Weird Stuff Happening In My Tank - Advice?

[NuBFishMomma]

Something weird happened to my tank over the weekend. I had company over, and didn't pay much attention to my fish, so I'm not sure how long I've had a problem. We vacuumed/cleaned the tank on Friday morning - 20% water change once per week. All the fish looked healthy, with the exception of the blue gourami appearing to be constipated - trailing feces. Haven't added any new fish in three months. Community in the 90-gal tank includes blue and kissing gouramis, gold zebra danios, white clouds, and neon tetras. (I should add that just after cycling the tank with the danios, my dh went out and bought the rest of the fish at once out of ignorance- we added twelve in a day - and most of the fish have red gills due to ammonia poisoning. We lost two or three since then, but the tank is done cycling - again. That was three months ago. Now I'm noticing some of the white clouds' mouthparts are red as well.)

Anyway, I fed the fish flake this morning (Monday), and noticed a long-finned gold zebra danio with what appeared to be fin rot and totally emaciated. While checking on the others, I saw another emaciated danio (this one a short-fin) with no deterioration on the fins, but a large bump on its head above the eyes. I removed these two to a salt bath, added some aquarium salt to one of the filters (five tablespoons - probably not enough, but I was scared that it would change the water chemistry too abruptly), and started researching. I checked my water before adding the salt -
ammonia - ? (no test on these brand of strips)
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 30 ppm
hardness - 200 ppm
KH - 300 ppm
pH - 8.4
temp - 77*F
We use our well water with *usually* no additives or treatments. (I added the salt today as a reactionary measure for the apparently stressed fish.)

I also noticed that all of the white clouds in the tank have a spot of discoloration on the tops of their heads above their eyes where the danios bump is. I've never noticed these before. They are in the same spot on all of them. They aren't white, and don't look like the pics of hith I've viewed.

I'm clueless here - any help?

 

[WILDER]

You have a very bad bacteria infection in your tank, worried about the thin fish, have they gone thin through not eating as it sounds like fish tb.

http/www.4qd.org/Aqua/disease/tb.html

Spots that present themselves on the head is usually columnaris, they are greyish white with a circling of red around the outside or a red spot in the centre.

 

[NuBFishMomma]

As far as I can recall, all the fish were eating each feeding. It seemed to happen suddenly over the last three days. The rest of the fish are looking pretty fat. One of the removed danios - the one with the fin rot, has died this morning since the op. Upon further inspection of the tank fish, I think I do see some red in the discolored spot. I would hate to lose all my fish to TB; I'm hoping it isn't that. The columnaris looks like a more probable dx, but I'm not sure if that explains the thin fish and fin rot. Could be both diseases are present and the fish are suceptible due to stress, I suppose. Ugh!

At this point, I'm not quite sure what course of treatment to take. I'd rather not use antibiotics if at all possible. I do need to either remove or vacuum the gravel thoroughly, since it is visibly dirty again the day after I vacuum. I think I've been overfeeding, which combined with the ammonia poisoning they've already encountered, has allowed the bacteria to flourish and invade. Oh, learning curves are so tough!

Thanks for the reply, Wilder!

 

[hogan53]

YOU NEED TO GET YOUR PH DOWN MOST TROPICALS LIKE A PH OF 7 NEUTRAL OR SLIGHTLY LOWER.

 

[WILDER]

Don't mess with ph not worth the hassle.
Right where it the red it sounds like a columnaris spot if its on the head and its very hard to cure, you will need well to be honest there that much desease in the tank wiping the bacteria colony out might not be a bad thing, tetracycline is good and you can use that for fish tb as well.
You might lose fish now then when you start up the cycle again its abit of a risk, but to be honest there isn't much to lose at this moment in time, if was me i wouild go in with a strong antibiotic.
If you have other tanks you could kick start a tank by taking some filter media from another tank, but sterlise and keep everything away from the other tanks if you have any, good luck.

 

[Rediahs]

YOU NEED TO GET YOUR PH DOWN MOST TROPICALS LIKE A PH OF 7 NEUTRAL OR SLIGHTLY LOWER.

PLEASE DON'T YELL!

 

[NuBFishMomma]

Update: The two segregated danios died by the end of the day. The rest of the fish look healthy. I looked and looked at the spot on the heads, and I've decided I was being paranoid, as the minnows all have them in the same spot where their brain would be, and the same colored line runs down the spine. Plus they have a red tinge to their coloring naturally, so I don't think those are lesions. I'm giving the tank a good scrub on my regualr weekly schedule, removing more of the gravel, and waiting to see if anyone else starts to look sick.

I'm not going to start messing with the pH. Everywhere I've read (other than water treatment sites) says it's more of a pain than it's worth. The fluctuations in pH would cause more stress than a high pH remaining steady. My original plan was to stock with fish that can deal with the tap pH, but dh went out and bought all the fish without doing any research or my prior knowledge - BAD BOY! (Plus he bought them from Walmart of all places!) I added some aquarium salt in small doses over the last few days as to not change anything too abruptly. That has gradually brought the pH down a bit, but not under 7 yet. I'll keep up on the salt with my water changes.

Anyway, thanks for the help, and crossing my fingers that those dead fishies were the victims of two tank cycles and nothing more than that. Many lessons learned here!

 

[bamboo]

good luck and post back to let us know what happened. Once again good luck

 

[WILDER]

I would read this as something dosn't sound right in your tank.
http/www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profiles/d...columnaris.html