My fish died during the heat treatment for ich...

[Mad Professor]

I lost track of time, since I am busy with alot stuff..
Last week 3 of my neons died, I cleaned it up check the temps to see it pushing 96F
3days of adjusting it back to 87F..
then only one weekend I'm gone and my heater malfunctioned and sends my fishies to fish heaven.
rest of my 4 neons died, some fry, and a male guppy...
1 female and few fry and the 2 catfish are still alive in 100F water.
not to mention my pleaco has some sort of white fungus under his belly-side... this is not the first time my heater has malfunctioned...

44 gallon, not tested.
20% partial waterchange 1 week ago.
oh yeah at 100f my water level went down 10%.
yeah it wasn't hard to noticed that there may have been something wrong with it..
At least in a good way there is no way Ich could of survive...

I tried to get some pictures of the pleaco but right now he's under a rock, sucking on that.
so when he comes to the glass I'll get a picture.
right now, its a White fungus, that looks like a slit, but not an actual wound... about 1inch long in a vertical postion with the pleaco.
and no wider than a headphone wire...
I hope this helps?

 

[rubysoho]

sorry to hear about your losses. I suggest investing in a good heater and a little thermometer on the side of your glass if you don't already have them. That way if you do leave, anyone who is watching the tank can easily tell if something is wring.


Can't help you with the pleco. Do some extra water changes because ammonia becomes more toxic in higher water temps. The pleco may have gotten this fungus/whatever because it was stressed from the temps and decreased water quality which leads to a susceptability to diseases.

 

[Mad Professor]

sorry to hear about your losses. I suggest investing in a good heater and a little thermometer on the side of your glass if you don't already have them. That way if you do leave, anyone who is watching the tank can easily tell if something is wring.


Can't help you with the pleco. Do some extra water changes because ammonia becomes more toxic in higher water temps. The pleco may have gotten this fungus/whatever because it was stressed from the temps and decreased water quality which leads to a susceptability to diseases.

yeah I thought about that, since this heater pushing 6 years of 150 watt pleasure.
at the moment I lefted the tank unmanned, for 3 days, this is what happens in 3 days. When I got home I just dropped food in, and hit the bed.. now its tuesday and just getting around to check the tank.
I still can't find the bodies of the neons.
oh well I wasn't too dissappointed with the death of the fry, they were growing slowly. its been 2months since they were born, and they weren't beautiful as there mother of father..., but I'm upset with the neons deaths, because they were there since the begining... oh well I guess I'll get the python out and start another 20% water change.. then do 10% every other day.
20%=8.8 U.S Gal. 10% = 4.4 U.S Gal.
I think I'll wash out the filter sleeve, to see if the bodies got sucked in..

 

[tkos]

The dead fish were probably eaten by now. Plecos can be meat eaters too. I would throw out that heater right now. 1 mistake might b okay but multiple times malfunctioning is bad. And get a good quality heater like a Tronic. They cost more but are much more reliable. Also on longer tanks sometimes 2 heaters area better idea. That way you can buy smaller ones that won't be able to do as much damage if they get stuck on for too long.

I would continue to treat for ich / fungus by keeping the heat up high and adding 1 tsp of salt per gallon of water to the tank. Keep that up until the fungus clears. Don't add new fish until the tank is stable.

 

[rubysoho]

I don't agree with the salt because that is bad for fish like plecos and can kill them. Something to do with the difference of their skin in that it isn't scaled like normal fish.

 

[Mad Professor]

Like I said it was 6 years old, and the only reason is that I don't use it much. the last time I used it is when I lost the power to my house in winter, 2 years ago.
This is the forth week and I was rolling back to the normal temps, and thats where everything went wrong.
I prefer no salt, I need another treatment for the fungus.
Pleaco is acting normal, no loss of coloring. Just this eye sore of white fungus...
I'm going to fix the heater, no sense in throwing away a working heater...

 

[tkos]

Salt and plecos is fine. I understand if you don't want to use it but it will not hurt the pleco. Plecos can't tolerate long term salt exposure, especially of the brackish water kind but 1 tsp per gallon of salt over a few weeks is not long term exposure.
Medications can be just as rough or rougher on scalless fish.

Regardless something liek Melafix might do the trick. It is a teatree oil based medication.

(Oh and plecos have scales).

 

[rubysoho]

hmmm, maybe I am confusing my fish now... I didn't sleep very well last night. I second the melafix though. Not a fan of using meds in my tank but that is one I have used with a gold nugget pleco and everyone was just fine.

 

[greenmaji]

when heaters go this overheating is there typical action, you could have had it set on 76degrees it would have had the same result.. some people try to get 2 heaters that are roughly 2.5wpg each to keep this from happening (so if one heater starts rising the temperature it is less powerfull then just one heater twice its size.) I havnt tried this yet, I would suspect it might be worth trying though

 

[Mad Professor]

The problem with salt is that I don't want to cycle the tank, leaving be 2 emerald cory catfish and 1 female guppy and some fry.
Hey do you think the fungus will go away on its own?
Because the pleaco looks healthy, and acts normal, and it doesn't look like its contagious...
what do you think?

 

[tkos]

I am confused as to why salt would cycle the tank? Fungus might go dormant but would not be killed off. Sometimes heat can speed up its life cycle, so that might have been enough to make it go dormant. Keep your eyes open in case it returns.

 

[Mad Professor]

yeah I got you confused, as in, I have to pull my filter media out, and add the salt so it won't get in the filter media, the good bacteria dies, from the lack of bad bacteria. Or from what I read on salt treatments in this forum...
oh no! Heat what brought this fungus to the pleaco in the first place. But I guess the saying fight fire with fire, is true then... LOL!

But I just don't like adding anything like salt or meds to my tank.

 

[Puriti]

Do you have a quarentine tank? You could put meds in there? cuz there's not much you can do other than maybe medicate it or put salt in the water, that's what it looks like to me anyways other than nature take it's course but I could be wrong ^^;

 

[Mad Professor]

I was thinking on buying one today, since my old one had crack in the glass...
well anyways, I'm going to fall off subject here, I'm still trying to get the picture of the pleaco, since he still obess with that drift wood in there..
well anyways, I checked the ten gallon tank, that I share with my sister since she now back at school. I'm taking care of her fish, but I split the tank and use it as a breeding tank and right now in my section I have 3 fry. but 2 of them, what seem to be like dropsy to me. well I got a picture of it.

sry she kept moving around...
but under her belly theres a white spot, and it seems like she has no scales there, only one other fry exhibits similar symptoms, but not as large....
I know theres not much that can be treated for dropsy, but what do you think.. all the other fish don't have it besides the 2..
I'm still trying to get the pleaco's picture, but he's shy of the camara.

 

[tkos]

You don't have to remove the filter media to run salt. It won't affect the bacteria until the SG gets somewhere near 1.004 or so. Addign 1tsp of salt (NaCl) per gallon of water won't even register on a SG meter. I have run salt in the past, especially on betta tanks (and bettas are not always great with full strength meds) and there is never a problem.

I still don't see how a QT tank is a good idea. If there is fungus in the tank at this point all the fish are exposed to it and should be treated.

 

[Mad Professor]

well its only the pleaco, after looking at it, it appears to be a white lesion type fungus. theres no fuzz on it, and its not lumpy. It like someone took white-out and paint a 1" stretch diamond shape ring on him, that the center shows his skin...
I wish he hurries up on sucking that drift wood, other wise I'm going to poke him with a net, so I can take a picture of his underside...

 

[Mad Professor]

Its now not as white as it was.
here's the picture finally!

had to shine a flashlight so you could see.
when it was at 100F it was very white...
but now its like a tan... hope this helps.
now I got to go find another battery...

 

[Puriti]

hmmm...

http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm

I dont know if this will help but see if it shows any symptoms you've noticed.

FishProfiles.com has a disease thing too where you can try process of elimination but it may not be correct if the analysis is wrong..


I'm tryna find this really good website I saw someone post before >.>

 

[Mad Professor]

hmmm...

http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm

I dont know if this will help but see if it shows any symptoms you've noticed.

FishProfiles.com has a disease thing too where you can try process of elimination but it may not be correct if the analysis is wrong..


I'm tryna find this really good website I saw someone post before >.>

well, I looked at both of the links and the only thing that comes close enough is white patches, fungus, but its not white anymore, its tan.
but it doesn't look like it bothering him or any other fish.
My last female guppy, isn't looking to good.
Just sits on bottom, looks malnutrition.
Decided to drop a little bit of extra food in the tank, and she did NOTHING!
so Either she is ill or stressed beyond any levels of recovery...
but the fry and catfishes seems to be doing fine..

Thanks for helping but I assume its in nature's hands.

 

[Puriti]

If she starts to look like her skin color's fading in one area, she's got a fungal disease. My dalmatian molly died from that after she gave birth and it affected my betta fish too. She just stayed in one spot, didn't eat, and then I began to notice a bare spot on her side, completely white with no spots. She died the next day. But it could be other things, cuz I'm sure fish exhibit those same signs with other diseases, that's just ime ^^;

I'd just keep an eye on her conditions, she may or may not get better depending on the diagnosis you come up with while she's like that and how far it's progressed (if she's sick at all). Glad your pleco's doing better! and I'm also glad that your other fish are thriving as well. Hope your guppy gets better!