2 fish deaths in 24 hours

[Carlyf]

Last night around this time I found my female dalmatian molly floating. Two hours earlier I had been home and not noticed any odd behavior.
this morning I noticed my male white mm platy lying on the bottom "panting" he was not roused by food. I netted him up and held him (loosely) in the net near my aerator. That seemed to liven him up for a little bit but he still did not eat.
I got my water tested and I was told my levels were all very good. I changed 10 gallons of water anyway (I have a 45 gallon) and added an ammonia reducing cartridge to my filter. My heat is at 78 f right now, but I just got a new heater. The old one did not keep the temp very consistent, but the temp always stayed in the green zone on my thermometer....
The dalmatian did not look odd at all but I did notice that my mm platy had spots. Does anyone have any advice on what the problem might be? I love my fish very much and am very sad to see two go so suddenly and close together. Could this affect my other fish?

 

[icydeath]

Hmm.. correct parameters, ammonia reducing cartridge... did you use your dechlorinator? How much are you feeding? Water change schedule? Also what did the spots look like?

Hope I can help.

 

[Carlyf]

I posted a photo of the spots. It is definitely under the skin. Almost like broken blood vessels in our skin. His head is also pinkish.

I have a 70 gallon filter in my 45 gallon tank. I do 15 gallon water changes every other weekend.

I have 12 fish in the tank so I feed quite a bit. But it is all consumed in a few minutes. I feed once in the morning and once at night. The nightly feeding is usually less than the morning feeding.

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[Carlyf]

Hmm.. correct parameters, ammonia reducing cartridge... did you use your dechlorinator? How much are you feeding? Water change schedule? Also what did the spots look like?

Hope I can help.

And yes, I did use dechlorinator

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[icydeath]

You said that your fish was more lively when held close to the aerator?

Do you have enough surface agitation to introduce the amount of oxygen needed? Did the place that tested your water also test for CO2 concentration?

 

[Carlyf]

Yes he was. I haven't had a problem before today. They did not test for co2 concentration. the aerator and filter both agitate the water

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[Carlyf]

My female mic key has taken on a strange shape... maybe constipated? ? Wh as t should I do for her? Not sure if this is related to the others

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[Carlyf]

The problem us decidedly not my water quality. My water is tested regularly and I have never had a problem with any of my values

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[emerald76]

If you don't have time, drip, while the best, can be substituted with floating the bag and adding tank water every 5 min until full and then emptying half and repeating.


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[Carlyf]

Emerald, please tell me more abkut srip acclimatng, i have only ever floated the bag. I dont know anythjng about other methods. Either way they are not new fish. The newest ones are on their third week in the tank. So I don't think shock would be the problem. (But please correct me if I'm wrong)

I haven't lost any more fish. I went to a different pet store and the man told me that contrary to what the other pet store told me, my nitrites were slightly elevated. I did another water change and added a "nitrite sponge" and a bacterial supplement that "eats" the waste and harmful toxins.

It has a gross sulfur smell and fish keeping is expensive! But I love my fish friends and I will continue to do whatever I can to make them healthy and happy.

The female mickey mouse I was talking about is eating, but appears stressed. She is experiencing a little tail fraying but I am hoping that an improvement in her water quality caused by the bacteria supplements will help clear things up.

Any suggestions on what I should do for her tail fraying?

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[jlk]

All off topic and irrelevant posts have been removed. Let's please stick to addressing the Op's concerns. Thanks!

 

[emerald76]

Emerald, please tell me more abkut srip acclimatng, i have only ever floated the bag. I dont know anythjng about other methods. Either way they are not new fish. The newest ones are on their third week in the tank. So I don't think shock would be the problem. (But please correct me if I'm wrong)

I haven't lost any more fish. I went to a different pet store and the man told me that contrary to what the other pet store told me, my nitrites were slightly elevated. I did another water change and added a "nitrite sponge" and a bacterial supplement that "eats" the waste and harmful toxins.

It has a gross sulfur smell and fish keeping is expensive! But I love my fish friends and I will continue to do whatever I can to make them healthy and happy.

The female mickey mouse I was talking about is eating, but appears stressed. She is experiencing a little tail fraying but I am hoping that an improvement in her water quality caused by the bacteria supplements will help clear things up.

Any suggestions on what I should do for her tail fraying?

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Drip acclimation is where you put the fish and bag water in a bucket or container. Taking a bit of airline tubing, run a siphon from tank to container. Tie a knot in the tube so it drips 1-2 times per second, then wait for the bucket to fill, empty half, repeat once, then release the fish


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[fish wrangler]

Emerald, please tell me more abkut srip acclimatng, i have only ever floated the bag. I dont know anythjng about other methods. Either way they are not new fish. The newest ones are on their third week in the tank. So I don't think shock would be the problem. (But please correct me if I'm wrong)

I haven't lost any more fish. I went to a different pet store and the man told me that contrary to what the other pet store told me, my nitrites were slightly elevated. I did another water change and added a "nitrite sponge" and a bacterial supplement that "eats" the waste and harmful toxins.

It has a gross sulfur smell and fish keeping is expensive! But I love my fish friends and I will continue to do whatever I can to make them healthy and happy.

The female mickey mouse I was talking about is eating, but appears stressed. She is experiencing a little tail fraying but I am hoping that an improvement in her water quality caused by the bacteria supplements will help clear things up.

Any suggestions on what I should do for her tail fraying?

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If you are seeing nitrites i believe it means your tank is not cycled. Don't quote me on that though

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[dalto]

I would recommend getting a test kit and doing testing yourself if you can.

A fish store telling you the water is either "good" or "not good" doesn't really help you much. You really need to know exactly what is going on when dealing with issues like this.

 

[Carlyf]

Lost my female mm platy today it's so upsetting to lose three in so short a time period. With the nitrite sponge and new bacterial supplement I'm really hoping that no more fish become affected.
The treatment cycle for the new bacterial supplement is 6 weeks. Water changes and treatments are on Saturdays. I will keep updating!

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[Matt68005]

Carly, you should look up the following on google
Flexibacteria Columnaris
Aeromonas
Pseudomonas

Your probably gonna need a good GRAM NEGATIVE antibiotic. Ill point you in the right direction again, they would be.....
Kanaplex.....Kanamycin Sulfate
Terramycin......Oxytetracycline Hcl
Maracyn-2......Minocycline

As always antibiotics are best administered thru food if the fish are still eating.
Furthermore i can't believe nobody has given you a heads up about what killed your fish. Once the infection is active you need to act fast and have the right medicine, worrying about water quality in a tank full of dying fish is irrelevant. Yes do partial water changes but that is not what needs to be addressed here, you need to medicate at this point!

 

[trennamw]

It does indeed sound like the tank was never cycled.

Do you own a test kit?

Do you know all about the nitrogen cycle?

How old is the tank? Did you start it up with a fishless cycle or a fish in cycle?

It doesn't sound to me like you're doing large enough water changes.

An ammonia reducing cartridge is a red flag to me, suggesting you've been misinformed about what keeps a tank healthy to begin with.

We are absolutely here to help, won't give you a hard time for following poor advice with good intentions, and it sounds like you really want to know how to keep fish healthy.

I totally disagree that medication is urgent and water quality is irrelevant. I followed that advice with several bettas and lost them all. The last one that got sick is still alive 9 months later, and he's the one who got better water quality and no medication.

A good deal of medical research suggests that it isn't the presence of absence of a pathogen that causes illness on its own ... Overall health, stress, and underlying inflammation have everything to do with fighting off an illness.

And if a human is living in highly polluted air and has the flu, nobody would say give antivirals and the air quality is irrelevant.

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