Tropical Fish Mystery

[Mark777]

Fellow members, I need your help. One of my tanks, (my wife's) the fish have not been eating for about two weeks and are not active and voracious like they usually are. All fish are hiding and at the bottom of the tank. This is a seasoned tank which has been running for 8 months. I will detail what I have below. Any help would be appreciated as my wife is on me. We just lost 2 Rummynose as they appeared to just waste away. The only thing I can think of we added the Candy striped Pleco two weeks ago and it has been down hill since. Please give me you ideas or opinions. Thanks

Tank setup:

40 gallon
Eheim 2215 classic filter
River sand substrate
Powerglo light

Fish-7 Rummy nose, 5 black skirts, 7 Rasbora, 5 cherry barbs, 2 albino corys, 4 Panda corys, 1 Geophagus Surnaminsis, 1 candy striped pleco

Tank Parameters:

Temp-78
Amonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate<.20
PH-7.2
KH-7 (125.3)
GH-8 (143.2)
25% water change every 2 weeks. I have a RO unit for my tanks and I age and combine water to get the desired results.

 

[WILDER]

Any fish look skinny or bloated.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing.
Any excess mucas on the gills or body of the fish.
Do the gills look pale with excess mucas, or red and inflamed.
Do any fish look pale or darker in colour.
Any fish resting on things in the tank, or laying to oneside.
Any red streaking or red sores on the body of the fish.
Any signs of laboured breathing.
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet.
Any fish enlarged or red inflamed anus.
Any fish darting around the tank.

 

[Mark777]

Thanks for your reply Wilder. Here are the answers to your questions.

Any fish look skinny or bloated. (noticed a couple Rasboras are bloated)
Any signs of flicking and rubbing. (none)
Any excess mucas on the gills or body of the fish. (none)
Do the gills look pale with excess mucas, or red and inflamed. (no)
Do any fish look pale or darker in colour. (very pale with light on...they seem to color up when light is off)
Any fish resting on things in the tank, or laying to oneside. ( a couple of the Panda Corys are resting on the Eheim spray bar)
Any red streaking or red sores on the body of the fish. (none)
Any signs of laboured breathing. (no)
What does it look like when your fish go to the toilet. ( have not witnessed anything abnormal)
Any fish enlarged or red inflamed anus. (no)
Any fish darting around the tank. (they all do when I approach)

 

[WILDER]

Are scales sticking out.
Sounds like you have a bacterial infections in your tank.
All you can do for bloating is epson salt baths to help draw the fluids out. Bacterial med.
What do you feed your fish.
Have you fed any outdated foods.

Corys spend more time on the bottom of the tank, if there at the top of the tank something wrong.
is there enough aeration in the tank.
Used an household chemicals near the tank,.

 

[Mark777]

Are scales sticking out.
Sounds like you have a bacterial infections in your tank.
All you can do for bloating is epson salt baths to help draw the fluids out. Bacterial med.
What do you feed your fish.
Have you fed any outdated foods.

Corys spend more time on the bottom of the tank, if there at the top of the tank something wrong.
is there enough aeration in the tank.
Used an household chemicals near the tank,.

I feed Tetramin flake, frozen brine shrimp, shrimp pellets and wafers (for the corys) also a little spiralina flake. I try to buy the foods in smaller quantities so it does not go old. The Eheim spray bar is near the surface pointed up so there is sufficient surface agitation. This tank is in our master bedroom and near the bathroom. I am curious if my wifes beauty products has anything to do with this. I have a ten gallon hospital tank in the garage. Do you recomende all fish in there with Maracyn and Maracyn two? Again Wilder...I appreciate you input. I believe you are in England? Pretty amazing I'm getting advice from the other side of the world!

 

[WILDER]

I would do a water change and ask your wife to use her beauty products away from the tank.
The sprays could be going into the tank water.

Try and introduce some green veg into there diet like peas, spinach, cucumba, green cabbage, sproats, broc.

Do you have maracyn plus.
http/www.aquariumguys.com/maracynplus.html

 

[Mark777]

I would do a water change and ask your wife to use her beauty products away from the tank.
The sprays could be going into the tank water.

Try and introduce some green veg into there diet like peas, spinach, cucumba, green cabbage, sproats, broc.

Do you have maracyn plus.
[URL="http/www.aquariumguys.com/maracynplus.html"]http/www.aquariumguys.com/maracynplus.html[/URL]

On my way to the LFS for the Maracyn Plus. Will hit the market for the veggies as well. Thanks for your time Wilder!

 

[WILDER]

I would do a water change before you add the med.
Increase aeration as meds reduce 02 in the water.
Good Luck.

 

[Mark777]

I would do a water change before you add the med.
Increase aeration as meds reduce 02 in the water.
Good Luck.

One last item. Would you recomende transferring all the fish to the hospital tank or just treat the whole 40 gallen tank and deal with the nitrification cycle as the meds will kill the good bacteria. I am not sure about this.

 

[WILDER]

Is always best to issolate sick fish anyway so they don't build a resistance up to meds.
Put all the poorly ones in the hospital tank, but match ph and temp of main tank.
I would just do some water change on main tank to dilute toxins down if there any in there. Due to your wife using beauty products near the tank.

Marcyn products do knock water stats.

 

[Mark777]

Is always best to issolate sick fish anyway so they don't build a resistance up to meds.
Put all the poorly ones in the hospital tank, but match ph and temp of main tank.
I would just do some water change on main tank to dilute toxins down if there any in there. Due to your wife using beauty products near the tank.

Marcyn products do knock water stats.

Thanks again for your input. It is much appreciated!

 

[WILDER]

Good Luck.
Let us all know how the fish get on.