Tank Emergency

[JamesMac]

I had a perfectly balanced beautiful tank. 3 Angels, 2 male gouramis, 20 of the finest cardinals I have seen, 5 cory's, 1 pleco & 2 danios in a heavily planted 70 gallon aquarium. I perform water changes twice/week. The chemistry of the tank is all within normal limits.

1 week ago, the local PS guy convinced my wife to bring home 3 clown loaches. They were introduced into the tank. Within 24-hours all 3 were dead, 1 had an ich-like white spotting. When we returned to the pet shop, the entire tank of about 30 loaches had been wiped out. My candinals started with white spots, which progressed to patches of tan-colored discoloration behind the dorsal fins. They stopped swimming, and stayed huddled in the corner. Erratic swimmming followed, and now all 20 have died. One of my angels was also dead this morning - very abrupt, no symptoms.

I have added salt to about half the recommended levels (X 4-days), plus copper salts to the recommended level (X 1-day). The tank is up to about 82F. The remaining fish appear to be OK, but I thought my dead angel was OK. Is there anything else I should be doing?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also, what is reasonably to expect from the pet store? They have offered to re-stock the tank. I think they owe my a bottle of scotch to mend my tattered nerves!

 

[zoekin8yg]

Sounds like ich and velvet. Thats a fairly good offer from the lfs to restock the tank. The moral of the story is ALWAYS QUARENTINE YOUR FISH BEFORE ADDING THEM TO A ESTABLISHED TANK. Keep the temp up as it stresses the ich and makes them easier to kill off, keep dosing at least a few days after you no longer see any symptoms. Im not sure if those treatments you mentioned are enough on their own or not though? You might want to increase the airation as the higher temperature and treatments can lower oxgen level in the water.

 

[WILDER]

Shouldn't be adding salt to your tank you have scaless fish in there, corys, plec, and clown loaches.
You need a parasite med.
The tan coloured patch is it fluffy looking.
you need to turn temp up to 30.
Increase areation in the tank as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Have you removed black carbon.

 

[JamesMac]

Shouldn't be adding salt to your tank you have scaless fish in there, corys, plec, and clown loaches.
You need a parasite med.
The tan coloured patch is it fluffy looking.
you need to turn temp up to 30.
Increase areation in the tank as the high temp and med reduce 02 in the water.
Have you removed black carbon.

WOW... these are fast replies, and very helpful. The LFS instructed me to add the salt... but I was a little hesitant, which is my I only have it at 1/2 the recommended amount. I only had clown loaches for 24-hours, but the cory's & pleco look OK.

The tan colored patches did not appear fluffy

I have increased areation, & I have removed the carbon.

Question: should I immediately change the water to reduce the salt content, or will this 1/2 strength be OK for a while. I will likely be doing 20% water changes every day, and I think my biological filters have probably been negatively affected... (is this correct?). Also, is the copper salt a parasite med, or did you have something specific in mind?

 

[WILDER]

Salt can irratate there skin and even burn it, as they are scaless fish.
If there coping with the salt leave it for now.

I would get a med read instruction carefully that you can use the full dose with scaless fish.
http/www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/ich.shtml

 

[zoekin8yg]

you usually dont do water changes when medicating, well as far as I know, the low salt dose will probably be ok, keep an eye on them though

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

I think the salt and scaless fish is a matter of some opinion. I have treated clown loaches with velvet twice by using the salt and heat method and nothing worse happened because of it. I have read conflicting reports about if this is painful to scaless fish or not and it is hard to tell if it is the salt that slows them down or if it is the ich. I am 99% sure that I have read in some very trusty places that salt over the short term is absolutely fine for loaches. I also keep loaches with cichlids and I often used cichlid salts in the past. I am also 100% sure that meds affect scaless fish differently and in a negative manner more so than salt.

The salt and heat method doesnt really stress the Ich, it speeds up the lifecycle and promotes Ich to grow and die faster than it can kill a fish. I like this method and as a person who tries not to be dumping chemicals into a tank all the time, I would always suggest it as a first treatment. It does take somewhat longer than meds but it is easier on your fish and you do not run the risk of over dosing and doing more harm than good. It is certainly a lesson in why having a q-tank is very benificial, even if it is a small 10 gallon tank and not appropriate for long term housing of bigger or large numbers of fish (which you should always stock slowly anyways).

You ABSOLUTELY should do water changes with medications as is directed on the package. If you do not, then you are eventually going to over dose the tank. You should also take out any carbon filters since they will soak up the meds and you can only be sure that the activated charcoal doesnt have Ich.

I am not a plant expert here, but I have read a bit about it. It is not always good to over airate planted tanks since this reduces the CO2 needed by plants. You may be in a pickle there. I would also be even more worried about using meds in a planted tank just because you do not know how they will affect them. I know that some meds in my area are quite clear about not using them with plants. Copper based meds will also kill any snails or inverts in your tank which can be good or bad depending on if they were hitch-hikers or if you are using them to stir up sand substrates. Once copper is in the tank, good luck trying to get it out.