Hello,
We are pretty new to fish, we've just been keeping a freshwater tank (now two) since last December. We started out with a male betta and gradually added more fish. Things went well for awhile, but now we've had several strange deaths in the past summer. First was an african frog. I noticed he had a sore on his side and then he swelled up and died. We added three neons, I don't remember if they were before or after the frogs death, and one of them died not long after we got it, seemingly suddenly. My daughter noticed he was swimming strangely, on his side and upside down and then he died. Later we had a female guppy die more slowly she bloated up and died about when she looked like she was going to explode. Now, in this past week we had another Male betta die with dropsy and a curved spine(which I've since been reading about), and today we're losing a male guppy who looks pale, waisted, has his spine curved to the right and pop eye (just since this morning). I thought he seemed to be getting smaller before today, but I wasn't completely sure, now I feel more sure about that.
SO, what I'm concerned about is it is possible our tank is infected with fish tuberculosis? I've read some about it and it seems like it might be possible. About three weeks to a month ago there was a very strange breakout in the bottom of the tank of some small wiggly creatures. They completely filled the bottom of the tank and the water got really cloudly. The fish seemed sort of freaked out, and I moved all of the fish to our other tank and we cleaned out that tank. I don't know if that is related to the fish sicknesses but it seems noteworthy.
I read that dropsy is a symptom of other diseases and that fish TB is a bacteria and can cause dropsy. What can we do to prevent these unpleasant dropsy causing diseases and what may be causing them? We do feed the fish some live mosquito larvae and other things that my husband scoops out of water containers outside. Is that too much for the fish to handle? They love to eat the larvae, but could other dangerous bacteria be being introduced? Also, how can we strengthen the fish's immune systems so they are more resistant to diseases?
Our tanks are pretty bare right now. We had live plants but they died when we moved the tanks to a more low light location. There are some rocks and shells with a heater and bubblers. Right now all fish are in the tank that didn't just have the sick fish in them. We have a female guppy, two neons, a diplodocus??? (I'm not sure how to spell that one and I know it isn't a dinosaur name- its that big growing brown algae eating fellow), a chinese algae eater, a really bogglyeyed solidly built brown bottom eater fish which we don't know what it is called, two big snails, and a bunch of little snails that came from our pond and have been in the tank for awhile.
So that's my story! I hope I gave enough info and didn't ask TOO many questions at once!
Love,
Leslie
We are pretty new to fish, we've just been keeping a freshwater tank (now two) since last December. We started out with a male betta and gradually added more fish. Things went well for awhile, but now we've had several strange deaths in the past summer. First was an african frog. I noticed he had a sore on his side and then he swelled up and died. We added three neons, I don't remember if they were before or after the frogs death, and one of them died not long after we got it, seemingly suddenly. My daughter noticed he was swimming strangely, on his side and upside down and then he died. Later we had a female guppy die more slowly she bloated up and died about when she looked like she was going to explode. Now, in this past week we had another Male betta die with dropsy and a curved spine(which I've since been reading about), and today we're losing a male guppy who looks pale, waisted, has his spine curved to the right and pop eye (just since this morning). I thought he seemed to be getting smaller before today, but I wasn't completely sure, now I feel more sure about that.
SO, what I'm concerned about is it is possible our tank is infected with fish tuberculosis? I've read some about it and it seems like it might be possible. About three weeks to a month ago there was a very strange breakout in the bottom of the tank of some small wiggly creatures. They completely filled the bottom of the tank and the water got really cloudly. The fish seemed sort of freaked out, and I moved all of the fish to our other tank and we cleaned out that tank. I don't know if that is related to the fish sicknesses but it seems noteworthy.
I read that dropsy is a symptom of other diseases and that fish TB is a bacteria and can cause dropsy. What can we do to prevent these unpleasant dropsy causing diseases and what may be causing them? We do feed the fish some live mosquito larvae and other things that my husband scoops out of water containers outside. Is that too much for the fish to handle? They love to eat the larvae, but could other dangerous bacteria be being introduced? Also, how can we strengthen the fish's immune systems so they are more resistant to diseases?
Our tanks are pretty bare right now. We had live plants but they died when we moved the tanks to a more low light location. There are some rocks and shells with a heater and bubblers. Right now all fish are in the tank that didn't just have the sick fish in them. We have a female guppy, two neons, a diplodocus??? (I'm not sure how to spell that one and I know it isn't a dinosaur name- its that big growing brown algae eating fellow), a chinese algae eater, a really bogglyeyed solidly built brown bottom eater fish which we don't know what it is called, two big snails, and a bunch of little snails that came from our pond and have been in the tank for awhile.
So that's my story! I hope I gave enough info and didn't ask TOO many questions at once!
Love,
Leslie