Fin rot and planaria in tank..?

[kfelton22]

I have my guppies in a 15 gallon tank, started out with 2 males and 8 females. One of the males died last weekend and I thought it was because his fins got stuck in a piece of decor because that's where he was when I found him.. he died shorty after. The females have been dying one by one, like every day to every other day a fish is dying! I had 4 this morning and one was dead when I got home from work. No symptoms.. no signs of injury. My tank parameters are fine but I am treating for possible fin rot with melafix. I did a 50% water change last friday because my nitrates were around 40ppm so the water is pretty fresh. I also have 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons of water in the tank to help stress and illness. The male has some damage to his tail fin that keeps getting worse and he has a white discoloration to his body. He has been acting fine until today and now he is sitting on the bottom, sickly looking and I'm sure the end is near. Also, when I was looking into the tank a few minutes ago I found a small white/grayish worm swimming around in the water. It didn't look like a detritus worm (they are spindly and wiggly looking), this worm had a thicker body and two short antenna like projections on the front of its head. It almost reminded me of a larva or maggot. I immediately scooped it out and killed it. I am on day 6 of the melafix treatment, and will thoroughly clean the tank when the treatment is over, but was the worm I described a planaria worm and could that be the reason my fish are dying?? I haven't seen the worm in any of my other tanks and the fish in my other tanks seem healthy and fine. I need some input/advise as how to care for my remaining guppies. Also I would like to hear how you all treat for planaria (if that's what the worm was). After the fin rot treatment should I take the tank down and bleach the whole thing to take care of the possible fin rot? I would hate to have to re-cycle it, but whatever will take care of the issues. The tank is planted also, so how do I treat my plants to prevent re-contamination??

 

[kfelton22]

Some more information that might be helpful...

I did a gravel vacuum last Friday when I did a 50% water change

I have had the guppies ranging from 3 weeks to maybe 2 months.. I got different ones at different times.

I recently added new Java moss to my tanks (I split it up between the tanks to start it in all of them).. I think it was Saturday when I added the moss. Fish were dying before that and I started treating for Fin rot that night because I noticed one of my females had some fin damage and my male had frayed fins with pieces missing from the end. I have no other breed of fish in the tank with them. The guppies ranged in size from less than an inch in length to grown mature fish.

My ammonia and nitrites are at 0.. nitrates are 20-40ppm.

I have a aquaclear 70 (300 gph) filter on the tank.

I have been feeding tropical flakes and freeze dried bloodworms.

The tank has been established for around 2 months.

Let me know if any more info is needed.

 

[BBradbury]

Tank Management

Hello kfel...

Keeping fish healthy is really fairly simple once you know and follow some steps. Here are some that helped me:

No small tanks. They're too hard to keep clean. A 30 G or larger is a good size. Save the tiny tanks for much later.

Large, regular water changes are the most important thing for your tank. You have to remove the dissolved fish wastes before they build up and stress the fish.

Plant the tank well, both top and bottom. Get the dark green plants. Thy're easy to keep and help maintain good water conditions between water changes.

Get hardy fish. Platys, Guppies and Swordtails if you want livebearers. Danios, Rasboras and White Clouds if you want egglayers. You still have to maintain the tank water, though.

Don't feed too much. Just a bit every couple of days is enough. Fish have tiny stomachs. It takes next to nothing to sustain them. They'll forage around the tank for a leftover and keep the tank cleaner.

This should get you started. Just a some suggestions. You're the keeper of the water.

B

 

[Fishfur]

If you check some pics of planaria online, you'll see they don't have antennae. They are very flat, beigish in colour, and the head end is slightly triangular in shape. There is a pair of spots, called eye spots, at the head end too. They usually glide along the glass or over plants or substrate and are relatively harmless.

Species usually seen in North American aquariums are quite small and really can't do much harm to anything, with the possible exception of newborn dwarf shrimp. They usually increase in numbers when there's plenty of food, so reducing feeding helps reduce planaria. There are traps you can use and remedies that can kill them if the numbers really get out of hand. They usually come in with plants or sometimes even in the water bag with livestock.

There is a very large Asian species that grows to more than 1.25 inches long and more than .25 inches wide, and they can do some damage, but they all have a stomach on the underside, and secrete digestive juices onto prey or food items they have crawled onto. So most fish are still not going to get hurt, nor are most shrimp, unless they are sick or dying and lying on the bottom where planaria can crawl over them.

Planaria get a really bad rep, but mainly they're just not nice to look at and so if you have many of them most of us want to get rid of them. You can try fasting fish one or two days a week, along with reducing the amount you feed other days, to help cut back on detritus feeders like planaria.

 

[militantpotato]

Sounds a bit like columnaris?
Fish Columnaris | Fungus & Saprolegnia | Treatment & Prevention