Update: All Bettas Dead, Bn And 3 Guppies Left

[NinjaSmurf]

On the 13th I bought some small feeder guppies for my thirty, which housed four female bettas and a bristlenose. Now three of my bettas have large white patches on them, clamped fins, and a white mustache. I don't know if the BN is ok because he is hiding.

I just did a big water change last night (Thursday is always water change night) and the one betta started acting funny soon after, waking up today she looks worse and the other two are now bad. One looks perfectly ok and is swimming around like normal. The shrimp I can find look ok and some of the guppies are perfectly fine. I just added melafix, as it's the only meds I have, not sure what else to do or what this is.

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

The white patches on the fish does it look like cotton wool.
Any cotton wool on the mouth.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

The tank is a thirty gallon, I don't use a test kit.

It looks like their skin is peeling up in big white patches.

 

[WILDER]

Take a sample of your water to the lfs and ask them to write the reading down for you.

It sounds like columnaris to me. That can also cause peeling or shedding skin.

Any signs of flicking and rubbing, darting, excess mucas. Just want to make sure it's not a parasite.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

One or two of them were darting around, the one was completely freaking out, spinning, upside down, raced up to the surface, came halfway down, and then just did a spirally divebomb straight into the middle of a fake plant. Most of the time they are just resting on the bottom, a plants leaf, or sorta slowly swimming around.

Oh, and the one that looks ok keeps swimming in a big loop, then goes around the tank like normal, then she starts the loop again. Maybe she isn't ok after all...

 

[WILDER]

The symtoms are pointing towards bad water quality, toxins, parasites, ph shock.

Need to get water tested as it the first thing to look at.
It's hard to say if it's a parasite without water stats.
Also fish can show them signs when there dying.


What do the fish gills look like. Do they look pale with excess mucas or red and inflamed.
Any red pin prick marks on the fish or sores.


For now water change and increase aeration, till you get water tested.

Could any chemicals get into the water, during the water change.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Just got the water tested, they said it was all in good ranges, PH is between 6.8 - 7.2 which is nice to know having just moved to the area. The gills don't looked inflamed and I'm not seeing red patches. I've found a couple dead guppies and shrimp and took them out, I think they ate some of them (the bettas and BN). They said it about parasites, am I really going to have to break my tank down and bleach everything?

 

[Assaye]

Sounds like classic columnaris to me. My fish darted, span, scraped and flicked when they had it.

I'll let Wilder advise on treatment as I've never had any success treating it (tried Myxazin, Interpet Anti-Internal Bacteria, Melafix, salt baths . . . you name it).

Once you have it under control, yes stripping the tank and sterilising is a good idea. Try to seperate the obviously sick ones, unless most of the tank is infected.

Columnaris also does worse in lower temps so if you can cool the tank a little it might help.

Good luck.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

As it stood last night (around 2 am) The three sick bettas were dead. I was down to three guppies, one female betta and five ghost shrimp that I could count, plus the BN.

This morning, just turned the light on, so kinda hard to tell behavior, not sure if they are just waking up...

BN has big long clear strings of poo around the tank, maybe three, one with poop in it. I noticed last night he was pooping a long whitish clear string with clumps of poo in it, is this from columnaris or something else?


Edit: I also turned the heater down to 72F, I orginally had it at 77 or so, but popped it down over time.

 

[WILDER]

What med are you using?

The poo can be consitpation, bacerial infection, internal parasites.

What do you feed your fish?

 

[mezzic]

its worth washing and cleaning your filter

 

[NinjaSmurf]

I just washed the filter with the water change.

I've put the heat back up, for some reason I don't think the heater was kicking on when I had it that low, and the fish seemed to be doing worse at that temp. It's now at 76F.

I put melafix in.

I feed Hikari guppy and betta food, right now I'm using wardley algae tablets for the plec until I pick up more hikari tabs. I usually feed once or twice a day depending on the situation, and I feed the pleco every three days or so, also depending. There is a large piece of driftwood in there that he likes. He usually poops quite a bit, I have sand so I see it all.

 

[WILDER]

Introduce some frozen foods and veg into there diet.

For now feed some shelled peas to see if that clears it up.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Ok, down to two guppies, a couple shrimp and the BN, male guppy has clamped fins. The BN has been hiding a lot, and acting a little weird. There are strings of clear poo stuck in the plants, though he is pooping like normal again.

My big question is, is the tank and everyone in in tainted? Or was this kind of a 'the weaker ones got sick' type thing, and soon everything will be ok? Should I add different meds and wait a while, or treat the fish in a seperate tank and bleach this one? I would eventually like to get more fish, but I need to know what to do, and right now I'm not even sure what exactly they had, or still have.

Wilder, will do.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Well, quick update, the BN is actually coming out now, though he's still skittish, but in good color and no signs of illness.