Mystery Fish Death And Sickness

[cloachlover]

Mistery sick fish what medication to use?

hi im new to the forum and hoping you can help me and my fishy friends
i have a 170 imp gallon (7x2x2ft) freshwater tank set up for 2 years with fluval fx5 external filer, and external ehiem 2178 and the largest internal fluval filter (fluval 5?) both external filters have spray bars on return, all artifical plants and bog wood

i have lost about 12 fish over the last 3 months, maily raindow fish, and a cory, i now have left in my tank...............
25 clown loach 3" - 7" (my babies) 6 3"-4""+ yoyo loach, 2 small cubotia (spelling?) loach,10 medium rainbow fish, 2 large 2 small plecos , 2 pepper corys, 1 blind albino cory, 1 weather loach, 1 horse face loach and 4 pearl danios, 2 tiger barbs, breeding ammano shrimp and a 6" blue lobster (crayfish)

My bosemani raindows have been getting ulcers towards the back lower half of there body, and 2 red tailed rainbows have swollen red gills one of which has red swollen base of pectoral fins,1 of my corys barbels are wearing down (i have small round p gravel) my big pleco has frayed dorsal fin and both large plecs move (sorta fanning motion) their pec fins and the ones behind (sorry cant think of name) when stationary (they didnt used to do this), 1 small choc pleco had swollen belly but that went down, also some minor scale loss on male australian rainbow fish (fighting?) and two female bosemani.

all fish are twitching, and flashing on objects,seamingly irritated, tho all loaches have no visable signs apart from flashing (thank god) all are eating at present. i Have used meth blue, didnt work, used interpet 9 anti bacterial, didnt work. LFS have given me F-M-G by NT labs, used for ponds but advised ok for my tank at 3/4 dose daily unitl symptoms stop, contains formailin an malachite green, (QT for crustations).
Is there another med i can use? im lost for ideas


ammonia 0, nitrite 0 nitrate 20-50, ph 7-7.5, 40%-50% waterchange every week, gravel clean as i do the water changes, temp 28 deg, water very well airated, i have alway added a salt tonic at every water change (at 50% due to loach and corys) havent tested hardness for a few months but my tap water is very soft.

also if i quarenteen the lobster so as not to murder him (doubt il be able to catch the ammano shrimp gutted ) when i reintroduce him back to the tank will i reintroduce what im try to irradicate? i know snails and crustations can act as a carrier but are not affected. i dont want to re home him but i also dont want to put him back in the tank if brings these symptoms back

please help
i really dont want to lose any more fish

thanks for any help x

 

[chicklette]

How many gallons is that? Your nitrates are high, they should be kept below 20ppm, that can cause flashing. Do you see any ick spots on the fish? Tiny white dots.

I would immediately do a 50% water change. Corys, loaches and plecos cannot handle salt at all. This can cause incredible flashing.

Why did you add the salt? Because they were sick or do you always keep salt in the tank?

 

[WILDER]

Do the gills look like there bleeding, sounds to me like gills flukes and bacterial infections on top.
Gill flukes do cause bacterial infections, as in the parasite hooks they carry a nasty bacteria which enters the fish blood stream when the parasite peirces the skin.

 

[WILDER]

Look under gill flukes.
http/www.bluemoon.net/~tammy/profiles/ailments.html