CJonline
Aquarium Advice Regular
I know this will be really long but please read… I need help.
I have a 60 gal tank that I have had a lot of problems with lately, I’m hoping someone can help me. The tank has been cycled for about 5 months now. I do a water change every 5 days about 20 or 25% at a time. I test the water every other day, always get the same thing… 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 6.8 ph and I keep the tank at about 80. The test kit is new and the expiration date on all the bottles is 06/2014 and I always really shake the nitrate bottles I know that is an issue (during the cycle I had a nitrates at about 20 but it went down and never came back). It has been heavily stocked with live plants since the beginning. I have a OTB filter that would be for a 75 gal tank and a canister filter that is for a 120 gal.
After it cycled I slowly got stocked it with 2 angels, 5 red line barbs, 4 pictus catfish, and 3 congo tetras.
About a month ago one of my pictus catfish was acting funny. I noticed he was swimming in circles towards the bottom of the tank but he looked fine otherwise so I went to bed. I got up the next morning and he looked like he was shedding skin, breathing hard and his barbs were gone. I set up the hospital tank and pulled him. I didn’t treat him because I had no idea what he had and I needed to talk to someone. He died before I got back with meds. Everyone else in the tank looked fine, but I did a 50% water change and kept a close eye on the fish. 3 days later another pictus started the swimming thing, I pulled all the pictus and put them in the small tank treated with Pima and Melafix. The pictus slowly died one right after another before the treatment was done. After the second pictus dies the red line barbs started showing patches of white on their fins and tail with large white areas on their bodies. I put the Pima and Melafix in the 60 gal too and treated the full 7 days even though I lost all the barbs and pictus. The tetras started showing the same things I did a large water change and put in General Cure, I lost all my tetras and one angel. It has now been 2 weeks since the first fish died.
The remaining angel showed no sickness so I put him in with my upside down catfish in the 30 gal and cleaned the 60. I drained all water cleaned and siphoned the gravel, cleaned the filters, filled it back up, let it run for a day and then I put in 6 danios. Everything seemed fine so a week later I put in my sons betta and three neons. Everything was fine for a couple of days. Then the danios and neons started showing the same white patches on their bodies and fins and the last one died this morning. The betta is the only thing in there and he seems fine, for now.
The Angel that was put in the 30 is great. Never got sick.
Now my questions are: Any idea what happened? What I can do? Should I bleach the tank out and cycle the tank again? What do I do with all the live plants?
I have a 60 gal tank that I have had a lot of problems with lately, I’m hoping someone can help me. The tank has been cycled for about 5 months now. I do a water change every 5 days about 20 or 25% at a time. I test the water every other day, always get the same thing… 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0 nitrates, 6.8 ph and I keep the tank at about 80. The test kit is new and the expiration date on all the bottles is 06/2014 and I always really shake the nitrate bottles I know that is an issue (during the cycle I had a nitrates at about 20 but it went down and never came back). It has been heavily stocked with live plants since the beginning. I have a OTB filter that would be for a 75 gal tank and a canister filter that is for a 120 gal.
After it cycled I slowly got stocked it with 2 angels, 5 red line barbs, 4 pictus catfish, and 3 congo tetras.
About a month ago one of my pictus catfish was acting funny. I noticed he was swimming in circles towards the bottom of the tank but he looked fine otherwise so I went to bed. I got up the next morning and he looked like he was shedding skin, breathing hard and his barbs were gone. I set up the hospital tank and pulled him. I didn’t treat him because I had no idea what he had and I needed to talk to someone. He died before I got back with meds. Everyone else in the tank looked fine, but I did a 50% water change and kept a close eye on the fish. 3 days later another pictus started the swimming thing, I pulled all the pictus and put them in the small tank treated with Pima and Melafix. The pictus slowly died one right after another before the treatment was done. After the second pictus dies the red line barbs started showing patches of white on their fins and tail with large white areas on their bodies. I put the Pima and Melafix in the 60 gal too and treated the full 7 days even though I lost all the barbs and pictus. The tetras started showing the same things I did a large water change and put in General Cure, I lost all my tetras and one angel. It has now been 2 weeks since the first fish died.
The remaining angel showed no sickness so I put him in with my upside down catfish in the 30 gal and cleaned the 60. I drained all water cleaned and siphoned the gravel, cleaned the filters, filled it back up, let it run for a day and then I put in 6 danios. Everything seemed fine so a week later I put in my sons betta and three neons. Everything was fine for a couple of days. Then the danios and neons started showing the same white patches on their bodies and fins and the last one died this morning. The betta is the only thing in there and he seems fine, for now.
The Angel that was put in the 30 is great. Never got sick.
Now my questions are: Any idea what happened? What I can do? Should I bleach the tank out and cycle the tank again? What do I do with all the live plants?
Did you sterilize everything when you cleaned the 60? It honestly sounds like columnaris. Just draining & refilling the tank would not have been sufficent to kill it. Nor is mela/pimafix or Gen Cure (which is anti-parasitic med). Its a gram negative bacterial infection that can kill before a fish even has symptoms or it can fester for weeks (or longer) depending on the strain. Heres some more info on it:
