*sigh* End Of The Road... Maybe?

[PrairieSunflower]

Well... one of my tanks has been terribly plague infested and I am down to 10 guppies... of which I am thinking maybe 3 may survive if I am lucky.

What does one do at this point? Part of me thinks euthanize them and redo my entire tank and start fresh and recycle the entire thing. I just can't seem to get on top of the disease.

What do other people do in these circumstances? I'm losing all confidence that I can treat and save these remaining guppies. I am on day 3 of medication. I just don't know what to do at this point... if my fish DO die out... are 20ish cherry shrimp and 3 assassin snails enough to keep my tank cycled?

I don't know... just don't know what course I should be taking anymore.

 

[asheyna]

If you've got something really nasty you may not /want/ to keep that tank cycled. Tearing the setup down and giving it a massive clean might be your only option if it's that bad. I know some diseases are really vicious to get rid of w/o doing just that. Do you have maybe a QT tank you could put the guppies in and somewhere else to add the shrimp and snails while you clean their tank?

 

[Alm0stAwesome]

Could you even get a large plastic tub to keep your remaining critters in while you sterilise the tank? I'm not saying you need to sterilise the tank mind, I don't feel confident making that recommendation but if you don't have QT then a plastic tub should only set you back a few £?

I don't know where you live but Wilkinsons in the UK carries a range of square storage containers.

 

[FishFanatic04]

Day 3 is not very long {treatment wise} Give it some time.


What are you treating with and for, btw? Sometimes it can take weeks to get a fish healthy when they have been infected with something.

 

[Dazzler666]

What symptoms are your fish displaying, etc?
Taking your set-up down really is a last resort in my opinion. Im assuming you are/have been doing HUGE water changes, etc?
What filter are you running? Is it possible it could have been contaminated with other 'everyday' cleaning products?
As already said, what are you treating with? Is still early days tho as already stated.
Have you got a test kit? If so what are your water stats?
Hope all works out for you. May not be any consolation but we all lose fish for one reason or another so try not to feel to disheartened.
Fingers crossed.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Its a really long story really about these fish.

I had about 50ish guppies in there to start with plus 5 adult females. Early on I recognized something was setting in and made a big risk and rescued 3 that showed zero signs of anything and put them in my male guppy tank... luckily that paid off and those fish and that entire tank remain in perfect condition.

It all started with some flashing (despite the readings being fine and remaining fine). It was slow to start with with a bit of tail rot on a few then before long a waxy (fungus, not fuzzy) look on pretty much all. I started off treating them with salt (th aey were used to having freshwater salt anyway). It just spiralled out of control from there really. I had to wait on medication because nowhere near me sold anything appropriate so I was forced to wait on it to arrive by order. By the time I go the medication I was down to just 10 (two juveniles about 3 months old and some fry).

The medication arrived 3 days ago, and to be honest, initially it seemed to be having an effect (and I do believe it IS having an effect on 3 of them still), the other 7 are continueing to go downhill... and I believe the medication is killing some of my shrimp. But, I had to take that chance.

Now... I do have a third tank that is not set up at this time (well, currently using it to just grow plants)... but the thing is... I have been keeping the filter for that one cycled by running it in the tank that is currently diseased! BUT, I do have the option of just transferring the filter and mature media to that smaller tank to house them if I need to completely restart my large tank.

I'm just feeling so hopeless at this point. I've had so long having wonderful healthy fish and its just seemed to have crumbled so suddenly.

Ok.... BEFORE, the medication arrived and when I was treating with salt only I was doing daily large water changes of a minimum of 50%.

As for contamination, I am absolutely certain that nothing foreign has entered the tank. I have waste water buckets (as I use them for other things too) and a separate clean water container that is strictly for adding the clean treated water. I don't use any products in or around my tank whatsoever.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Lost another one since last posting, which reminded me of a few with another symptom. The one I just lost seemed to experience a bit of almost paralysis in the end of the tail before dieing despite not being one with tail rot (in fact, that was one that seemed to have been recovering from minor tail issues).