the size of a grain of salt sounds like whitespot.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing against objects in the tank.

 

[Colin_T]

What did you do to the tank in the last couple of days? Losing 4 fish in one day could be caused by a disease or a poison, possibly from a big water change.

When you do the water changes how often do you do them and how much do you normally change? Also how do you go about changing it, do you pour tap water into the tank and then add dechlorinator, or do you make the water up before adding it to the tank?
Do you do gravel cleans when you do water changes?
When was the last time you cleaned the filter and did you wash it out in tap water?
How long has the tank been set up for?

What symptoms have the fish shown besides a few white dots and a wobbly Apistogramma that died? Was there any change in colour or bloating, (did the fish look fat) before it died?
Any of the fish breathing faster than normal?
Also any pictures of the fish might help.

 

[dazsmith69]

yeah
a few of the fish ive seen rubbing on the stones

i havent had a big water change recently

i add the dechlorinator when its fuilling up with the tap water before it goes into the tank, always done it and never had problems

change the water once every two weeks approx 25%, i make sure i clean the filter out with tank water, external rena xp3

no bloating or anything, so no dropsy, the apisto looked in perfect health one minute and then gasping a little then dead

al get some pics up of the remaining fish

 

[Colin_T]

The rubbing on stones, in conjunction with a few white dots is probably whitespot. Have you added any new fish in the last few weeks?
Whitespot will kill fish pretty quickly if left untreated.

Use a whitespot medication or anything that contains copper or malachite green to treat the tank. Continue treating the tank for a week after the spots have all gone.

The whitespot parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) the spots fall off the fish and the parasite multiplies inside a cyst while it is in the gravel.
3) the cysts in the gravel rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean if possible, (don’t disturb the plants just clean around them). Clean the filter if it hasn’t been done in the last month, (also try to clean the filter each month to minimise the gunk in it). This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.