" zombie disease" posting this here for history, not looking for help...

[Magnum Man]

this is a post from a previous thread...

"would say my worst, is another 45 gallon, it's highly planted, and highly filtered, and while it's a mature tank, I lose a fish every week or two out of this tank for some reason ( zombie disease ) a couple of the oldest fish are still doing fine... ( at this point ), so they may be resistant, or the carriers of something... it's a beautiful tank, I guess I've resolved to quit buying fish for this tank, until a month or two goes by, with no losses..."

been a few months, and I'm unsure what this is / was, but it completely wiped out a shoal of Cory catfish, but seemed to effect 1st the plecos / giant oto's , then moved through all the catfish, and then into the cichlids... now there are 4 fish left in this tank, a mutt angel, a tiger silver dollar, and a female apisto... also at last checking one of my cupids... I'm still not going to add anything to this tank, for a while longer... the cupid, still acting strangely, staying in the hollow log full time, out of sight, only comes out to eat every 3rd or 4th feeding, so I don't know if it is effected, or has turned into a curmudgeon, after losing it's friends... I'm almost suspecting something in the Cory's as it wiped out 11 of them, 9 were albino, so likely farm raised...

angel and silver dollar have been living normal unaffected lives for the last 3 months... the apisto, rarely seen, as it hangs out in a dense rootball, but it does come out to eat most feedings, cupid is as described above... tank gets big RO water changes, is over filtered, highly oxygenated, and heavily planted... I've had my canister filter with a UV light running on this tank for at least the last 6 months, and not lost a fish for the last several months

just curious if anyone, had ever seen anything like this??? any suspects???

 

[Uberhoust]

I haven't personally experienced the issue you describe. But I start to think about other factors such as leaching compounds from the silicone seals, water dripping over a surface you wouldn't normally expect to be wet releasing toxins. Some fish can be tolerant of contaminants, but younger stressed fish might not be. It could be something as simple as your angel or silver dollar doesn't like cories and gets revenge on them in the night. In my tank, used to be tanks, I tried to have cories and they didn't do well, it is likely because I had soil instead of sand or gravel at that time but I decided after the last one passed away that cories in my tank are not going to work, so I focused on what did work, Angels. Thinking about it more, I didn't have any luck with cories, and my bristlenose died as well, so I have sort of experienced the same issues. In my case I attributed the deaths to the use of aquarium soil, I have replaced the soil but I haven't replaced the fish lost in the past because I feel I missed some important need they had and I don't want to kill fish to keep trying them. Probably your decision not to add new fish is likely the best for now.

 

[Magnum Man]

these guys live listlessly for several weeks, not eating, and may even be upside down, for close to a week, I grab the net to scoop them out, and they swim away, like nothing happened, only to end up a day or two later in an odd position... one fish I tried to scoop out 3-4 times, only to have it swim away, until the 4th or 5th time, when it remained in the net...,

 

[Colin_T]

Need clear pictures and video of the fish.

What does their poop look like?

The most common diseases in aquariums are protozoan infections. These are normally external and show up like white spot or Costia. However, fish can get protozoan, bacterial & viral infections in the brain, which cause the fish to spiral through the water for a few days before dying.

Microsporidium infections cause the muscle tissue to turn cream/ white over a period of a month or so and the fish go off their food (they still eat a bit but not normal amounts), then they die. This is highly contagious and if a fish eats the diseased tissue, that fish then gets the disease. High levels of salt (2-4 heaped tablepoons per 20 litres/ 5 gallons of water) for 2 weeks, will treat it.