3 fish died

[jjbeno]

I have a 55 gallon that had
8 giant danios
7 australian rainbows
2 blue rames
1 albino rainbow shark
1 angelfish
1 striped raphael catfish
1 tiretrack eel

Everything seemed fined, all the fish were getting along and seemed healthy until the eel died which wasnt that surprising i know i shouldnt have had him in that tank but he was small and the pet store i got him at said he only grew to 8 inches... then after the eel my female blue ram died for no apparent reason and today my rainbow shark died. They all seemed fine the day before they died. My water parameters are all 0 except nitrates which was a little high like around 70 but that was fixed about a week ago. Both the shark and ram died since then. Does anybody know what could be causing these deaths?

 

[MonkeyMonk86]

Look at the post " 11 fish died in 3 days". People posted, COLUMNARIS, I looked that up in my fish disease book and read there is a fast acting form, which occurs at high temps causing acute systemic infection which incubates less than 24 hrs and kills fish in 2-3 days with few or no external symptoms. Cause: flexibacter, gram negative bacteria.

Read the help in the other post b/c I have no personal knowledge of treatment.

My book says " bath immersion in phenoxyethanol ... In advanced cases...it may be necessary to treat with antibiotics". But, the book doesn't say which antibiotics.

I hope someone else helps you. Keep is posted.

 

[cmw9787]

whenever you're clueless as to what's causing problems in your tank, water changes and aquarium salt are your best friend. Do daily 50% water changes and add some salt. Salt creates a hostile environment for freshwater bacteria that may be causing problems. the effects of water changes should be obvious.

 

[jjbeno]

Thanks for the replies! I have been doing water changes frequently since the eel died and i would like to add salt but i am nervous because i just finished planting my tank and its a 55 gallon so its a lot of plants! how much salt would be safe to add.

and i hope its not columnaris! i have not noticed any white fuzz since i first got my fish but that went away and was only on fish that are still alive. The rainbow shark was twitching yesterday now that i think about it. Does that help at all? haha

 

[jwh0818]

Columnaris will show up as white around the fish's mouth.

 

[jjbeno]

Some of my fish had cottony stuff around their mouth when i fist added them maybe 3 months ago. I added them before the tank finished cycling but after it finished, the fuzz went away and the 3 fish that had it are still alive. Is it possible it survived in the tank and is now attacked the weakest fish?

 

[Caliban07]

Some of my fish had cottony stuff around their mouth when i fist added them maybe 3 months ago. I added them before the tank finished cycling but after it finished, the fuzz went away and the 3 fish that had it are still alive. Is it possible it survived in the tank and is now attacked the weakest fish?

Columnaris will always be there. Like many others diseases. If you slip on water changes or do anything that adds stress to your fish, you run the risk of your fish becoming Ill.

I let my nitrates double because I was too ill to do a water change and my pearl gourami died. Stability is everything in fish keeping. I won't make that mistake again.

 

[jjbeno]

so theres nothing i can do to get rid of it?

 

[jpchin]

please post your water parameters. do you use liquid water testing? at any rate it would be helpful to see if your water numbers are good before trying to diagnose disease. please post ammonia, ph, nitrate and nitrite. also how long has your tank been set up? your tank seems over stocked to me. with that many fish you should be doing frquent water changes along with regular weekly or bi-weekly gravel cleaning.

 

[jjbeno]

I have 0 for ammonia and nitrites and about 40 for nitrate. I use API master test kit and the tank has been cycled for close to 3 months now.
The pH is about 6.5 and i do weekly water changes of about 20 gallons and i clean the gravel every time as best as I can. It is hard to clean the gravel though because the tank is heavily planted. Thanks for all the help. I want to try to figure out what went wrong before i even think about replacing the fish that died

 

[Delapool]

so theres nothing i can do to get rid of it?

My hope with columnaris is that it will fade away in cooler months and the tank temp drops to the heater level temp. I'm not sure if that is the case for your tank but it will last in an empty tank for about a month so quite persistent unfortunately.

 

[jjbeno]

So does this mean that I shouldnt replace the fish that died in your opinion?

 

[Delapool]

So does this mean that I shouldnt replace the fish that died in your opinion?

Not straight away no. I would leave the tank as is for 3 weeks to a month and let it all settle down. It just doesn't quite seem stable at the moment.

Have you tested tap ph (straight away and then let stand for 24 hrs)? I'm just curious if the tank ph of 6.5 is matching tap.

 

[jjbeno]

After 24 hours the tap water is about 7.0 but straight out of the tap it is more like 7.3 or 7.4. What can i do to raise the pH in my tank. I have had this problem with all of my tanks, this one is actually the highest my other tanks sit around 6.1 but i have had trouble finding a good way to permanently raise my tank pH. Also what could be causeing the pH to lower in the tank?

 

[Delapool]

After 24 hours the tap water is about 7.0 but straight out of the tap it is more like 7.3 or 7.4. What can i do to raise the pH in my tank. I have had this problem with all of my tanks, this one is actually the highest my other tanks sit around 6.1 but i have had trouble finding a good way to permanently raise my tank pH. Also what could be causeing the pH to lower in the tank?

You could have soft water with low kh. Bacteria and driftwood would be main two I can think of. Most tanks will tend to a lower kh / ph over time. Link below.

Crushed seashells / cuttlebone in the filter will increase kh buffering capacity and slow down ph drops. It's a fairly natural way to do it and I do that in mine. Also adding limestone rock would help.

Baking soda is mainly a quick fix. Mainly add a little and check as it can bounce ph around.

I find that above 7 the seashells don't do much so I add a buffer as well which increases my kh. Over summer my tap is about 8.4, 8.1 after 24hrs but tank runs at 7.3 ph or so and kh of 2 or 3 (so I struggle to keep kh sliding).


http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/KH

 

[jjbeno]

I do have a large piece of wood in the tank maybe that is what is causeing it. I will look into the crushed coral in the filter for sure. What do you use as a buffer? a buffer should help if the pH is too high or too low right? also i am not familier with the relationship between pH and kH, i know there is one but im not sure what it means really and i dont test the kH of my water. I will add crushed coral soon thanks for all your help! i will post results of adding the coral after i have added it.

 

[Delapool]

I do have a large piece of wood in the tank maybe that is what is causeing it. I will look into the crushed coral in the filter for sure. What do you use as a buffer? a buffer should help if the pH is too high or too low right? also i am not familier with the relationship between pH and kH, i know there is one but im not sure what it means really and i dont test the kH of my water. I will add crushed coral soon thanks for all your help! i will post results of adding the coral after i have added it.

I'd suggest getting a kh test kit. I use that more than the ph test kit as once kh drops out, ph will follow. If your lfs does them for free, you could go in and get it checked.

Try the crushed coral/shells first and then look at buffers I would suggest as they should work well at ph below 7 to dissolve and buffer.

The buffer I use as a tweak to maintain kh which then stops ph dropping. I don't aim for a particular ph, more to stop ph decreasing below 7.


I'm not sure what is in this product as it doesn't say. I suspect calcium or sodium carbonates which is really limestone or baking soda but I find it works (possibly as is finely crushed).


http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/water_chemistry.php

Edit - it's getting a bit late here so hopefully that made sense. Kh is a buffer which will stop ph dropping. You can increase kh by adding carbonates/bicarbonates such as coral (natural buffer, slower acting), baking soda (quick fix but that may mean quick tank chemistry change so you have to experiment and 'dial it in') or commercial buffers which are probably a solution compound of the first two or just one.

 

[jpchin]

stable ph is better than a bouncing ph. and adding chemicals to adjust ph is a bad idea. when the chemicals wear off your ph will drop quickly. ph that fluctuates is hard on your fish and can actually kill them. i checked ph requirements for your australian rainbows and giant danios. ph at 6.5 is perfect for them. check your other fish's ph requirements.

 

[Delapool]

After 24 hours the tap water is about 7.0 but straight out of the tap it is more like 7.3 or 7.4. What can i do to raise the pH in my tank. I have had this problem with all of my tanks, this one is actually the highest my other tanks sit around 6.1 but i have had trouble finding a good way to permanently raise my tank pH. Also what could be causeing the pH to lower in the tank?

Well you could try increasing water changes as well depending on how much you pwc each week. At 6.1 your nitrifying bacteria are getting pretty sluggish.