Kicking myself!

[AngelWings]

I broke the cardinal rule, and didn't quarantine my new arrivals last week. I have a well established 150gal community with 6 angelfish, 15 neon tetra, 5 assorted cory catfish, 5 ref wash platies, 10 kuhli loaches, 5 white skirt tetras, and two plecos. Very stable tank, with no deaths in probably 6 months or more.

I brought home some new plants and 2 dozen young cardinal tetras, and put then in the tank without quarantining them first last saturday. My main concern was introducing the small cardinals without the angelfish thinking of them as food.

All week I was happy, the cardinal numbers seemed to be holding. Then yesterday I came home to a dead angelfish, a dead neon tetra, and a dead kuhli loach. Clearly I've introduced something, but it seems to only be affecting my existing fish rather than the new ones. The angel had seemed to be hiding out the past couple days, but with the neon and kuhli, that would be hard to tell.

A couple of the platies seem to have a very slight white film in some places on their body, but seem otherwise normal.

The tank is 150 gal, moderately to heavily planted, two Rena XP3 filters, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate ~5, pH ~7.6.

Closest thing I can figure is that a fungus came in, but I am hesitant to use an anti fungal med sure to the plants and heavy trumpet snail colony.

I'm afraid I'll go home to find more dead fish today. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you.

 

[Scottyhorse]

Defiantly sounds like a fungus....
Just read that fungus will not harm healthy fish because of the slime coating. So the Cardinal Tetras must have brought something in that weakened the fish and let the fungus grow on them.
Here's where I read it. It has some treatment options to.

Aquarium Fish Fungus

 

[jlk]

I disagree on the fungus. Can you let us know what your water parameters are? Possibly provide a pic of the fish with the white patches? Fungus typically will not kill a an otherwise healthy fish, especially not overnight. It looks like patches of hairs or strings. What it sounds like is the new fish introduced a rather lethal strain of bacteria. I am going to guess they came from a store with a central filtration system and that likely uses meds prophalactically to keep fish from becoming ill but not necessarily completely killing off disease issues. Thus the new fish were carriers of the pathogen even if its not making them sick (yet). Columnaris or a similar gram negative bacteria pathogen is the likely culprit. Heres some more info-please ask if you need help with possible treatments and where to purchase them because treating this size tank is not going to be cheap.

Columnaris (Flexibacteria) in Aquarium Fish; Fungus, Saprolegnia; Treatment, Prevention

 

[AngelWings]

Thanks, both of you.

JLK, the parameters were in the original post, ammo 0, nitrite 0, nitrate ~5, pH ~7.6-7.8. The white film is on the back half of the platy, and that's the only fish I see it on. I can't get a good picture of it.

There were no fish deaths today, luckily. I'm really hesitant to treat the tank because it has hundreds upon hundreds of MTS. If they die, they will really foul the water, and with them dug down in the gravel, they'll be impossible to get out.

 

[jlk]

Sorry-I missed it! The only other thing I can suggest is to up your water changes and hope for best if treating the tank is not an option.

 

[AngelWings]

No problem!

I kinda figured that lots of water changes was going to be my best bet.

If I have any more losses, then I'll definitely reconsider the treatment option. And you're right- it won't new cheap to tray a tank this size. Hmmm.

 

[phishfriend]

So sry for your lose! It sucks then this like that happen.

 

[Wiggles24]

Angelsplus is a company you can look up online they carry antibiotic flakes at a very reasonable price. As long as you only feed a little at a time ( so nothing is left over ) your snails and BB should be fine with it.

 

[Super_Blueberry]

I recently went through a major die off of my own last month with virtually no signs of anything wrong. I would just wake up and find another dead fish. One time I noticed a platy with a white splotch on its side, so I was thinking it was a fungus and proceeded to dose Melafix and Primafix with no results. I then treated with Maracyn and I haven't had another death since. I had hopes to dose Maracyn 2, but my local LFS was out, and by the time it showed up in the mail, it looks like it wasn't needed.

Anyway, I have live plants, and assassin snails with ramshorns as feeders, as well as RCS, and I didn't notice any ill effects from the meds. Unfortunately, it will still be mildly expensive to treat a 150g, but the way I looked at it was if I didn't treat the problem, I would end up spending the $$ anyway replacing my stock. 6 one way, half-dozen the other.

Best of luck beating your bug!