Die off restart 75 g

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Moshi78

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jul 10, 2017
Messages
23
Hey everyone. As I posted a while back my fish starred dying off one by one. Was unable to figure the disease. Attempted to treat with melafix and primafix with no success..still have two fish remaining and waiting. Gonna move them to a small tank and re do the 75. I figure its either tb or some other slow disease..lost a total of 12 fish. Tanks were cycled and fish were qt'd for almost 6 weeks.. Anywho gonna restart the tank. Will clean the tank and dry it out...Gonna toss the substrate and start fresh. Will letting the tank and the filters dry out be enough or do I have to bleach everything? Really don't want to use bleach. Have some nice rocks and driftwood can they be reused or is it easier to toss everything? Also what about plants? Really don't want even a chance of spreading the disease back to the tank..thanks
 
Hey everyone. As I posted a while back my fish starred dying off one by one. Was unable to figure the disease. Attempted to treat with melafix and primafix with no success..still have two fish remaining and waiting. Gonna move them to a small tank and re do the 75. I figure its either tb or some other slow disease..lost a total of 12 fish. Tanks were cycled and fish were qt'd for almost 6 weeks.. Anywho gonna restart the tank. Will clean the tank and dry it out...Gonna toss the substrate and start fresh. Will letting the tank and the filters dry out be enough or do I have to bleach everything? Really don't want to use bleach. Have some nice rocks and driftwood can they be reused or is it easier to toss everything? Also what about plants? Really don't want even a chance of spreading the disease back to the tank..thanks
Everything can be disinfected rock, drift wood tank etc etc, clean with bleach water, rinse with dechlorinated water and rinse with straight water very thoroughly you can use white vinegar to remove the calcium buildup on the tank while you're at it, with the rocks and decor and drift wood I would soak them in bleach for a few hours and follow the rinsing steps, but a lot of illnesses you really don't have to tear the tank down, tb is one I would but you would know if it was tb as tb is very distinct, if you think tb make sure you wear gloves as it can be transferred to humans.

With the filters if it's tb it's also in the filters so yes you will have to clean those as well I wouldn't think you would have to clean the media with bleach but I'm not 100% sure but if you're going to start new I would just redo everything(not drift wood or rocks as they are easily disinfected) , cycle the tank, look for illness in the remaining fish in the small tank while the 75 cycles and treat them before re adding them to the 75.


What are the symptoms of the fish before they died?
 
Moshi
CB and Potlucks advise was spot on and I agree with their suggestions. I want to throw out one more option. First, your noted die off was caused by the usual parasite, bacterial or environmental reasons we all occasionally experience, not the Bubonic Plague. Before you go the sterilization route, might consider investing a few bucks buying a few tough inexpensive fish, Zebras or Tiger Barbs and see how they do.
Conduct a big WC / gravel vac first. Even after a complete redo, eventually you will have to deal with pathogens. Good luck.
 
Potluck thanks for your reply.. The symptoms were one by one the fish would isolate themselves and not eat and eventually die. Two or three of the 12 that died had a curved spine. Some of the cardinals looked as though they had a black spot before they died..one of the rummies swam erratically up and down back and forth and then would lay on a plant, three of the rummies wasted away from not eating. Only one of the 12 fish that died had a white round spot but didnt look like anything I could find online. The most recent rummy that died had white circles around his eyes, damaged fins and really slim.. Thank you very much.

Coral and v227. I agree on isolating the remaining fish..thanks for the link.was very helpful..the fish in isolation have had no contact with the sick fish. I have 13 fish in the 10 gallon and really would like to,get them,in the 75g asap. They are all very healthy but do not want to chance adding them to the 75 till I really clean it...thank you very much for your replies
 
Of course..they were under a year for sure..maybe 5-7 months max..
 
Can I ask how old the fish were? They only have a shortish life span.
I've had a black skirt tetra live 7 years, I've also had fish that have died 2 days after I've acclimated and added them to my tank, there's a lot of things that could of happened but unfortunately we have no pics of the sick fish before they died, he says they had bent spines which doesn't always mean tb either as there's a few things that resemble tb but it's not, they're are multiple signs of fish tb, bent spines , lesions on the body , missing scales extended stomach and more, to be on the safe side as we don't know if it's fish tb it would probably be best to start over with new stock new everything I honestly don't think it was fish tb as there's 2 fish all alive(I thought but just read there's 10 fish that haven't had any contact with the 75) , they're many diseases out there that can kill your whole stock in less than 24 hours, strain 1 of columanaris for example, was the tank cycled? Did you do weekly tank maintenance as in pwc's? do you know what the water parameters were? do you have pics of the fish before they died? these things would help dramatically but if the op doesn't have those things I would just start over to be on the safe side.
 
Potluck..Yes strange that two are still alive and seem to be doing fine; however don't want to chance infecting all the fish in the 10g....75 gTank was cycled and 20 percent water changes were done weekly. Water parameters were always 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and under 10 nitrate. Yes the fish in the 10 g were qt'd there for a couple months as the disease in the 75 started..no,contact at all was made. I have separate nets, algae scrapers and even aquarium gravel vacs for each tank so absolutely no chance of cross contamination.. Think you are right and its better to just assume its worse case scenario and just sanitize everything. Thanks for the help!
 
And I did snap some pics I will try to find them and post them.
 
Back
Top Bottom