Unknown disease/no signs of illness

[Erised]

Posted in Emergency as welll, hoping to get quick respondses

About 2 weeks ago I posted about my ember dying. She would swim on her side, lay on the bottom from time to time and summersault through the water. We were very worried about her and figured she was gonna die because she looked BAD ... did went on for about a week and then she was completely fine. She's just swimming around like nothing ever happened

Now 2 of my SAs in the same tank suddenly started laying down on the bottom on their side, looking like they'll not make it for another hour. This all happened from being completely fine within 30 mins!!! My third I cant find anywhere, so it might be dead already

Someone PLEASE post suggestions of what it could be! Swim bladder is out of the question seeing as it looks different, happened way too quickly and they're not face down.

--Levels--

Ph - 7
Kh - 10
GH - 5
No2 - 0
No3 - 30

--Edit--
No3 was around 60 before, but fish didnt seem affected then. Did a 50% water change and it was still around 60. Fish then started showing symptons so we did another 50% lowering it to 30

 

[CFC]

And by SA's we are talking about what fish?

 

[Erised]

South American Puffers (yes, I do know we say they need a species only tank, but right now thats not the point. Also, they were not harassing any of the other fish)

 

[CFC]

A nitrate of 60 is too high for puffer species which are very nitrogen pollution intollerent. I suggest cleaning all filter media and giving the substrate a thorough vacume to remove any debries which could be causing the nitrate to rise. Also aerate the water as much as possible prefferably using a airpump and stone to raise the oxygen level in tank.

 

[Erised]

Levels are down to 30 now, think we should do another 50%? Dont wanna do too many either you see. Sands been cleaned already so have the filters, couldnt hurt doing it again I think though. Airpumps already been taken care of as well, got 2 pond airpumps in there might add another.
--Edit--
Should I keep adding dechlore? Its what we've been doing, but I'm kind of afraid that might be causing the problems here
Also, any clue what might have caused the quick peak? 2 days ago it was fine at 20 still

 

[CFC]

Uneaten food, a sudden blockage in part of one of the filter sponges, a decaying plant are all possible causes for a sudden nitrate spike, the last time i suffered this i found that a hollow piece of bogwood had become stuffed with uneaten prawns and mussels where the fish could not get at them. Personally i would change water until the levels in the tank are down to the same level in the tapwater. If you have already rinsed the filter media then dont do it again as you may wash out too much bacteria causing a mini cycle, you can however wash any non biological media such as floss in untreated tapwater which will de activate any bacteria that have colonised this and clean it thoroughly which will stop the nitrates rising as fast. I wash my non biological media in tapwater daily to keep it clean and inactive.

 

[Erised]

Ok, thanks so far! I'm off to check everything again and do another water change. Will keep you updated as we go along. The bogwood there got me thinking, that might very well be whats causing the problem in my tank, so definatly worth checking out.

Off I go, hopefully it wont be too late, but cant say I have much hope =/

--Edit--

Came back upstairs to find 1 of my black neons floating around. Still alive but just floating in current not showing any sign of swimming at all, just getting tossed by the current. Once again, no sign of illness. Same cause I'm thinking? Water levels still around 30, think it will drop till 20 but no less than that. Then again, thats whats its always been like. Not liking this at all =/ I'm supposed to be packing because I'm going away for 5 days tomorrow as well. Timing couldnt have been worse

Also, the bogwood has been rules out, hollow as it was there was absolutely nothing in there. So its still a mystery to me. I lost a harlequin about 2 weeks ago, never found him/her, but it seems very unlikely that it will only cause a spike now, seeing as it really was not to be found anywhere in the tank. Except for 2 small dead leaves the plants are doing fine too, so thats ruled out. 2 Days ago the water was absolutely fine at 20/30, no clue at all

 

[Erised]

I think I found out what is probably doing it. Today we moved our banjo cats from our 40G to our 55G and noticed 1 of them has a Huge belly on it, it feels very soft and does not look healthy at all. Also, when vacuuming there were 2 uneaten tetratabs, possible that might be whats been causing it? I'm thinking my banjo is ill too, probably bloated and stopped eating. This will have meant that the food for them that went in did not get eaten and will have caused this.

Still have no hope for my black or 2 puffers though. The third puffer however seems to be ok still, definatly not as good as it could be but better than the other 2. Losing slight colours (the ill ones still got proper colours, oddly enough) and less active, but still swimming. Just hoping we can save them all

--Edit--
Any clues on what might be wrong with my banjo? If bloated/contipated, how do I treat it seeing as they dont want to touch peas?

 

[CFC]

Do you feed any live foods to your fish? I recomend giving all fish live foods such as bloodworm daphnia or glassworm at least once a week. If you can seperate the banjo cat into a quarentine tank and add a small ammount of live bloodworm to, few fish can refuse live foods and if it eats them it should get things moving again.

As a side note pick the fish up and look on its underside to see if their is anything protruding from its anus, sometimes if too much pellet food is used a blockage can occur which results in a yellow jelly like sack protruding from the anus. I had this happen with a Pimelodus albofasciatus which would gorge itself on pellets when fed them, to rectify this i had to do a minor operation to burst the sack and drain off the fluid that was present, the operation was a success and the fish is still with us over a year later.

 

[Erised]

I'll check this, they do get fed frozen bloodworms every other day, mainly for the plec, puffers and corydoras, but the banjos love them as well. Brine shrimp are fed as a treat and things like tubifex are simply not touched by any of my fish. They do however seem to prefer the algae tabs that go in. I'll see if I can snap a couple of pictures of the stomach, it might simply be normal but I doubt it

 

[CFC]

Personally i wouldnt bother with live brine shrimp, it is very low in nutrition and for fish which come from areas where there is no measurable salt content (such as the Amazon) it can cause damage to the kidneys due to the high salt content in the shrimp, a better altenative is frozen mysis shrimp which is higher in nutrients and has less salt.

 

[Erised]

Got the pictures, they turned out quite big so I'll just link to them instead of post
Banjo From Side and Stomach

Nothing unusual to be seen near the anus

Mind you, the stomach looks worse on the photo because the hand is kind of squishing it to one side

If he'll keep refusing to eat the peas, should we try and force feed? Are there any other options on getting the banjo to become "un-constipated' ?

 

[CFC]

In the second photo the anus looks slightly enlarged which along with the bloated stomach makes me suspect a intestinal blockage. Try very gently squeezing the stomach and pushing in a downward motion toward the anus to see if any fluid is released but i say again this must be done VERY gently. If possible quarentine the fish in a bare bottomed tank where you will be able to see if it is pooing properly and if the swelling hasnt started to shrink in a few days treat with a good anti bacterial medication.

 

[Erised]

We'll try squeezing a bit later on, want to give him a bit of a break right now. I'll update this later today to tell if it had any effect or not. I'll keep an eye on him tonight and tomorrow during the morning, then I'll have to leave. Ill get the person that is looking after my fish to keep an eye on him and inform me on everything. After that I wont be able to post untill friday, or give any treatment. I'm hoping he/she will pull through till then. Thanks again CFC

 

[Erised]

Well, we tried and there is absolutely no fluid coming out of it. Does this change anything or not? Also, the only tank I have to quarantine it in is a 5G which still needs to be set up. We're quite positive however, that he just pood when we put him back down into the tank after the slightly squeezing, seeing as there's poo laying right next to him now. I'm afraid we'll have to leave it till friday, if things are worse then or still the same I'll start treating with anti bacterial medication.

1 of the puffers didnt make it. The 1 we couldnt find when it all started is swimming around fine and looks like nothing ever happened. The second of them all looks really bad still, laying down on the bottom most of the time, hardly breathing and will summersault once in a while. My black looks like he'll not make it either, though I'm pretty sure it was stress from the water changes and messing around in the tank that got to him. He only started acting weird after 2 water changes when pretty much all fish started getting stressed ... all other fish are ok so far.

Only thing keeping me standing right now is that my corries are spawing for the first time. Really good to see and really glad its happening now! Hopefully the babies will keep us waiting untill friday so we'll be there right from the start. If not, I'm sure they'll be looked after properly when we're gone.

Guess we'll see how things go ... I'll let everyone know on friday