Hello everyone,
Sorry in advance for the long post - I want to provide some context to my situation, in order to make it as helpful as possible to anyone reading this in the future.
I believe my tank has suffered a traumatic outbreak of gill flukes, which has killed off half our tank, leaving me beyond frustrated and sad. My Wife and I have had our tank for about 1.5 years. We suffer the occasional fish death, like all owners, but never have lost more than two in a month. Until now.
Tank paramaters:
- 55 gallon freshwater tank
- tank established 1.5 years ago
- water paramaters (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite) nominal
- Two water filters
- One bubbler for oxygen
- No new fish purchased within 3 months
List of Fish in tank (prior to this situation)
- 3 Guppies (3 females: 2 adult, 1 adolescent)
- 2 Bolivian Ram
- 3 Panda Cory's
- 1 Blue Acara
- 1 Phantom Ghost Pleco
We went away on vacation for a week (my in-laws came over to feed our fish while we were gone). Prior to our trip, we did our usual tank maintenance - partial water change, sand cleaning, etc. tested the water levels. Everything was good, fish were happy.
When we came back, we noticed that two of our guppies had died - within 6 hours of our arrival as my in-laws had been over in the morning and all the fish were alive. The rest of the fish looked generally normal - a little lethargic, but it was night time and they had been sleeping.
I immediately checked the water parameters, but everything was perfect. No ammonia, nitrate or nitrite whatsoever. To be safe we did a 30% water change, and went to bed.
The next morning, one of our bolivian rams and our Blue Acara started acting extremely lethargic, and both had clamped tails. They were resting on the bottom of the tank, breathing hard and not eating. I looked up symptoms and it seemed like it could be a variety of things, so I added some aquarium salt and kept an eye on them.
Within 12 hours both of them deteriorated and started swimming erratically, floating sideways, unable to keep their bodies upright. this symptom, combined with the lethargy, clamped fins, heavy breathing, and loss of appetite screamed gill flukes to me. As a result I went and purchased 'API General cure' which I had read on this forum was very effective in killing parasites.
I gave one dose of the general cure, removed the carbon filters from the tank, and waited. The next morning both my Ram and Blue Acara were dead. I was devastated.
However, I still had other fish in the tank which, were all acting a little lethargic, but were still eating, and still salvageable (IMO). So I waited one more day and added another dose of the general cure.
Fish and their status at this time (48 hrs after first treatment of API Gen Cure)
- 1 Guppy: eating normal, prob most normal acting of them all
- 1 Bolivian Ram: acting lethargic, but eating
- 3 Panda Cory's: acting slightly lethargic, but eating
- 1 Phantom Ghost Pleco: hard to judge behavior as I barely see her, but acting normal.
Fish that have Died within 48 hours:
- 2 Adult Guppies
- 1 Bolivian Ram
- 1 Blue Acara
This one hurt the most...she was by far my favorite fish
2 days after giving the second dose of meds (4 days total since first fish died) and overall fish status is unchanged, with the exception of the Ram - which seemed to deteriorate a bit more. (no longer eating - heavy breathing, barely moving).
Fast forward to today (5 days since second dose of meds, 9 days total), and the Ram has shown no signs of improvement. We added one more dose of API General cure, but the Ram is still struggling to move and breathe. From what ive read online, there should be some signs of improvement by now.
At this point, I am not sure what to do...if anything, so I am reaching out for some advice on how to proceed.
Questions I have at the moment:
1. Is it possible I've misdiagnosed the cause? I was about 99% sure the fish had gill flukes, but seeing as the Ram has shown zero improvements after one week of medicine has me second guessing myself.
2. Where did this come from? Gill flukes or not, something happened during the week I was gone that has caused half of my (what I thought) perfectly healthy fish to die in a matter of days. As I mentioned above, we havent added any new fish in months, so whatever happened has either been in the tank the entire time, dormant, or is the result of something Im not thinking of.
3. How long do I need to wait until adding new fish to the aquarium? I would like to get some friends for our guppy, since they get stressed if alone, and also potentially buy a new blue acara, but I dont want to add any fish to this tank until I know for certain its healthy.
Any advice on what I should be doing now, as well as what could have been done earlier to prevent this would be greatly appreciated. I am beyond frustrated that the one week we are gone this happens, and that I was unable to save my Ram and Acara. I am determined to save my remaining Ram.
Attached is a picture of him. He is much darker than normal, and is breathing extremely hard.
Sorry in advance for the long post - I want to provide some context to my situation, in order to make it as helpful as possible to anyone reading this in the future.
I believe my tank has suffered a traumatic outbreak of gill flukes, which has killed off half our tank, leaving me beyond frustrated and sad. My Wife and I have had our tank for about 1.5 years. We suffer the occasional fish death, like all owners, but never have lost more than two in a month. Until now.
Tank paramaters:
- 55 gallon freshwater tank
- tank established 1.5 years ago
- water paramaters (ammonia, nitrate, nitrite) nominal
- Two water filters
- One bubbler for oxygen
- No new fish purchased within 3 months
List of Fish in tank (prior to this situation)
- 3 Guppies (3 females: 2 adult, 1 adolescent)
- 2 Bolivian Ram
- 3 Panda Cory's
- 1 Blue Acara
- 1 Phantom Ghost Pleco
We went away on vacation for a week (my in-laws came over to feed our fish while we were gone). Prior to our trip, we did our usual tank maintenance - partial water change, sand cleaning, etc. tested the water levels. Everything was good, fish were happy.
When we came back, we noticed that two of our guppies had died - within 6 hours of our arrival as my in-laws had been over in the morning and all the fish were alive. The rest of the fish looked generally normal - a little lethargic, but it was night time and they had been sleeping.
I immediately checked the water parameters, but everything was perfect. No ammonia, nitrate or nitrite whatsoever. To be safe we did a 30% water change, and went to bed.
The next morning, one of our bolivian rams and our Blue Acara started acting extremely lethargic, and both had clamped tails. They were resting on the bottom of the tank, breathing hard and not eating. I looked up symptoms and it seemed like it could be a variety of things, so I added some aquarium salt and kept an eye on them.
Within 12 hours both of them deteriorated and started swimming erratically, floating sideways, unable to keep their bodies upright. this symptom, combined with the lethargy, clamped fins, heavy breathing, and loss of appetite screamed gill flukes to me. As a result I went and purchased 'API General cure' which I had read on this forum was very effective in killing parasites.
I gave one dose of the general cure, removed the carbon filters from the tank, and waited. The next morning both my Ram and Blue Acara were dead. I was devastated.
However, I still had other fish in the tank which, were all acting a little lethargic, but were still eating, and still salvageable (IMO). So I waited one more day and added another dose of the general cure.
Fish and their status at this time (48 hrs after first treatment of API Gen Cure)
- 1 Guppy: eating normal, prob most normal acting of them all
- 1 Bolivian Ram: acting lethargic, but eating
- 3 Panda Cory's: acting slightly lethargic, but eating
- 1 Phantom Ghost Pleco: hard to judge behavior as I barely see her, but acting normal.
Fish that have Died within 48 hours:
- 2 Adult Guppies
- 1 Bolivian Ram
- 1 Blue Acara
This one hurt the most...she was by far my favorite fish2 days after giving the second dose of meds (4 days total since first fish died) and overall fish status is unchanged, with the exception of the Ram - which seemed to deteriorate a bit more. (no longer eating - heavy breathing, barely moving).
Fast forward to today (5 days since second dose of meds, 9 days total), and the Ram has shown no signs of improvement. We added one more dose of API General cure, but the Ram is still struggling to move and breathe. From what ive read online, there should be some signs of improvement by now.
At this point, I am not sure what to do...if anything, so I am reaching out for some advice on how to proceed.
Questions I have at the moment:
1. Is it possible I've misdiagnosed the cause? I was about 99% sure the fish had gill flukes, but seeing as the Ram has shown zero improvements after one week of medicine has me second guessing myself.
2. Where did this come from? Gill flukes or not, something happened during the week I was gone that has caused half of my (what I thought) perfectly healthy fish to die in a matter of days. As I mentioned above, we havent added any new fish in months, so whatever happened has either been in the tank the entire time, dormant, or is the result of something Im not thinking of.
3. How long do I need to wait until adding new fish to the aquarium? I would like to get some friends for our guppy, since they get stressed if alone, and also potentially buy a new blue acara, but I dont want to add any fish to this tank until I know for certain its healthy.
Any advice on what I should be doing now, as well as what could have been done earlier to prevent this would be greatly appreciated. I am beyond frustrated that the one week we are gone this happens, and that I was unable to save my Ram and Acara. I am determined to save my remaining Ram.
Attached is a picture of him. He is much darker than normal, and is breathing extremely hard.
