help!

[Fringepod]

Ok so I went on an extended trip (7 weeks) and came home to sick fish, and not sure how to treat as symptoms vary. This is in a year+ old 75 gallon heavily planted. Current parameters are ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 10. pH 6.5 temp around 81 (it's the summer). The water was changed twice while I was gone and fish fed every other day.


I have a Cory who just looks rotten, covered in white but is not acting sick at all. It doesn't look like columnaris but I could be wrong. I have a bleeding heart that is bloated with a pale abdomen. I have another bleeding heart with some rot on his tail. I had a flying fox die a strange death, this guy was the picture of health for years (previously living in another tank) and he was swimming along the substrate (as is usual) but slightly sideways and slightly curled. He was clearly very sick based on behavior but only outward physical sign was paleness. I lost a bolivian ram and bristlenose while I was gone.


Here are the stupid things I did: Forgot to take the polyfil out of the filter before leaving and it got a bit clogged so the tank had a lot of organic matter in it (and the light had been pushed so far back by the guy that changed the water that the plants in the front were losing leaves, adding to general detritus). The second totally stupid thing was I bought a fish just before leaving and didn't quarantine. The day before leaving I saw that he had given everyone ich so I left with salt in the tank and temps at 86 with instructions to lower the heat 2 weeks later (which it was) and the ich resolved. But said fish (bristlenose who is no longer with us) could of bright other things too and with the organic matter buildup, it led to problems.


I ordered a bunch of meds but have only been using paragaurd thus far, on day 5. Rotten cory and pale/bloated bleeding heart not showing much improvement. If I see no improvement I was going to try medicating food with kandamycin and focus (also have metro as some suggested do metro and kandamycin together?). I also have polygaurd and triplesulfa available. I want to avoid killing my filter if at all possible obviously....


Anyway, help! I've been in the hobby for 20 years and never had anything beyond ich. This illness/medication business is so confusing! My other tanks appear to be fine...

 

[Autumnsky]

Hello,

Welcome to the community, sorry your arrival is due to unfortunate circumstances.

Although the tank parameters seem fine now, it is plain that was not the case when you came home.

Large degrading of the plant material in the tank, whether due to the initial high temps and then later, or in conjunction to the loss of regular lighting, as you can guess will cause a HUGE change in tank parameters.

With no one really who knows the tank there to see the problems developing, like you, it got worse. Seemingly there were some stronger fish and some weaker fish to come out of the disaster.

Doing big changes in making the water fresh again, when you got home, very quickly, can also cause additional stress on the fish as they can get used to bad water conditions and quick changes further weaken the fish.

Anyhow, so you are at the point now with good water quality from your readings.

Do you happen to know what the water parameters were right when you got back and before you cleaned things up?

The best way to heal is to keep fresh water excellent water quality and maybe add Epsom Salts ( can provide more info if wanted for that).

The Cory looks possibly ammonia burned. I can't really tell anything on the other fish. Also from reading I have done, fish exposed to NitrIte can die later from internal damage up to 3 weeks later. Just in case you see a vast improvement in the next few weeks but then deaths later.

Adding medications without a real need to do so can further stress fish and possibly cause further damage too.

 

[JackBinimbul]

Oh, man, how distressing! I don't have anything particularly helpful to add, just sympathy. Though I do think Autumn is right about the cory. Since they don't have scales, they tend to present ammonia burn differently.

Good luck. I hope the survivors recover.

 

[Fringepod]

Thanks guys for the replies the fish still look like they did, cory maybe a tad better. And yeah clearly parameters went south with dying plant mass. I could be wrong but I'm doubting ammonia spike or nitrate poisoning, just because there are so many plants. I sense that all the gunk and heat just invited bacteria to take hold of fish with lesser immune systems? On my 20, after the water was changed a week before I returned, the guy changing my water forgot to turn the filter back on (groan!!) All fish survived in that tank until I got home and appeared in good health (other tanks too). These tanks are planted to the gills. Obviously bb are important but the poop is used up pretty quick, and they weren't being fertilized as much as usual and feeding cut in half to every other day instead of daily.



I wish I would have tested when I got home. Auto pilot first thing I did was clean out the filter and do a 50% water change. I figured since it was changed only a week before I got there it wouldn't be too much of a shock to the system. I did feed some kanamycin laced food twice, but I'm going to cool it on the meds for now and just watch, like you said I don't want to stress them out even more than they already are.Let's hope I don't have to be away for such an extended period again!