Several Fish dying in Community tank - please help!

[BrianD]

First to answer the general questions:

Fish in the tank:

• 2 German Blue Rams (1 died last night)
• 2 Yo Yo Loaches (1 died about two weeks ago)
• 2 Dwarf Gouramis (1 died about two weeks ago)
• 1 Upside Down Catfish (added after the Loach and Gourami died)
• 1 Juli Cory
• 1 Red Eye Puffer
• 1 SAP

Tank Size, Decor:

• 20 gallon long
• Many artificial plants
• Large piece of driftwood
• Lava Rock
• Airstone

Water parameters:

• ph - 7.0
• Ammonia - 0ppm
• Nitrite - 0ppm
• Nitrate - 5ppm
• Temperature - 80 - 82 F

(Last tested yesterday evening)

Feeding:

• TetraMin Flake food (to distract the non-puffers from the live food for as long as possible)
• Live & Frozen bloodworms
• Snails
• Tried feeding frozen brine shrimp, but they didn't eat it

Water change schedule:

• 25% (5 Gallons) once a week

What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so:

• Added an Upside Down Catfish after two other fish died. Before that - nothing was changed within a week of them dying.

How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it:

• The aquarium has been set up for about 3 months
• It was cycled using feeders for about 7 weeks (until all Ammonia and Nitrites were at 0ppm).

How Long have you been keeping fish:

• This particular tank is new (3 months old) and I have not kept fish for a few years. But before that I had fish for about 8 years.

So now on to what has happened in the tank in the past few weeks.

The first fish to have visible signs of disease was one of the Dwarf Gouramis. It looked as if he had marks on each side of his body, behind the gills. He was quarantined and treated with MelaFix for a bacterial infection. Unfortunately it looked as if he got a fungal infection on top of the bacterial infection and that got the best of him and he died. The 20 gallon tank was treated using Melafix for the full recommended period. The carbon was removed from the filter. A large water change was performed on the 7th day.

No other fish showed any visible signs of infection.

Right around that same time though, one of the Yo Yo Loaches stopped eating and was breathing really heavily. This lasted for about a day and then he died.

I was very confused about this because I have read that fast breathing is usually due to Ammonia or lack of oxygen, but that is not the case with our tank (Ammonia = 0ppm & we have an airstone). None of the other fish showed signs of distress so we figured maybe he just wasn't well to begin with.

Now two days ago the German Blue Rams each had strange red dots on their body. Maybe only the size of a few scales and really bright red in color. They both had one spot each. The Dwarf Gourami also had a red "sore" on his lip, but I thought that may have been from the puffer and him meeting when feeding. But just to be safe in case it is a bacterial infection, we replaced the filter, did not add carbon, and began treating with PimaFix.

Yesterday, after 1 day of treatment, the male Ram was breathing very heavily, just like the Yo Yo Loach was. He was sitting at the bottom and not looking too good. He also was not eating. Last night he went belly up.

I am starting to get concerned because this looks like a pattern. I am continuing with the Pimafix treatments for the red spot that I see on the other Ram and Gourami, but I am moreso concerned with the labored breathing that has affected and caused two of my fish to die within 24 hours of the first signs of distress.

I really am worried about my puffers, I don't know what I would do if they would get ill.

Also yesterday we noticed that the Red Eye has some strange white thing on her left fin near her gill. Since she flutters so fast it is really hard to see what it is. It almost looks like cotton (I'm wondering if it's fungus). We also cannot tell if it is coming out of her gill or attached to her fin. This really worried us, but we don't know what to do. We cannot get a good picture of it.

So now a few direct questions, because I know this is long:

1. What would cause fish to have very fast breathing and then die?

2. What do you think those red dots are (I read that red streaks are signs of bacterial infection)? I can get a picture if you would like.

3. What could that white thing on the Red Eye's fin be?

4. Is it ok to treat the tank with PimaFix again after only about a week of being off of MelaFix treatment? We did add another fish in between this time so I'm worried that he was carrying disease.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[Lotus]

1. Could be a number of factors. Could be because of the meds, could be some kind of internal infection/parasite or a change in pH or, as you said, lack of oxygen or ammonia. Loaches, rams and puffers are all known to be very sensitive to meds. Melafix and Pimafix are usually OK with sensitive fish, though.

2 and 3. The red dots could be signs of agression (most likely from the puffers) or a number of other diseases. There are good pics here: http://www.fishpalace.org/Disease.html of various diseases. There are good descriptions here: http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/diseases.html It's possible you have some kind of internal infection/parasite, but you should probably read through the symptoms on those sites to see if you can make a diagnosis.

4. www.aquariumpharm.com, the manufacturers of Pimafix and Melafix says it's fine to use both at the same time. It's a really good idea to quarantine your fish, especially when you have others in the main tank that are sensitive to meds. A sick fish added can wipe out your entire tank.

 

[BrianD]

Thanks for the response. Is there any way to check the oxygen levels in the tank?

 

[Lotus]

Not really. The usual indicator is if fish hang out at the surface a lot. I know rams will have fast gill movement if there is a big change in pH or the pH is too high for them. If your pH is at 7, it should be OK. I see you have an airstone, so I doubt oxygen is the problem.

I'm thinking you may have an internal parasite problem. Did either of the sites I posted help you get any closer to a diagnosis?