Catastrophic Goldie Loss

C

cats&fish

Small Fish
#1
Jan 15, 2011
12
0
0
#1
Hello all,

I am reeling from the rapid loss of my goldfish in my 40 gal. tank. They showed no signs of illness and then within 4 days they were all dead.

Background:
Tank has been set up for over a year. Used to house tropical fish (used to be a heated tank) and never had any disease or illness problems with the semi-aggressive fish that lived in there before. Upgraded those fish to a larger tank, removed the heater from the goldie tank, did a partial water change and about a week later added the goldies. They were lovely, happy, and thriving for about 3 months.

They were doing great and I was doing partial water changes weekly and so on and so forth. Fatal mistake: I added another fish without quarantining it.

Things started going south about a week ago when I noticed that one of the fish (not the new addition but one of the older fish) was hanging out on the bottom of the tank. I noticed what looked like Ick so I treated the tank.

Then, I noticed what looked like fin rot and then things spiraled downhill and all of my fish died.

Now I have 2 questions:
1.) What do I need to do to "clean" or "disinfect" my tank. Crank the heat? Salt? I am still not even sure what actually killed the fish, whether it was fugal or bacterial...

2.) I have 3 snails in the infected tank l and I am afraid of putting them in my larger tank because I don't want to cross contaminate the tank. Can I do something to quarantine the snails so that they will be safe in my bigger tank? Can I treat the tank that they are in without killing the snails.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Ellen
 

aakaakaak

aakaakaak

Superstar Fish
#2
Sep 9, 2010
1,324
0
0
Chesapeake, Virginia
#2
Meds will kill your snails. They don't have scales, and that really screws them up. They can, however, deal with heat. Cranking it up to 85 (gradually over time) and leaving it there for a couple weeks will help kill ich and a few other things. It can't cure everything, but it can reduce the likelihood of passing things along.

DO NOT USE SALT with snails. They're like slugs with shells. What happens when you salt a slug?

You'll also have to keep an eye on your cycle. Unless your snails are really dirty or you're feeding your tank, you're going to have a week nitrogen cycle for a while. Just keep an eye on that.

Sorry about your goldies.
 

Kiara1125

Kiara1125

Superstar Fish
#3
Jan 12, 2011
1,142
0
0
Florida
#3
Crap. I have a ramshorn in my 10 gallon and I added a tablespoon of salt in it. I had the snail for 2 months now, and I've added salt before without the salt affecting the snail. Will this kill it?? The only thing I noticed is that it's not getting any bigger (normal??).
 

aakaakaak

aakaakaak

Superstar Fish
#4
Sep 9, 2010
1,324
0
0
Chesapeake, Virginia
#4
The mystery I have in my 10 is drastically smaller than the adult mystery I have in my 29 gal. It may be related to tank size.

The salt thing is hit or miss. It's generally not a good idea to put them in salted water, but with low salinity/gravity it probably won't kill them. Some snails do need salt though. I think it starts off at nerite snails needing brackish water for them to hatch babies. Mystery, common pond and ramshorn are all freshwhater from what I understand.
 

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