For a few weeks it has seemed there was a bacterial infection in the fish tank, I used salt, 1 TSP per gal. Then Epsom salt at a rate of 1 tbl per 10 gaL.
After not getting any positive result. I used Maracyn-2 at a rate of 1 packet per 10 gallons, doubled for the first day. So 14 packets for a 72G tank plus a few gallons in the Fluval FX-5.
Administered yesterday early afternoon.
This morning, getting ready to walk out the door for work, debated for a minute about whether to leave the light on, decided not to, but to turn it on to check the fish before I left.
I will spare most of the awful details, but numerous sideways fish , my two giant 7 inch Siamese Algae eaters both dead, Koi angel dead, misc blue tetras, Amano shrimp dead.
My huge Charcoal grey Red Tail Shark almost white, splotched with grey, normally bright red tail, clear, not red, and mostly sideways in a bad way.
All the fish were trying to be near the top of the water.
The filter was running fine, blasting out water.
Did emergency water change adding new water for the first 25 gallons till the existing fish perked up and seemed better. Adding maximum amount of Prime.
Did the pwc of about 50% more.
Was gone for a short day at work got back 6 hours later, all the fish were at the top of the tank again, looking sad.
Did emergency 75% pwc also checked water while waiting for it to drain,.
Temp is 80F now was appx 78F before
Had no ammonia,
0 Nitrites,
10 Nitrates - For sure could have been higher
pH was 6.2/6.4 haven't checked that for over a month or so, so I can't guess what it was before this happened, but over a month ago was appx. 7.2 pH. It normally runs in the 7-7.2 range in the winter when the water company starts using a different reserve reservoir then as the snow pack melts they go back to the normal one which is around 6.4 ish.
Maybe 5 days ago I did a pwc.
Added the maximum of Prime, and left the water level lower in the tank so the infow from the filter will bubble like a monster, plus added the extra air pump before I got the water level down lower.
Tank is appx 2/3 full of water now and it appears that the fish seem to be behaving more like normal.
So I am guessing I killed of all my BB even though the package said when used as directed it wouldn't harm the biological filter.
Was it the combination of Epsom salts with it?
The directions didn't say anything about anything like that.
Back to the original illness.
There were a couple fish which had the fat lip look to them. No fuzzy stuff, so wondered if it was Columnaris. There was only one fish that died other than the three Von Rio Tetras which probably brought in whatever it is.
The fish seemed to be breathing faster than normal. The Blue Gourami has been bloated for a little while, maybe two weeks, seemed to be getting rounder so maybe actually 3 weeks. But didn't look too bad till about a week ago.
Two weeks ago with held food for a couple days, didn't help, changed food for a few days, fed different foods like
dried Brine shrimp one day, Dried soaked Tubiflex worms one day, treated the tank to live brine shrimp last week, no change.
So I figured internal bacterial infection, since hadn't had a bunch of fish die (like Columnaris), and it didn't appear there were any stringy or clear or white poop issues. The only fish which seemed to look bad is the Blue Gourami, bloated.
Other than breathing faster than normal, all the fish seemed to eat and behave as usual.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. I want to avoid killing any additional fish, of course, but I would also like to figure out what went wrong and how to get them better.
They seemed better when I went to work yet 6 hours later they looked at deaths door again.
After not getting any positive result. I used Maracyn-2 at a rate of 1 packet per 10 gallons, doubled for the first day. So 14 packets for a 72G tank plus a few gallons in the Fluval FX-5.
Administered yesterday early afternoon.
This morning, getting ready to walk out the door for work, debated for a minute about whether to leave the light on, decided not to, but to turn it on to check the fish before I left.
I will spare most of the awful details, but numerous sideways fish , my two giant 7 inch Siamese Algae eaters both dead, Koi angel dead, misc blue tetras, Amano shrimp dead.
My huge Charcoal grey Red Tail Shark almost white, splotched with grey, normally bright red tail, clear, not red, and mostly sideways in a bad way.
All the fish were trying to be near the top of the water.
The filter was running fine, blasting out water.
Did emergency water change adding new water for the first 25 gallons till the existing fish perked up and seemed better. Adding maximum amount of Prime.
Did the pwc of about 50% more.
Was gone for a short day at work got back 6 hours later, all the fish were at the top of the tank again, looking sad.
Did emergency 75% pwc also checked water while waiting for it to drain,.
Temp is 80F now was appx 78F before
Had no ammonia,
0 Nitrites,
10 Nitrates - For sure could have been higher
pH was 6.2/6.4 haven't checked that for over a month or so, so I can't guess what it was before this happened, but over a month ago was appx. 7.2 pH. It normally runs in the 7-7.2 range in the winter when the water company starts using a different reserve reservoir then as the snow pack melts they go back to the normal one which is around 6.4 ish.
Maybe 5 days ago I did a pwc.
Added the maximum of Prime, and left the water level lower in the tank so the infow from the filter will bubble like a monster, plus added the extra air pump before I got the water level down lower.
Tank is appx 2/3 full of water now and it appears that the fish seem to be behaving more like normal.
So I am guessing I killed of all my BB even though the package said when used as directed it wouldn't harm the biological filter.
Was it the combination of Epsom salts with it?
The directions didn't say anything about anything like that.
Back to the original illness.
There were a couple fish which had the fat lip look to them. No fuzzy stuff, so wondered if it was Columnaris. There was only one fish that died other than the three Von Rio Tetras which probably brought in whatever it is.
The fish seemed to be breathing faster than normal. The Blue Gourami has been bloated for a little while, maybe two weeks, seemed to be getting rounder so maybe actually 3 weeks. But didn't look too bad till about a week ago.
Two weeks ago with held food for a couple days, didn't help, changed food for a few days, fed different foods like
dried Brine shrimp one day, Dried soaked Tubiflex worms one day, treated the tank to live brine shrimp last week, no change.
So I figured internal bacterial infection, since hadn't had a bunch of fish die (like Columnaris), and it didn't appear there were any stringy or clear or white poop issues. The only fish which seemed to look bad is the Blue Gourami, bloated.
Other than breathing faster than normal, all the fish seemed to eat and behave as usual.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. I want to avoid killing any additional fish, of course, but I would also like to figure out what went wrong and how to get them better.
They seemed better when I went to work yet 6 hours later they looked at deaths door again.
