Unknown Disease

[nobody]

I am in need of some help. I have lost three fish in about 24 hours due to the same disease I'm sure. The three fish were a blue paradise fish (who's pictured to the side), a fan-tail goldfish, and a sunset platty.

Both the paradise fish and the goldfish seemed to should some of the same problems, but the were a few differences. The goldfish was the first. His fins began to fray and one of his eyes got a little clouded.

I thought it was fin rot so I treated for that, changed about 25% of the water in my tank, I even put knew carbon in my filter, because I needed to, and yet the day after I had finished doing the treatment for the recommended time and the water change, the goldfish was worse. Whatever was on his fins spread to his scales. It made a patch of his scales look like dead skin would on a human and then that was it he died.

The platty was next, she got a white spot by her mouth and this morning I found her dead. The paradise fish like I said had a few of the same problems as the goldfish. Last night I saw same salt-like grains on his side, so thinking he had ich I treated for it. The today the right eye was clouded completely, even more so than the goldfish, and the entire right side of his face had scales sticking out. Also a patch of scales on his back looked like dead skin. Everything happened on the right side of this fish, I don't know if that's important, but I put that in just in case. Anyway it was really yucky looking. I noticed this on my paradise fish about 5 pm today and at about 9pm he was dead .

I cleaned out my entire filter when I noticed my paradise fish earlier, because I've be having troubles with my fish off and on for a while and figured the disease might be in the filter. And before the paradise died I started treatment for fungus because my Dad, who's kept fish for a long time said it might be that. I don't know if it will work. I'm hoping, but if anyone here can tell me what I'm struggling with I'd appreaciate it.

All other fish (listed below) appear in good condition, but I don't want to have more fish die to this disease. Oh, one other note, while cleaning fliter a strange white ball was found in my intake nozzel. It doesn't look dangerous, just a white ball.

Help me please.

 

[nobody]

Also the gouramis never picked on these fish. Duke was the King of the tank and he also didn't pick on anyone.

 

[rohnds]

Your fish are dying fro ich (ick). Here is bit of advice, when treating with medication, you have to take the carbon filter out. If you leave it in (or replace it with a new carbon), carbon in the filter will take the mdeication out of the water thus rendering the medication useless.

Rohn

 

[Seleya]

Nobody - how long has this tank been set up? What are the water parameters? Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates.... I would test it right now if you haven't already and do a 50% water change before you do anything else.

 

[Acei]

I agree with Seleya. Do a massive water change first of all. Next increase the temperature to about 80 degrees F or so. Add about a teaspoon of aquarium or rock salt per gallon of the tank. This should help hold off what ever it is until you can get a deffinate diagnosis.

Once youve done these things, keep a close eye on the remaining fish and test the water peramaters. Post them here along with pics of any other sick fish if ya can and we'll se what we can do.

If it is ich, in my experience the medications simply make all the fish sick. I've had much better luck following the steps above and then maintaining the tank at a higher temperature to ensure it doesn't come back.

Good luck and sorry to hear about your losses.

 

[nobody]

My tank has been set up for about a little over 10 months. I got it in December of last year. When I last checked the parameters, which was the a few hours after changing the water, the strip said the nitrate was about in the 200 range, the nitrite at about 1, and I'm not sure on the ammonia the test I have doesn't check that. I do have something that is supposed to tell you if the ammonia is to high, but I wonder if it works.

I know these levels are high and very unsafe for the fish. I've been trying for what seems like forever to lower them. I've changed the water and cleaned over and over. I even bought some stuff that is supposed to help remover nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, chlorine and chloramines. Any suggestions are welcome. But I think now that the goldfish is gone it might be a little easier. But I don't know for sure.

Does ich eat fins?

I know the carbon is to be removed, but the treatment I used for fin rot the instructions said it was okay to leave the carbon in and to just change it when the treatment was over as well as the suggested water change. Which I did after I finished with the fin rot treatment. Still the goldfish got worse, I guess it was probably because it might be ich instead of fin rot.

The treatment I am doing now for fungus does suggest to take out the carbon and I did that as well as cleaned the filter out. The pads were kind of dirty with fish waste. I even removed a white ball in the intake to my filter which was probably keeping my filter from doing its job well. I do addmit to not remembering to remove the carbon when treating for the ich, though, but I won't again. I really want to get a good tank set going and have it for years to come. I also have some platties that might be pregnant and I am hoping to take care of this before they loose their babies.

My temp. is between 76f and 78f and that's what it has been. Is that not warm enough?

One thing I've had suggested to me is if nothing else do water changes for 3 days. The person knows that the chlorine might make the fish a little weak, but they say it'll kill whatever disease is attacking them. This person says they had this suggested to them by another person who very good at caring for fish. But I want to know if there's anything else I can do that's non-expensive. Because I know that water changes won't get of all the fungus or all of the disease. What do you think of this method?

Thanks for the information, I appreaciate it and I hope i don't sound rude at all. As of today no other fish appear to be suffering, infact some seem to have older wounds from scratching that are healing better. That is one of the functions of this medication. So I am going to finish the treatment to get rid of any possible fungus, do probably about a 50% water change, and see what happens. If anything else comes up I'll try to get pictures and post them. Duke and the others just died to fast for that.

Thanks again.

 

[Lotus]

Definitely don't change the water with chlorinated water, it will kill off your biofilter, lead to ammonia/nitrite spikes and probably kill your already weakened fish!

It sounds to me like you have a bacterial infection in your tank. Check your fungus medicine to see if it also treats bacterial infections. You may need to do another treatment to get rid of the infection.

Your nitrates are definitely way too high. A series of water changes to get them to 40ppm or less is what you need to do to help your fish recover.

 

[Acei]

You definately need a massive water change or two. Those nitrates are extremely high. You may want to look into adding some plants. The plants will use up the nitrates in the tank so that they don't get that high again. I think that the nitrates are causing this, but you never know. Nitrates tend to cause the fish to stress out quite a bit and it reduces their ability to fight off diseases and infections. Simply keeping the nitrates down could give the fish the upper hand they need to fight off whatever is attacking them.

As far as the temp goes. 76-78 is fine. The reason I recomended turning up the heater is that a lot of parasites like ich can't reproduce whent he temp goes above 80-82 degrees. temparaily raising the temp to this level could help kill off any parasites that may be causing this. Adding salt to the tank also helps fight many bacterial as well as parasitic problems. You don't want the salt in there all the time, but for treatment purposes, I'd do it.

So in short, here's what I would do in your situation.
1. do a massive (50% or more) water change. Don't forget the dechlorinator.
2. raise the temp to 80-82.
3. add 1tsp of rock salt or aquarium salt per gallon
4. give it a couple of days
5. Do another massive water change to get rid of the salt
6. once the fish are better add some plant life so help battle nitrates in the future.

just my 2 cents... Good Luck

 

[geekrockgirl85]

i lost my first betta to ick (among other things)... i didn't catch it early enough, unfortunately, which seemed to make him susceptible to everything. he had a bout with mouth fungus, started showing cloudy spots all over his body, and then contracted a severely rapid case of fin rot... poor guy. i was afraid to change his water because i didn't want to interfere with the course of the medication i was putting in the water, but that did him more harm than good. moral of the story? water change, water change, water change!

and as far as the nitrates... chemicals like amquel will lower them slightly, but it's much more effective to just keep changing the water like a good little fish parent (not to point the finger, because i've been guilty of it before, but it sounds like you may have let a little laziness backslide into a severe case of "old tank syndrome"... relying on the fact that your tank has been cycled, established, and that the fish "look happy". and, as you mentioned, the super-pooper goldfish probably wasn't doing your nitrate problem any favors).

so let me just concur with all the other good advice. doing a series of water changes will do everyone in your tank well. and once you've got your parameters in balance, as acei mentioned, plants are a good idea.

 

[nobody]

I've finished with the treatment and done the water change. So far everyone is doing fine. I've also added a few new fish (quarinteened them before hand) to the tank. There is a new paradise fish, 4 new platies (all female), and 6 guppies (2 male, 4 female). I will keep posted if anything changes.

 

[Acei]

Glad to hear the good news...*twirlysmi

 

[nobody]

It's been about a week or more since the I've changed the water. So far everyone is doing well. I plan to do a water change soon since the Nitrate is still high. Thanks for you help everyone.