Help, fish dying!!

[kmlong]

Well the beginning of the week i lost a danio and about 3 weeks ago i lost a danio as well. Now today i came home and turned the light on and now my guaramis looks terrible! He is all skinny and having a hard time staying level. There is nothing visibly wrong with him. He even ate some pellets i put in! You can see his skeletal compostion. And i'm positive this was just overnight. My parameters are fine, ph just a tad high at 7.6. I alternate between bloodworms, betta pellets(which the other fish love), aquarian flakes, and hikari micro pellets. Have not had a problem with feeding. The tank is FW and 20gal. What is going on? Is there a general medication i can put in the whole tank with the other fish in there or must i quarentine him? What meds are good? I have carbon in both my cartridges. The one filter cartridge i can open up and get rid of the carbon but the cartridge for the min biowheel has carbon in it and you get open that. I know carbon will remove meds so what do i do? I was kinda hoping there was something i could use to medicate the whole tank just in case the other fish are carrying something around. I have no spare tanks for quarantine so for now i'm gonna have to put him in a bowl or something with some new water. Do quarantine tanks have to be up and running like a regular tank- filter, heater, etc? everone's help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Meredith]

ok, so I am new at this, but I just went through a whole qt thing, I doubt that anyone will give you med suggestions without knowing exactly what is wrong with your fish, but I would definitely say get the questionable one out of the tank. Had I done that in the begining, I think I may have had less fish loss. Where you will put him, I don't know, but I think that after a few weeks, carbon is useless. So if its been in your tank a while, I don't think it will filter out meds. good luck!

 

[An t-iasg]

Moved to Unhealthy Fish forum...

kmlong, what were the danio's symptoms? (sorry if you posted about that before!) Is the gourami the only one that's sick now? You should put him in a QT tank, away from the other fish. A QT tank should have a filter, but no carbon, and a heater. It doesn't have to be a tank -- it can be a rubbermaid container that's big enough for the heater. Don't let the heater touch the plastic. You don't have to put gravel in either, but a plastic or silk plant would be ok. Don't worry that a QT tank isn't cycled like a regular tank. You'll be doing daily, or every other day, water changes anyway, and if you add any medicines, they would probably kill the cycling bacteria.

Watch the gourami and see if his symptoms change. If he's very thin, I suspect parasites. Does his waste look white and stringy? That's a sign of parasites too. Does he have any white cottony fuzz on him? I know you said there is nothing visibly wrong, but keep an eye on him and let us know if his symptoms change.

About the fish not staying level, that could be swimbladder disease. I read that sometimes hard dry pellets eaten quickly can swell up inside the fish's intestines and they may not be able to control the swim bladder properly. I soak my betta pellets in a small amount of tankwater for about 2 minutes before feeding. If the swimbladder problem persists, it could be a bacterial infection. I would QT him and watch carefully for other symptoms, and then let us know how he's doing and we'll see which medications are needed.