Fish dying please help!

[quitters]

Hi guys ive been hoping the problem wil just go away but its not.

The disease is affecting my gold tetras, so far none of the other fish have been affected and my guppies are having babies and the babies are growing up fine.

The gold tetras loose their scales, then stop eating, go really skinny and then start swimming lopsided and then die, ive lost one a month for the last 6 months and now the others are getting the same loss of scales.

they turn REALLY skinny and hide at the bottom before starting to swim lop sided. I have looked at a lot of photos and nothing matches my symptoms.

Here are my tank specs id love some help please!...

29 Gallon, properly cycled, fluval 204 full of bio balls
i do 25% water changes and vacum every week, dechlorinating ph and hardness matching (6.8ph and 5-6 dkh).
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = Less than 30
Phosphate = less then 1
i feed them freeze dried brine shrimp and blood worms and flakes and algae pellets (maybe too much but i keep a good eye on my nitrates.ammonie ect.)

I havnt kept a good control on foregn things entering my tank (took some fish from a friend whose tank later broke out in a deseise) but all the fish are fine its just the gold tetras being affected!?!

So i dont know, do you guys think i should quarantine just the tetras, or med the whole tank which i really dont want to do because its cycled nicely, and what meds should i use? it sounds like i should be able to just quarantine the gold tetras and leave the tank for now yeh? its just i have a really expensive pleco in the tank so im a bit worried

What do u guys think i should do?

Thanks for any help in advance!

EDIT: Sorry one more question, how long will ammonia build up with 7 adult gold tetras in an 8gal quarantine tank? not over .5 - 1 in 24 hours yeh?

 

[Devilishturtles]

Hi quitters. Sounds like your fish are suffering from some sort of internal infection. Parasites would be my first guess. What I would do first, would be to find some anti-parasitic medicated fish food (if the fish are eating). If not, try finding metronidazole or praziquantel, Jungles Parasite Clear has these in it. You can also fine them as their own product.

You should be okay with the QT. Just monitor the readings. Putting in a filter cartridge will help lots.

Best of luck.

 

[quitters]

thanks heaps!

Do those meds kill benefitial bacteria?

 

[severum mama]

I've used antibiotics in the past and found that the biofilter was affected, even though the packaging claims otherwise. Still, I would treat the whole tank. Your tank will likely experience a cycle to some degree so keep your test kit handy.

Good luck with your treatment, hope it solves your problem.