Whats Happening Here?

[koinukun]

Hiya!

A few weeks ago 1 of my harlequins passed away after what seemed like some sort of bacterial infection. All my other fish have been fine until now.

1 of my Lemon Tetras is in very bad shape. It's having trouble swimming and looks exhausted. It's lost a lot of its shine and colour and has what looks like hemorrhaging red blotches inside it where it's intestines would be. Its mouth is agape also, which is what happened to my harlequin before it died.

I checked the water today because my fish seemed agitated and for some reason it read 0.1ppm for ammonia!!
I immediately did a water change

It my be like that because I cleaned some of the filter media in water that I forgot to dechlorinate because I wasn't paying attention!! >_< So I poured in heaps of dechlorinator as soon as I realised to try and save it. Could that be what caused this in my lemon, ammonia poisoning?

at the moment my water stats are;
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 0ppm
pH 7.6

The other tankmates are in my profile.

All my other fishies appear to be ok at the moment. I really wish I had bought a Q-tank sooner, as since I introduced 2 keyholes into my tank about 4 weeks ago I've had fin rot, bacteria problems and 1 death, possibly 2 now with my lemon as I don't hold much hope for the poor little thing. But hindsight is such a wonderful thing...

 

[kj23502]

How long have you had your tank? I find it really odd that are no nitrates at all.

Has your PH always been 7.6? I think that's a little high for these types of fish.

 

[koinukun]

No sooner had I posted this thread I went to check up on the little one and it is dead!
I've had a really bad day today and this just tops it off *cries*



I've had the tank for 5 months now. I have no nitrates because I have a ton of plants in there and I do water changes every 4 days or so. pH has always been 7.6 but that never seemed to have bothered any of them. The Lemons breed and spew eggs all over the place every second day.

 

[kj23502]

.1 part per million ammonia is bad, but not that bad. When it happens you want it to stay below .25 ppm and you're below that. I'm really new at trying to diagnose things. I'm just trying to ask what the "disease experts" would ask. Hopefully they'll be along and see all the info and it'll be enough for them to give you a good answer
Sorry to hear about your other fishy

Oh, Ok. that might make sense about nitrates. One of my fish had a whitish sore on the side of it and Colin T suggested adding aquarium salt and it cleared up in a few days. I don't think that'll work for this though. Have you had a look at the available meds? They've talked about it alot on there as well as I think there's a post that talks about them. A broad spectrum may be in order. One that takes care of fungal and bacterial. Like I say, I'm new at diagnosing, though.

I soo wish I could help you better. I'm in the learning stages too!

 

[koinukun]

Ok, now things are going more downhill! I turned on the lights this morning and one of my keyholes has a white lump just below it's eye. I checked the water again but it's all 0ppm and the pH is still the same.

The lump looks like it could be a fungus, as it is slightly fuzzy. He's not scratching and eats fine.

Since so much bad stuff is happening, can I treat the whole tank with some meds?
I have an Australian brand called "Rudducks aqua-serene MULTI CURE"
It says it is an anti fungal and antibacterial formula for fin rot, velvet, white spot, and fungal diseases.

The active constituents are: 0.4g/L methylene blue, 0.425g/L malachite green, 2g/L acriflavine

Should I treat the whole tank?

If so, would it be a good idea to remove most of the filter media and put it into my Q-tank and feed it small amounts of ammonia so it's not killed by the antibacterial meds?

Thinking back most of this stuff happened when I changed the brand of dechlorinator I use. Would this have an impact? I went from an expensive one to a smaller cheaper one...

Please help!

koinukun~

 

[koinukun]

here's some photo's (albeit bad ones) of my keyhole with the lump. After further research I think it looks the white spot cysts but he only has one...not lots of small ones...

Thanks for any help you can give!

 

[WILDER]

The lump does it resemble a cauliflower.
Does the lump solid or like filled with fluids.

 

[koinukun]

It looks pretty solid, like a little crumb of polystyrene's stuck to his cheek.

 

[WILDER]

Pools of blood beneath the skin is septicmia have you used a bacterial med.
Solid looking lumps usually are tumours, all that left to do is try a bacterial med, but if its a tumour the med won't do anything.
He will just have to live his life out till he goes downhill then I would end his misery.

In the pic the lumps looks white and redness to the lump.

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article25.html

 

[koinukun]

I haven't used a bacterial med yet as I was waiting on a relpy before I acted. Do you think I should dose the whole tank and put the filter media in my Q-tank so as not to kill my colony?

As for redness on the lump, there is none at all on it IRL, I think it's just the poor photo quality.

Also would the med that I mentioned earlier do the trick, it's the only one I have at the moment...

Thanks soooo much for your help Wilder!

koinukun~

 

[WILDER]

If you have had some fish with septicemia it can pass onto the other fish in the tank.
Plenty of water changes to dilute the bacteria down in the tank.
Not sure on meds in australia I would pm colin t

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes treat with a good bacterial med asap.

 

[WILDER]

Maybe do a thread in tropical discussion asking if there a good bacterial med in australia.
You need a med that treats gram and pos bacteria.
If you do get antibiotics it wipes the benefical bacteria out in the tank.

 

[koinukun]

Thanks guys! I'm free tomorrow so I'll go into my LFS and get a good bacterial med first thing in the morning.
I do have 1 more question on using meds though.
I've read somewhere that you should NOT feed your fish while on them and do water changed every day, but wouldn't not feeding your fish weaken them and changing the water every day get rid of the medication in the water? or do you add the meds daily?

Thanks so much again, it's so much less stressful once you know what to do to help your fishies rather than being totally cluless

koinukun~

 

[WILDER]

Never heard of that before.
its fine to feed the fish while using bacterial meds.
Also soaking flakes or pellets is garlic helps boost the fish immune system helping the fish to fight off desease.
No need to do water changes if water quality is fine.
If you do have to preform water changes during a med course you just add the correct amount of med back to the water removed.
I would follow the meds instructions.
If you feed medicated food you cannot use bacterial meds in the water or you overdose the fish.