Little Bugs

[aimeeo]

I'm having a problem. I have 5 fish tanks and have never had any problems with them. Now, in my 25 gallon, these little bugs have appeared and they seem to be killing some of my fish.

The tank is a 25 gallon long. It has a Filstar 1 canister filter on it. I vaccuum the tank once every couple of weeks. The bugs showed up after I had used a weekender tablet. Within minutes of me putting it in there, it was covered in the bugs, so I'm guessing they had been in there hiding all along. They are now all over the glass and it looks like they are on some of the fish.

I have 3 small angels, about 9 corys, some tetras, a few dwarf puffers, and a bumblebee cat. Two of my corys died yesterday (very upsetting) and immediately after they fell to the bottom, they were covered in bugs.

Please help me get rid of these. I don't want to lose any more fish.

 

[Menagerie]

[center:906c2ab1f5] Welcome to AA, aimeeo! [/center:906c2ab1f5]

That is upsetting! Can you be more descriptive about the bugs? Do they burrow into the fish, hang off the fish? Color? Size? If you can post a pic, that would be best.

How often do you feed the fish? When was the last time you added a fish? What are the exact water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and temp)?

Do you have a QT tank?

 

[aimeeo]

The bugs are very tiny. You can't really see them unless you get very close to the tank. They almost look like little bubbles at first. They are constantly moving. They look like they are just hanging on the sides of the angel fish.

The fish are fed twice daily. They have frozen blood worms in the morning and tropical flake in the evening.

The tank had only the angels, corys, and the cat. I had all of the others in a 10 gallon tank. I decided to combine the tanks about a week ago. The bugs showed up prior to that.

I just did a test on my water, and the results weren't very good. I don't know if this has anything to do with the bugs or not. I keep the tank around 76 degrees. The test strip shows the following:
Nitrate: Very high (200 ppm)
Nitrite: Very low (0 ppm)
Hardness: Very hard (300 ppm)
Alkalinity: Low (40 ppm)
pH: Acidic (6.2)

What should I do? I've never had problems like this so I don't know how to correct them.

 

[Menagerie]

Nitrate: Very high (200 ppm)

This has everything to do with the bugs. This reading indicates excess nutrients in your tank. Feeding twice a day is too much. Cut back to once a day, or every other day. If these are full sized fish, they will be fine with every other day.

pH: Acidic (6.2)

I believe this is caused by the rotting foods. What is the pH of your tap water (allow a glass of water to sit out over night before testing)?

What should I do? I've never had problems like this so I don't know how to correct them.

The best thing is PWC with a gravel vacuum. For today, do a 50% water change. Tomorrow, the next day, the day after, do a 25% PWC. Keep posting the nitrate levels here. You are aiming to get the nitrate levels to below 40-60 ppm. After this problem is cleared up, keep on a weekly or biweekly regiment of 25% PWCs while vacuuming the gravel.

Adding the weekend feeder, which is packed with too much stuff, brought this problem to your attention. If you leave for a weekend (up to three days), do not feed the fish. They will be happy to see you when you return, but will not have a problem while you are gone.

 

[aimeeo]

Feeding twice a day is too much. Cut back to once a day, or every other day. If these are full sized fish, they will be fine with every other day.

Should I just feed them blood worms then? Some of the fish don't eat flake, but I believe they all eat bloodworms. How long should I continue doing this?

I will do what you said and keep you posted on the progress. Thanks!!

 

[Menagerie]

Should I just feed them blood worms then? Some of the fish don't eat flake, but I believe they all eat bloodworms. How long should I continue doing this?

That's too much protien for all the fish, cut back on the blood worms. Add in algae wafers, try blanched, peeled peas once a week (the cories and tetras will eat them--after looking at you funny). Variety is the spice of life!

For the long term health of hte fish, feed at most once a day from now on. You said you have 5 tanks, what other fish are you keeping and what foods are you feeding them?

 

[aimeeo]

Add in algae wafers, try blanched, peeled peas once a week (the cories and tetras will eat them--after looking at you funny).

Blanched, peeled peas? Where would I get those? Should I just feed bloodworms everyother day alternated with flake? I also have an african dwarf frog in there. What should I feed him? I've only seen him eat bloodworms.

As for my other tanks:

125 Gallon: 2 bala sharks, 2 pink kissing gouramis, 1 pagasius catfish (almost a foot long!), 2 silver dollars, 2 angels, 1 clown knife. All are pretty close to full grown except for the knife. I've only had him about 9 months.

100 Gallon: approx 25 African cichlids, including a baby about 6 months old, and a new one that just appeared the other day (about 1/2 inch long) and 5 algae eaters.

29 Gallon: 6 tiger barbs, 1 African brown knife, 1 skunk botia, 1 yo-yo botia, 1 clown loach, 1 red tailed shark, 1 striped raphael, 1 zebra loach, 2 algae eaters.

25 Gallon: this is the tank with the bugs.

I actually have 4 tanks. I had 5 before I combined the 2 into the bug tank. Any recommendations for feeding on these?

 

[Menagerie]

All of these fish will benefit from a varied diet. If your African cichlids are Mbuna, they are manily herbivores. All of the loaches will eat veggies and algae wafers, plus whatever protein comes there way. With all of the tanks you have, you can easily keep lots of foods on hand. In my fridge for the fish are spirulina pellets, cichlid attack, flakes, shrimp pellets, other little pellets, zucchini, cucumber, broccoli, and sometimes spinage; in the freezer--blood worms, krill, mystis shrimp, daphnia, and peas.

Here is part of a veggie article that will soon be on AA:

Before feeding your fish any vegetable or fruit, rinse thoroughly before cutting up. The fresh foods must be removed after 24-48 hours before they foul up the tank. The veggies and fruits are divided into categories based on how the vegetable or fruit should be prepared. This article will wrap up with how to get the vegetables and fruit to stay put in the aquarium, in order to keep your fish from playing hockey with it.

~Squash (i.e. zucchini and yellow squash) and cucumber
These can be peeled or served with skin on. Remove any seeds since the fish will not eat them. Slice or cube the squash.
~Lima beans, peas (frozen), and sweet corn
Blanch the beans, peas or corn in boiling water for just a moment, cool and peel.
~Broccoli (fresh or frozen)
Using the stalk, peel, blanch, cool, and serve either whole or in slices.
~Cabbage, lettuce, and spinach (fresh or frozen)
Blanching can be done, but some fish will eat the leaves raw.
~Banana, grape, mango, papaya, plantain, and pumpkin
Small chunks of fruit work best, served raw.
~ Apple, carrot, pears, potato, sweet potato and turnip
Peel, slice and serve raw.

How to serve the vegetables and fruit? (This can become a feat in engineering.) The easiest to serve are lima beans, corn and peas. They sink and are eaten as they fall or from the bottom of the tank. If you are feeding a smaller fish, such as a betta, coarsely chopping the lima beans, etc. may be necessary. Any vegetable or fruit that is sliced can easily be placed in a veggie clip or a MagFeeder®. The alternative is rubber banding the slice to a rock. For softer fruits, such as a banana or pumpkin, serve small pieces to start. If there is a problem with it floating, put it in a non-toxic, coarse mesh bag and weight it down. Another suggestion for floating veggies or fruit is to thread fishing line through and place a weight at one end. When serving vegetables that sink, for example, broccoli, you can thread fishing line through and allow the broccoli to sink, leaving enough line on to stick out of the aquarium. After 24 hours, the broccoli can be pulled out with ease.

PM FawN about what to feed the ADF.

 

[aimeeo]

I'm not sure what Mbuna cichlids are, but mine absolutely love bloodworms and krill, so I'm not guessing that they are strictly herbivores. I forgot in my last post, I also have what I believe is a dinosaur eel in my cichlid tank. He prefers the bloodworms and krill also.

So, basically, keep a large variety of food on hand, and alternate different foods every day....and only feed once per day.

i'm not sure how understanding my cichlids are going to be on this regimen since they suck down every bit of food I give them no matter the number of times they are fed. When I walk in there in the evenings, they all come swimming to the front just waiting for food.

 

[aimeeo]

Alright, well after the 50% water change, these are the levels that changed:

The Nitrates went down to 160
The Alkalinity went up to 120 (yay)
The pH went up to 7.2 (yay)

I also lost my frog and one of my tetras. Damn bugs.

 

[Menagerie]

Keep up on the water changes--as you can see it's making a difference already!

I'm not sure what Mbuna cichlids are, but mine absolutely love bloodworms and krill, so I'm not guessing that they are strictly herbivores.

Sorry, Mbuna are rock dwelling cichlids from Lake Malawi in Africa. It's important to know what cichlids you have, since there are so many and they have different needs. Mine would eat blood worms five times a day, if I let them. All fish will take a tasty blood worm, but for these cichlids, it can lead to bloating and death if too much protien is given. If you are not sure of the cichlids you have, post a pic and someone will be abel to help ID them

 

[aimeeo]

Unfortunately, I do not have a digital camera at this time. When I get one, I will be sure to post some pics.

 

[aimeeo]

Alright, well, after doing the 2nd water change this morning (25% this time), the only levels that are still off are the nitrates and hardness. We have hard water, so I don't expect that one to change. The nitrates did go down again. They are around 80, so we are making progress. I'll keep you updated. I have not lost any more fish so far.

 

[Menagerie]

The hardness will not change, but the fish are used to it. Keep getting those nitrates down. Once they reach 10-20 ppm, then continue with the weekly 25% PWC. Are you still seeing the bugs?

 

[aimeeo]

Yep. I sucked up a lot of them with the vaccuum, but there are still a ton of them in there.

 

[aimeeo]

Well, did the water change this morning, but no change in nitrate levels. Still around 80. Plus there are still a bunch of bugs and they are still on my angels. I haven't lost any more fish (yay) but I'm worried.

Someone on another message board said that salt would help. But, he also said that cories are very sensitive to salt, so he said that taking the angels out and putting them in a salt bath should get rid of the ones on them.....but I'm not sure how to get rid of the ones in the tank....

Argh!!! :?

 

[Menagerie]

I wish I knew what bugs you were dealing with. Most cories can handle a bit of salt. The main idea is to change the osmotic concentration enough to kill the little critters and leave the fish alone.

 

[aimeeo]

So, do you think I should try putting some salt in there? If so, how much? Its a 25 gal tank. There are 9 cories in there.

 

[Menagerie]

Start with one tablespoon/5 gals.

 

[aimeeo]

And that won't harm the cories? Should I still continue doing 25% water changes for a day or two?