Moving forward.

[Merit]

Hi All,

I've had a active and healthy 80gal tank for roughly a year. Initially used plants to cycle (took about 1.5 months). Sump filtration, with some carbon in the sock (replaced every two months or so).

Recently I noticed my fish (2 oscars and 1 dempsey) developed cotton ball looking growths on their fins and body. I've done diligence around water changes and making sure all chemicals are on the money.

I've been preforming 30% water changes on a daily basis, using RO water for the swap. Temp holds around 76 degrees. However at this point I've lost all of my fish. I'm curious what may have caused this, was it just ich? Or is there another disease that may have been the issue.

Before I try adding a new fish I want to ensure that everything that can be done is done in order to prevent more problems. I'm hopeful that this will not require a complete tear down, but if that is what needs to happen so be it.

Just looking for some advice on how to move forward. Thanks in advance.

 

[Merit]

On a side note, I've noticed a very similar growth (looks like cotton) on my driftwood. Are there bacteria that could form on both the fish and the decor?

Thanks again.

 

[Pipedreamer86]

Do you have any pictures? That would really help.

 

[Merit]

I can try to get some for everyone should be able to later today.

 

[librarygirl]

How large were they? An 80 would hold one adult Oscar without anything else, for two you'd need about 125 gals, so it's likely that as they grew they are becoming stressed which can lead to diseases. White patches could be a fungus due to deteriorating water conditions, it could also be columnaris which is highly contagious and often fatal if not treated properly. Did you test the water paramaters when the fish died (ammonia, etc)? What was your water change schedule? Also do you usually use RO water or did you just use it when they were sick? Changing water sources like that could also be more detrimental to the fish than keeping things stable, but it's likely whatever disease they had killed them.

 

[Merit]

I used RO water from the start, have a lfs about a block away and have a good relationship with the owner. (free is always nice!)

Both Oscar were at about 4 inches, the Dempsey had hit about 5 inches.

Water changes were typically round 20% every week. Seemed like everyone in the tank got along well, no real dominance issues as each fish had their own caves.

One thing I did notice which made me up the change schedule was my plant life was starting to die off. (sorry I cannot recall the names of plant species at present)

It just seemed like I'd put a dead fish in the sump.. All water ppm was low. I know that we did have a rather drastic heatwave around the time that things started going wrong. Heck even this month we've had temps from 42 to 95. However I've never had that be a problem before.

What kills me is that I am really diligent about keeping tabs on my tank. Between water changes I notice a white buildup on the surface of my sump, but I've always been told that's pretty common and not anything to worry about. (it reminds me of salt buildup in a SW tank. I simply surface sweep the top layer and then finish my water change, most of it dissolves once any turbulence hits the surface however).