Please help, two sudden deaths and Ich

[aim3e]

Hello, I would be really grateful for some advice...

Last night I noticed that all of a sudden one of my zebra danios was swimming upside down, breathing fast. I thought he had injured himself as he had a mark on one side. He died overnight. But this morning another danio (white one?) is doing something similar, he can't stay balanced and has been swimming quickly in upside down circles. I imagine he's on his last legs too. I treated this mornnig with melafix because I didn't know what was going on.

On closer inspection, I think some of my guppies have whitespot. I'm afraid I don't really know anything about this disease, my tank has never had it before. Is it curable or have my fish had it?
Two female guppies and one or two males have white spots on them, but one of the females is looking particularly unwell - her tail looks a bit nipped/small and she has misty coloured scales in places (?)...

Any advice for me? I'm really worried.

Here are my stats:
Ammonia 0 ppm
pH 7.2
Nitrate 10 ppm

I'm sorry but I can't find my nitrite kit right now.

The tank is 70l with:
9 guppies
a few guppy fry (very young)
3 cardinal tetra, one neon tetra, one black tetra, two silver tetra.
2 young albino corys.
1 adult zebra danio +1 sick one.

thanks everyone in advance!
Aimee

 

[TabMorte]

We're going to need some more information. Like how long you've had this tank running and what your nitrites are.

It sounds like you have a few things going on in your tank as well but with out that information no one can say for sure:

The gasping could be from chlorine in the water, even if you treat it with a dechlorinizer, you might want to give your water company a call and find out if they've recently 'shocked' the water with extra chlorine or chlorimine.

It could also be nitrite poisoning, particularly if you have had your tank up and running for under 2 months. Nitrite poisoning hinders the fishes ability to absorb oxygen hence the 'gasping' near the surface.

As for the white spots what do they look like? Ich is tiny tiny little white grains... it looks like some one sprinkled salt or sugar on your fish. Anything bigger than that could be fungal. If it does look like some one sprinkled salt or sugar on your fish then theres a product called 'Copper safe' that comes highly recommended by several people around here for getting rid of it (but do not mix it with the melafix. With the exception of using Melafix/Pimafix together do not combine medicines unless it says to on the bottle)

Do you have a quarintine tank you can treat sick fish in? The cories you have are really hardy little guys through most things but are very very sensitive to medications. Unless they get sick too or it's a whole tank issue (like Ich) you should remove the sick fish and medicate them else where to protect your cories.

You seem to have made the same mistake we see a lot with Tetras, having a few of many differant species. Do they all school together? I suspect the cardinal and neon. If there's one or two that won't I would suspect them of being your fin nipper. Tetra's really need the company of their own kind and while they'll school with similiarly sized tetras if they're left on their own as 'outcasts' they can be a bit aggressive and nippy (particularly the skirted ones that can also grow quite large. Mine are HUGE, if that's what your 'black tetra is').

The last issue is, if your tank is newly established (under 6 months) you're really pushing your stocking levels once those guppy fry start to grow you're really pushing on your stocking levels. You only have 18 Gallons there and while your fish are all small they still make waste. It's best, epecially in a newly established tank to stick to the 1 small fish per gallon rule. Over crowding can lead to illness and also aggression even in usually peaceful fish like your tetras.

 

[aim3e]

Hi, thank you for your help!

Regarding the nitrites, I did a test and they may be slightly high. I have lost the strip that accompanies the test but basically the water came out darker yellow/orangey rather than bright yellow.

About the tetras, there were more originally but I have just not replaced them yet.

The tank has been running 12 months but I added new fish a couple of weeks ago which i guess is where these problems came from. I don't have a quarantine tank so I don;t know what I can do... Also I don't really know anything about ich but the fish do have tiny white flecks on them.

Thanks again.

 

[d3sc3n7]

Is this about what the white spots look like?

If so, thats ich. I am one of the people around here who highly advise using Coppersafe
I personally would try to deem how bad the ich is, and see if you can take care of your other problems first. If the fish have spots right now. You have some time before they drop off, and probably about 2 weeks after that, before they return.

However, a infection of ich is only "not bad" once. After that, its all out war with the little guys. So, if you can quickly determine what else is going on with the tank, if anything...try to fix that first. Then quickly afterwards (doing a few water changes if needed, to remove meds) treat with coppersafe. This is only my suggestion, and other may have different/better ones.

 

[TabMorte]

That's odd. In a newly established tank you shouldn't be seeing /any/ nitrites at all.

Until you determine what's wrong (and until that's fixed) I would recommend a large water change daily.

 

[iapetus]

That's odd. In a newly established tank you shouldn't be seeing /any/ nitrites at all.

aim3e wrote that the tank has been running for a year now.

I recently had a problem where one of my fish looked like it had ich and maybe it did. But, something else was also wrong with it. If I were to see something like that again, I would dose with an anti-bacterial and an anti-Ich medicine (making sure they're compatible, such as CopperSafe and Maracyn). Just make sure that you don't expose any fish to medicines that they can't take (like your cories, such as TabMorte pointed out). If I were you, aim3e, I'd run out and purchase a small tank to set up as a quarantine tank. They're not expensive to set up.

 

[TabMorte]

Do I meant in an established tank!

I'm wondering if some of the fry have died and are hiden which would create ammonia, which would create nitrites..... that or rotting plant mass?

Have you done a head count of the babies?

 

[aim3e]

Thanks guys for your help...

I don't have a quarantine tank, is there a really fast way of setting one up, or a medicine that someone can recommend that I can treat the whole tank with? I think one of my fish has a fungal infection too I'm so frustrated that all this happened.

 

[aim3e]

I read that Rid Ich might be ok for my corys... anyone know?
or Protozin?

 

[TabMorte]

I would be really careful with the cories but I /think/ coppersafe would be okay.

I would recommend picking up a cheap 10 or 5G 'kit', take the filter out of it and run it in your main tank (with the other one!) and then when you need the QT you can just fill it up with water and move the filter (which after a few weeks will be all full of bacteria) to it.

 

[aim3e]

I called my local fishstore and they don't stock rid-ich but they recommended a product called WS3, has anyone got any experience with this product?

One of my tetras has ich today... surely it would be better to treat my whole tank?

Also I know it sounds really bad that I haven't run out to get medicines but I simply haven't had the chance.

 

[TabMorte]

Yeah you should definitly treat the whole tank. Can you get Coppersafe. D3 swears by it as an ich cure.

 

[aim3e]

Should I half-dose for my cory cats?

 

[d3sc3n7]

I've never had corys, but I am a bit concerned for them, when treating for ich. One thing you can do, is pick up a 5g kit, move your corys over...and do a "Fish-In" cycle with them. Still not great for them, but better than subjecting them to the meds that have a good chance of killing them. Then after you have all you problems taken care of, keep the 5g as a QT tank. Just let 1 or 2 fish live in there, to keep the cycle going.

When you get new or sick fish. Move those 2 into the big tank, and add the new/sick fish into the 5.

 

[TabMorte]

I'd do the same. When you're done with the copper safe put some carbon in your filter to remove the meds and do a few large water changes before you put the cories back.