The Lone Survivor.

[lizjamie]

So around 6 weeks ago I had a complete disaster with my tank - I introduced some new fish and some disease took out almost everybody, old and new.

I did post on the emergencies in a bit of a panic http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?act=Se...sult_type=posts

I never found out what it was, although I was pretty confident in the end that it wasn't tb.....

Against all the odds I have a survivor.(1 lemon tetra) He did look ill at the end of the wipeout but seemed to recover. He also went very white in colour for a while (this did lead to the loss of a lemon previously, unrelated to the wipeout incident, i dont know what causes it) but he has now gone back to normal.

It is now a month since the last death and he has seemed in perfect health for 2 weeks. I feel quite sorry for him on his own, and would like to start to restock. However I don't know how to check my tank is safe - I wouldn't want anything nasty lurking and the same thing to happen again.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Brette]

However I don't know how to check my tank is safe - I wouldn't want anything nasty lurking and the same thing to happen again.

After I had columnaris which is a bacterial infection in my tank, I also lost a lot of fish. Like you, i wanted to make sure there was nothing left of it so i dismantled the tank and started over essentially. This will mean you will have to cycle your tank again which some peoppe don't like doing.

Here's what I did:

• Took the tank apart
• Got rid of the fluorite because it is porous and could still hold bacteria despite rinsing
• Emptied the tank and cleaned it with vinegar and water, wiped down all the glass and the bottom, filter, everywhere
• I wiped it down again with rubbing alcohol and water to be on the safe side
• Rinsed well with a hose outside. Rinsed again
• Let it dry in the sun
• Scrubbed my driftwood and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for a half hour
• Rinsed my plants
• Bought a new carbon pad for the filter and a new biowheel
• Bought new gravel
• Set the tank up with a piece of established filter media (floss) from my sisters 4 year old tank.

The water is sparkling and I haven't had any problems since. I'm hoping the fish that survived have forgotten all about the horrific columnaris outbreak and are able to get on with their lives.

 

[lizjamie]

Thanks for the reply - I have done as good a clean as I can without de cycling but I don't know anyone else to get filter media from and last time I fishless cycled (about 8 months ago) sources of mature media were not forthcoming in Oxford......

Is there any way of not decycling (or fishlessing in another tank which I dont have....)

 

[VictorMeldrew]

Your tetra is still alive and its illness has improved, maybe this could suggest that your water is ok now, leave it another week or so before you add more livestock if you are still concerned just to make sure. Invest in a basic test kit and test your water first for ammonia, nitrate, nitrites and pH, if you cannot spare the cash for one then you could also take your water to a lfs to test for you, lots of them provide this service, many for free to be honest its been a month and your trouble free i would add a few more and see how you get on.

Good luck

 

[saz326]

There are various preparations you can get that wack out bacteria quite nicely. I would buy one of the preventative medications like: Interpet aquarium 5 - General tonic (A preventative treatment that keeps the aquarium healthy by suppressing background levels of fungus, bacteria and parasites)

Use it for a week or so to make sure that the one remaining fish can get some extra health before adding new fish. Poor little guy is probably exhausted from trying to get better.

I would beging restocking with a few small fish at a time. Maybe 2 or 3 fish - but would be sure to re-dose the aquarium treatment each time I add new fish to give them a good start. This would ensure that if the fish are stressed from the move and there are still "nasties" in the water, then the fish get a fighting chance to calm down before bacteria etc could get to a leve where they are at risk.

It would be a huge waste of money to throw out old substrate/decorations etc, not to mention the stress on the lone survivor of having his house "broken". If in any doubt simply remove the substrate and boil it in hot water before allowing it to cool and returning it to the tank.

Remember - there will always be bacground levels of bacteria and fungus in the tank. They come in on plants, rocks, and even fish. So dont go mad trying to remove them.