Sick Fish Please Help.

[marky]

I have a 65 ltr tank which has been established for about a year now, we have recently had a spate of diseases with several fish of differing species. The water condition seens good, low ammonia, nitrate nitrite and PH all are ok.

The first thing was a platty with dropsy, which died.

Then my male catfish developed blister like growths on each side of its dorsal fin, they grew and eventually poppen despite trying salt baths and anti bacterial cures. They are growing back again now.

A female platy seems very ill. She is hiding in my plants with very limp fins and sunken belly. She's been like this for three days now.

Noticed a Neon tetra with what appeared to be swim bladder disorder. Found it dead this morning.

In the tank are 6 platy's, 2 catfish, 6 danios, 10 neons. And all seem very healthy apart from the ones mentiod. The tank has live plants.

Is there something I might be overlooking which may be linking these diseases, as it seems a bit odd that they all occured almost simultaneously.

 

[DarkEntity]

Ammonia shouldny be "low" it should be Zero

A Catfish with blisters that burst, then grew back and he is stil in the same tank as everything else? I think id have removed him from the tank prior to them bursting.

What anti bacterial meds have you been using?
and waht are the exact water stats

 

[marky]

All the sick fish were put into a hospital tank as soon as I found something wrong.
The catfish is still carrying on as normal, the sick platy is hiding and still not eating much. hre find are still down.
the dropsy platy was destroyed shortly after confirming the condition, and the neon died in the hospital tank the night I noticed something wrong and removed it from the main tank.

Water Stats are:
Ammonia: Between 0 and 0.25 but more towards 0. But you will always have a tiny amount of ammonia right?
Nitrate:0
Nitrite:0
PH:6.8
I've just obtained these stats from the main tank, not the hopital tank.

The antibacterial Med is "interpet 9 anti internal bacteria". And of course I've removed the carbon element of my water filter.

Like I said all the other fish seem OK and even two plattys are in the beginings of mating so this whole thing is a bit of a puzzle. The sick platy had fry, two of which survived the fedding frenzy and are still going strong, about a month ago.

 

[zoekin8yg]

There shouldnt really be any ammonia unless you have affected the bacteria and they cant cope with the bioload. I think you are over stocked 65 litres is about 17 gallons. If you go by an inch of fish per gallon you are overstocked. Catfish can produce a lot of waste for their size. You could possibly be over feeding, as that can cause problems. Other wise, fish arent generally that hardy, and they do get problems.

The catfish must be in the hospital tank if he isnt already.

 

[marky]

Hi I have taken what zoekin8yg said about overstocking very seriously and have bought a much bigger tank.

Just to clarify the catfish is in fact a peppered cory and he was put into a hospital tank as soon as a problem with him became apparent. His condition has deteriorated hugely. He now has these blisters all down his spine and left hand side, and has lost most of his dark colouring. His behaviour is still ok though, he doesn't act any differently at all. I don't fancy his chances much though.

I managed to get a good picture of his condition and have added it as an attachment to this post. The picture is slightly deceiving because the blisters look white but in reality they are the same colour as the fish. The picture is also on my "card" to the left of this window in case the attachment doesn't work.



I am glad to say the guppy has made a full recovery from what I think was finrot, although her beautiful blue tail is about a quarter it's original size. She seem very happy to be back in the main tank.

I have put the platty's condition down to old age as all her symptoms seem to point that way.

I was very worried because all of these things happened all at once and I had no idea if they were linked or separate cases.

 

[paulthegreat]

Any ammonia means that the tank is not cycled! Any Nitrite means the tank is not not cycled! No nitrate means the tank is not CYCLED. Your fish could very well be suffering from ammonia poisoning.

 

[marky]

I was told that the filter bacteria turns the ammonia into the nitrates and nitrites And that the regular water changes gets rid of those. Am I misinformed? If so what gets rid of ammonia without the use of ammonia lock? and what gets rid of the nitrites and nitrates?
Now I'm confused.

 

[WILDER]

Ammonia turns into nitrites, then your nitrites turn into nitrates the less harmful one

Just read your post, you was overstocked.
The blisters can you describe them.
Sunken in belly can be internal parasites to fish tb.
Is the anus red and inflamed, or enlarged.
What colour is the poo.
Any fish with bent spines or deformaties.


I would read this as it pointing towards that direction.
http/www.4qd.org/Aqua/disease/tb.html

 

[marky]

I have put a picture on "my Card". The blisters are almost perfectly spherical in shape and grow over time until they rupture about a week later. They then regrow.. They are filled with what appears to be clear colourless liquid. They are all different in size.

Apart from the blisters the fish appears normal in every other way. There is no sunken belly or reddening of any area. He behaves normally but he has lost some of his colour. That's it.

I tried to attach the picture to this post but it didn't work, so like I said I put the picture on the "my card" tab to the left of this post.

Oh and the blisters are nothing like pox either.

 

[WILDER]

Do you mean the profile picture.
Do the blisters look like a clutch of berries or cauliflower.

Taken from unknown lumps and bumps will get the link.
Lumps and bumps that suddenly appear are usually bacterial infections. If the disease process is due to bacteria, it usually resolves by rupture (like a boil) pretty quickly. The white liquid that oozes out is pus that is formed when the white blood cells (immune cells) die while killing bacteria (in general). The most common bacteria which cause such lumps are Columnaris or Aeromonas.


http/www.fishpalace.org/danscomments.html#Lump

Myxazin and pimafix for the blisters.
He really needs an antibiotic but not available in the uk, only through a vet.

He really needs isolating as the puss will infect the other fish when his boils burst.

 

[marky]

Yes it is the profile picture. It's a bit blurred and the blisters appear white when in fact they are the same colour of the fish' skin. It's just a quirk of the picture. I cant get the attachment to go on this post. I have another picture taken with a flash which is more representative of the real colour. I will change it now so you can see.

 

[WILDER]

Do you have any fish vets around your area.


If a fish dies I would bag it up and put it in the freezer till you can get tests done on the fish.

 

[marky]

Not really a fish vet as such but I was chatting to someone in my local aquatic centre who have one visit every so often.

I told him that if the fish dies I will let him take a look as this looks like a really odd thing that no one seems to have seen before. If I knew what to do with him I would do it.

I'm just glad I took him out from the other fish.

 

[WILDER]

You have a bad bacteria infection in your tank, you really need antibiotics but they will wipe the bacteria colony out in your filter, though that won't be a bad thing as the fish are just getting sick.
Do you have any other tanks.