Things are dying!

[Hookman]

My water recently went up to 84 degrees. A snail and one of my conchs died. My yellow neon goby has ick, I think (small white fuzzies on his body). I don't turn my lights on, I just got PC's (they make my tank look awesome BTW). How can I get the temperature to go down. I was goona get a Powder blue tang, but not now. My other fish seem to be doing alright, any thoughts or advice?? Thanks (this is getting frustrating, my tank was fine then this all of a sudden!)

 

[nodoubt471]

the temp increase probably stressed your fish out, which caused the ich. you should probably try to remove him and treat him in QT.

is the problem the increase in lighting? is the heater going haywire? is it just from ambient temperature? you could try installing a fan that will blow across the top of the water in the tank and cool it off a bit through convection...

hth

 

[electrikat]

Definitely hold off on the powder blue. They are especially succeptible to ich. If you even say it in front of them they get it. No really.

 

[steve-s]

My water recently went up to 84 degrees. A snail and one of my conchs died. My yellow neon goby has ick, I think (small white fuzzies on his body). )

Stress doesn't cause C. irritans but depending on how long you've had the fish if a new arrival it could be. With increased heat also comes increased activity and levels of bacteria. Depending on your tank conditions, it could also be a fungal or similar problem. C. irritans isn't "fuzzy".

You should check out a few pics on http://wetwebmedia.com in their disease section and look at the varying types of ailments to be sure what the fish has. If you confirm it to be C. irritans, the fish should be quarantined in a seperate tank and treated with preferabley hyposalinity or copper (Cupramine if available).

As far as the heat issue is concerned, a fan blowing across the waters surface will help immensely. If the tank has a solid lid (glass/plastic) removing it will help also. It will increase the evaporation rate aiding the cooling process.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Pyxis]

if your tank spikes like that again, and a fan is not redily accessable, i would suggest having a waterfilled milk contanier in the freezer. when your temp spikes, it wont hurt to have a back up plan. just float the frozen contanier and let it drop the temp slowly.

 

[Atari]

Unless your heater broke and it went up in the space of a few minutes, I don't think 84 is all that high, and I doubt it's the reason. There might be other causes for what happened.

 

[austinsdad]

Could be marine velvet/oodinium - since discribed as white and fuzzy, as opposed to white distinct spot

 

[MarkW19]

Remember that it's much more important to keep the temperature constant than to worry about going to 84° (it's not really all that high as Atari said).

If it's the ambient temperature that is making the temperature in your tank this high, then instead of letting of go down to 78 or whatever when it cools off, turn your heater up so that you stay with a maximum of a 2° swing. If things get much higher, then the fan would work, as would a bag of ice floating in the aquarium (but again, be careful not to lower the temperature very much at any one time).

 

[steve-s]

Could be marine velvet/oodinium - since discribed as white and fuzzy, as opposed to white distinct spot

Amyloodinium ocellatum would be even less noticable than Cryptocaryon irritans and unless a secondary infection had set in would be more like a suttle dusting than actual spots. It would not have a "fuzzy" appearance either. Once velvet is actually noticable, the fish rarely stand a chance unless a properly cycled QT is ready and copper can be administered immediately. It is an increadible fast killing parasite.

Cheers
Steve

 

[nodoubt471]

i was told by somebody that true fungal infections are really rare in SW. is that true or BS?

 

[steve-s]

i was told by somebody that true fungal infections are really rare in SW. is that true or BS?

True! It does happen but you'll find that the greater portion are bacterial in nature.

Cheers
Steve

 

[mr_tee0419]

I dunno but steve-s is like the man at this stuff. Keep it up steve!

 

[darb2]

Doesn't the fungal infection show up secondary, as a result of the bacterial infection?

 

[steve-s]

Doesn't the fungal infection show up secondary, as a result of the bacterial infection?

Fungal infections are usually the result of poor tank conditions and/or less than adequate nutrition. Secondary infections are typically always bacterial in nature and not fungal. It's actually quite difficult to diagnose a true fungal infection without the aid of a sample (scrapping) and a microscope. Even if the fish apppears to have what looks like a fugus, most times you are better of treating it as bacterial at the onset. Chances are much greater the fish will be better off.

Cheers
Steve