basedonfact
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I have a tank, it's established but not extremely old; It's a 55 gallon, I transferred all the contents from an existing smaller tank (fish, plants, and filter media) in to the new aquarium probably four months ago now. I added two or three small fish, not enough to have any serious impact on the bioload. Everything has been hunky dory, weekly water testing gives results as expected (consistently no ammonia or nitrite, small raise in nitrate over time) and I am doing monthly water changes of about 20%. It is (was) lightly stocked, with 15 harlequin rasboras, four guppies (non-breeding,) and a few otos and khulis. Nothing a 55 can't handle.
Well, recently two things happened. 1.) I brought home a few new fish. They were rescues, someone dumped them at my work. There was one Raphael catfish about 3" long and a few very small (body size of a penny maybe) angelfish. Not expecting to suddenly have fish, I did not have a quarantine tank set up. I risked it, and added them. They appeared in good health and I decided my chances were good. I'm regretting that now.
I also did my normal water change the day before I brought them home, about 20%.
... Well, a few days later, the angels were suddenly dead. In tact, not harassed or eaten, just dead at the bottom. That put me in a bit of a panic, so I did at least set up a quarantine and move the raphael to it.
A few days later now, and problems have flared dramatically. Now that you have the story, here's the numbers and facts:
Night before last, noticed a few of the harlequins had cloudy eyes. I moved them to the quarantine tank. The next morning, they were dead, and looked like they could have had some white slime on them but that might have just been from being dead.
This morning, All but THREE of the harlequins were dead, all a little milky looking. The otos have red inflamed throat areas but otherwise look normal. The khulis look normal, but are swimming around frantically and nonstop, darting around up and down - unusual for them.
The guppies all look completely normal and content. The raphael still looks normal.
Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is negligible, maybe 5 or so, pH is 7.7, temperature is 78 degrees. Water gets treated with stress coat, a little blackwater extract, and seacham flourish excel. (the former two during water changes, the latter daily.) Tank is heavily planted with strong filtration and sand substrate.
I went out and got some Pimafix today because I wanted to do SOMETHING until I had time after work to start doing internet research. Added that, now just biding time. Treating the main tank and the raphael, not bothering to isolate since most fish seem affected.
I am guessing this is fungal, but the fish aren't showing any really photographable symptoms. They kind of look like the edges of their top fins have a white slime dot, but nothing like ich.
Please give me any ideas you can on how to go about treating this mystery issue before my entire tank crashes! Thank you!
Well, recently two things happened. 1.) I brought home a few new fish. They were rescues, someone dumped them at my work. There was one Raphael catfish about 3" long and a few very small (body size of a penny maybe) angelfish. Not expecting to suddenly have fish, I did not have a quarantine tank set up. I risked it, and added them. They appeared in good health and I decided my chances were good. I'm regretting that now.
I also did my normal water change the day before I brought them home, about 20%.
... Well, a few days later, the angels were suddenly dead. In tact, not harassed or eaten, just dead at the bottom. That put me in a bit of a panic, so I did at least set up a quarantine and move the raphael to it.
A few days later now, and problems have flared dramatically. Now that you have the story, here's the numbers and facts:
Night before last, noticed a few of the harlequins had cloudy eyes. I moved them to the quarantine tank. The next morning, they were dead, and looked like they could have had some white slime on them but that might have just been from being dead.
This morning, All but THREE of the harlequins were dead, all a little milky looking. The otos have red inflamed throat areas but otherwise look normal. The khulis look normal, but are swimming around frantically and nonstop, darting around up and down - unusual for them.
The guppies all look completely normal and content. The raphael still looks normal.
Ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is negligible, maybe 5 or so, pH is 7.7, temperature is 78 degrees. Water gets treated with stress coat, a little blackwater extract, and seacham flourish excel. (the former two during water changes, the latter daily.) Tank is heavily planted with strong filtration and sand substrate.
I went out and got some Pimafix today because I wanted to do SOMETHING until I had time after work to start doing internet research. Added that, now just biding time. Treating the main tank and the raphael, not bothering to isolate since most fish seem affected.
I am guessing this is fungal, but the fish aren't showing any really photographable symptoms. They kind of look like the edges of their top fins have a white slime dot, but nothing like ich.
Please give me any ideas you can on how to go about treating this mystery issue before my entire tank crashes! Thank you!
