Fish Lips Falling Off???

[jlk]

Hopefully, your fish loss will slow but unfortunately, columnaris (and similar infections) can wipe out an entire tank in a very short period of time. Thats the bad news. Do you have somewhere else you can move your shrimp? I believe this med may be especially harmful to inverts. Inverts generally do not acquire fish diseases so this is not a concern.

In respect to a wc, how do your parameters look? Are they stable?

 

[stepho725]

I will take a look when I get home. Thinking about going to grab a 10gal for the shrimp and snails. So as far as cycling....should I fill it with current tank water?

 

[jlk]

With the meds in the tank, I would not use this water for the shrimp/snails. Just use temp matched, properly conditioned new water. If the parameters in the new tank are different then the main tank (namely ph), I would take the time to acclimate your shrimp/snails to their new water.

 

[stepho725]

Wow that was stupid of me....I mean could I put half the tank with the other tanks water and then dechlorinize??

 

[stepho725]

Okay what about cycling? How can I do this without a crazy nitro bloom? Found a 10gal with everything on CL for $15 - going to call in a few mins.

 

[jlk]

I would not mix the medicated tanks water with new water for shrimp. Give them new water & acclimate them. In respect to cycling, snails/shrimp do not have much of a bioload so it should be pretty easy to keep your toxin levels under control until you can move them back to their home.

 

[stepho725]

Okay so the 10 was no longer available and I was going to go get the 10G from Petco for $10 but then realized I have no heater so that's a no go.
All I can really do at this point is hope for the best ....or hope for another deal on CL.

 

[stepho725]

So I found a 5.5gallon with hood & light for the inverts for $10. Yay! Hoping I can pick it up tonight. After they are all set I will put my African clawed frog in there till I can get a bigger tank for her. She has been in a 3 gallon since I got her off CL as a baby and is now gigantic so I'm sure she will appreciate the bit of extra room. Only thing is now I need a heater...and I'm gonna have to put a 29G filter on it...lol talk about overfiltration!!

 

[stepho725]

Another dead bloodfin and bamboo shrimp. I'm expecting the snails to go soon since the shrimp is gone. Will also probably lose my last bloodfin.....whats up next? Neons & gouramis are all that's left ..
Oops forgot my bottom feeders...
I'm REALLY discouraged after losing our most favorite shrimp...ever!

 

[Hholly]

Bummer sorry its going so bad.

 

[stepho725]

New concern came up tonight. I left the tank alone for the last few days and just added the medicine (which I'm done with now as all look healthy). So tonight did an ammonia test and it was around a 2.0+ !
I'm very confused about this as I was testing a .25-.50 last week and got the ammonia remover media for my aquaclear filter & lost fish & have been feeding less...so what the heck??? Why would it have jumped so much besides that I was about 3 days overdue for a PWC?
Did a 25% change tonight after the test results....any ideas as to the possible cause?
Thanks friends!

 

[Hholly]

I wonder if the meds killed your BB? I would proceed as if you were cycling the tank with lots of water changes.

 

[stepho725]

Good point...but the med was apparently just a pure chlorine so I guess the question becomes would chlorine kill BB? I suppose it is possible. I swear.... if I now lose more fish because my tank has to cycle again UGH!! And WAH!! ::cries::

 

[Hholly]

Chlorine is bleach and kills all bacteria. Sorry, but you're cycling. What med did you use?

 

[stepho725]

Maracyn-oxy....my Opaline gourami looks like its fins are becoming slightly blackened...gotta keep an eye on that and will keep up with daily water changes.
This is like my poorest week of the month so I can't afford to buy antibiotics or BB.
Gotta try to tough it out...

 

[Hholly]

You don't need to buy BB or beneficial bacteria. It grows in your filter. That's what converts ammonia to nitrate. Just keep up the water changes and it will regrow.

 

[stepho725]

Also I usually use Prime during water changes for dechlorinator. Is this going to kill my BB also?? I just finished a 50% change and ammonia was still at a 2 beforehand and I put the prime in without thinking. There was also 15 nitrite and 20 nitrate....does that sound right for a cycling tank?

 

[Scottyhorse]

Wow, I am so sorry about all this I wonder what caused it!

 

[Hholly]

Also I usually use Prime during water changes for dechlorinator. Is this going to kill my BB also?? I just finished a 50% change and ammonia was still at a 2 beforehand and I put the prime in without thinking. There was also 15 nitrite and 20 nitrate....does that sound right for a cycling tank?

Prime is good. It won't hurt your BB. Your nitrites are extremely high. You need to keep doing water changes to get them down to .25 or lower. But yeah, it's cycling.

 

[stepho725]

Oops typo!! I meant 1.5 nitrites lol sorry