How to cont. after fish have died?

[Jsarita68]

Well I thought I had my tank cycled but apparently not. Both my guppies died of parasites and fungus. I have had my 13 gallon freshwater tank up and running since April 18th. It also contains Dwarf Sagittaria, Guppy Grass and Watersprite. The plants seem to be doing fine. I had taken part of a friend's filter who's tank has been up and running for a while and who's fish appear to be healthy and put it into my filter when I added my fish on April 25th. I was under the assumption that the filter from my friend's tank would introduce good bacteria to my tank and it would cycle very quickly. I also believed the plants would assist the process. I did a 30% water change two days later and two days after that noticed my fish were getting sick. To make a long story short one died of the parasite and the other of a white fungus on the body. Now I don't know what to do. I want to wait until my tank cycles completely before adding any new fish but I don't know how to do that. Should I start completely over cleaning everything? What should I do with my plants as I don't want them to die too? Should I just leave the tank alone and test to see if its cycling on it's own or do I need to add ammonia? Will the ammonia kill my plants? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ~Julie

P.S. The pic is of my test results. There were a few days I didn't test because the fish were in a quarantine tank as I tried to medicate them. Didn't go well.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Well I thought I had my tank cycled but apparently not. Both my guppies died of parasites and fungus. I have had my 13 gallon freshwater tank up and running since April 18th. It also contains Dwarf Sagittaria, Guppy Grass and Watersprite. The plants seem to be doing fine. I had taken part of a friend's filter who's tank has been up and running for a while and who's fish appear to be healthy and put it into my filter when I added my fish on April 25th. I was under the assumption that the filter from my friend's tank would introduce good bacteria to my tank and it would cycle very quickly. I also believed the plants would assist the process. I did a 30% water change two days later and two days after that noticed my fish were getting sick. To make a long story short one died of the parasite and the other of a white fungus on the body. Now I don't know what to do. I want to wait until my tank cycles completely before adding any new fish but I don't know how to do that. Should I start completely over cleaning everything? What should I do with my plants as I don't want them to die too? Should I just leave the tank alone and test to see if its cycling on it's own or do I need to add ammonia? Will the ammonia kill my plants? Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! ~Julie



P.S. The pic is of my test results. There were a few days I didn't test because the fish were in a quarantine tank as I tried to medicate them. Didn't go well.

I think your cycle is on its way. Plants like ammonia. Fish waste is their fertilizer. Since you have no fish... Either dose pure grade ammonia or find a pantyhose and use a table shrimp. Both will provide a sufficient amount ammonia to let the cycle finish. And the pure ammonia can be found at a hardware store for cheap.


Caleb

 

[Jsarita68]

Thanks Caleb! I just now noticed what I believe to be a very tiny snail in my tank that must have been in the plants I bought. It is smaller than my gravel. Also there are even tinier white critters that are smaller than a grain of sand and can only be seen through my magnifying glass. They are skittering about and most of them are on my small marimo moss balls. Can you tell me if 1. The snail is ok in the tank and will the ammonia kill it? 2. What are the little white critters? Thanks! ~Julie

 

[ImACoolguy]

Your little critters could be a parasite. Honestly don't know.

Your snail could be a pond snail. They are common hitchhikers on plants. I'd remove it now before more come along. They are invasive.most good aquarium snails are not that small.

Caleb

 

[Jsarita68]

I got rid of the pond snail and I am pretty sure the little critters are Copecods and they are apparently harmless. I think my two fish died of Saprolegniasis and Hexamita so how long will those stay in my tank without fish? ~Julie

 

[Mebbid]

I got rid of the pond snail and I am pretty sure the little critters are Copecods and they are apparently harmless. I think my two fish died of Saprolegniasis and Hexamita so how long will those stay in my tank without fish? ~Julie

I would put money on columnaris killing your guppies rather than the combination of those two.

That being said, its nearly impossible without having very in depth knowledge of what the infection was to estimate how long they will remain in the tank.

If it were me, id give it a few weeks of dosing ammonia and call it good. If you wanted to be safe you could bleach everything and start over.

 

[coralbandit]

In most cases a disease will not last 30 days without host(fish).
So you could go fishless for 30 days and dose ammonia to keep bacteria growing(I question if your tank is completely cycled?).
How did you come upon your diagnosis of disease?
Did you see symptoms ?
What?
Some meds like kordon ich attack plus will not harm your bacteria so no harm in using them if you have no fish,but it may not be worth it($$$),or the correct treatment, as opposed to waiting it out.
I like columnaris for just about everything not clearly diagnosable as the treatment for it works on SO many other issues also,but antibiotics can mess with your BB.

 

[Mebbid]

In most cases a disease will not last 30 days without host(fish).
So you could go fishless for 30 days and dose ammonia to keep bacteria growing(I question if your tank is completely cycled?).
How did you come upon your diagnosis of disease?
Did you see symptoms ?
What?
Some meds like kordon ich attack plus will not harm your bacteria so no harm in using them if you have no fish,but it may not be worth it($$$),or the correct treatment, as opposed to waiting it out.
I like columnaris for just about everything not clearly diagnosable as the treatment for it works on SO many other issues also,but antibiotics can mess with your BB.

The problem is that a lot of bacteria such as columnaris just chill in the tank for long periods of time. They dont need a host to survive like parasites do.

These bacteria are usually always in a tank and are just waiting for an immune compromised fisv.