LauraFrog
Fish Gatherer
I will try and keep this short.
I'm paid to maintain a tank at the local hairdresser's. So far (about 6 months) it's been going great. I go in once a fortnight to do the water change and keep an eye on things. But I went in today to an absolute disaster zone.
It looks as though some toddler turned off the filtration switch at the wall. External canister (Jebo 815 running on a 155 L / 40 USG tank) out for at least a week, stunk like hell when I took the lid off. Fully stocked tropical community - lost 2/3 corys (paleatus), 1/6 glowlights, 3/5 zebra danios, other stock (4 rainbows, 2 platys, bristlenose) appear okay.
No readouts - they don't have a test kit - but no prizes for guessing what's wrong. All the remaining fish were showing classic symptoms of ammonia poisoning - red membranes, rapid gilling, gasping at the surface and the beginning of blood spotting on the fins. I immediately did an 80% WC and added a huge overdose of Aquarium Science Eco-start, the only biological supplement I know that actually works. I cleaned all the decomposing slime out of the filter, rinsed the sponges and put those and the bio rings back, but I swapped out some old carbon for zeolite. (Yeah, can anybody tell I'm desperate?) I also used a water treatment on the new water that neutralises Cl/ClO2/NH4 - chlorine/chloramine/ammonia trifecta.
I managed to get the filter restarted - with some difficulty. A week in an awkward position on zero pressure had kinked all the hoses and the outlets were jammed with some foul mould. I managed to get the worst of it out, so the filter is circulating again, but as far as I can tell it isn't cycled at all. It just smells wrong - the filter, the water, you can tell straight away it isn't right. The filter smelled like dead things when I opened it which convinces me the nitrifiers have had it, and it just smells too clean now - a healthy cycled filter and the water smells like a creek. Still, the fish were acting a lot happier when I left. I'm going back on Saturday to check the params, and in the meantime I've told them no feeding and tape the switches open.
I've brought home the remaining cory and my beautiful longfin barb I loaned them. Both have septicaemia - blood streaking in the fins, scale lift, bleeding between the scales, blood spotting at the ends of rays, lethargy and cloudy eyes. I'm treating with tetracycline.
Is there anything I've missed or any more I can do, either for the whole tank (which is now going through a fish-in cycle with close to full stock
) or for the fish with septicaemia? I think I may well be too late for the cory. He looks awful, both his ventrals and one of his pectorals are blood from ray to tip, and his tail is heavily streaked. He's missing barbels, has finrot and his gills are red and breathing greatly accelerated. TBH I think I would have euthanised if it wasn't for the fact that he's behaving almost normally, but since I've busted out the antibiotics anyway (because I think I have a fair chance of saving the barb) I wanted to give him a chance.
I'm paid to maintain a tank at the local hairdresser's. So far (about 6 months) it's been going great. I go in once a fortnight to do the water change and keep an eye on things. But I went in today to an absolute disaster zone.
It looks as though some toddler turned off the filtration switch at the wall. External canister (Jebo 815 running on a 155 L / 40 USG tank) out for at least a week, stunk like hell when I took the lid off. Fully stocked tropical community - lost 2/3 corys (paleatus), 1/6 glowlights, 3/5 zebra danios, other stock (4 rainbows, 2 platys, bristlenose) appear okay.
No readouts - they don't have a test kit - but no prizes for guessing what's wrong. All the remaining fish were showing classic symptoms of ammonia poisoning - red membranes, rapid gilling, gasping at the surface and the beginning of blood spotting on the fins. I immediately did an 80% WC and added a huge overdose of Aquarium Science Eco-start, the only biological supplement I know that actually works. I cleaned all the decomposing slime out of the filter, rinsed the sponges and put those and the bio rings back, but I swapped out some old carbon for zeolite. (Yeah, can anybody tell I'm desperate?) I also used a water treatment on the new water that neutralises Cl/ClO2/NH4 - chlorine/chloramine/ammonia trifecta.
I managed to get the filter restarted - with some difficulty. A week in an awkward position on zero pressure had kinked all the hoses and the outlets were jammed with some foul mould. I managed to get the worst of it out, so the filter is circulating again, but as far as I can tell it isn't cycled at all. It just smells wrong - the filter, the water, you can tell straight away it isn't right. The filter smelled like dead things when I opened it which convinces me the nitrifiers have had it, and it just smells too clean now - a healthy cycled filter and the water smells like a creek. Still, the fish were acting a lot happier when I left. I'm going back on Saturday to check the params, and in the meantime I've told them no feeding and tape the switches open.
I've brought home the remaining cory and my beautiful longfin barb I loaned them. Both have septicaemia - blood streaking in the fins, scale lift, bleeding between the scales, blood spotting at the ends of rays, lethargy and cloudy eyes. I'm treating with tetracycline.
Is there anything I've missed or any more I can do, either for the whole tank (which is now going through a fish-in cycle with close to full stock
) or for the fish with septicaemia? I think I may well be too late for the cory. He looks awful, both his ventrals and one of his pectorals are blood from ray to tip, and his tail is heavily streaked. He's missing barbels, has finrot and his gills are red and breathing greatly accelerated. TBH I think I would have euthanised if it wasn't for the fact that he's behaving almost normally, but since I've busted out the antibiotics anyway (because I think I have a fair chance of saving the barb) I wanted to give him a chance.
