OOOOOH!!! some one please please help me!!

[Meredith]

my fish are dieing one by one. my 55 gallon tank is nearly empty. my remaining rasboras are in QT along with one of the cory cats and one oto. One of the rasboras is flipping upside down often. I think he is near death. Another one has red dots under its belly and near fins almost looks like broken blood vessels. my oto has big belly, thought he was eating a lot but today he was just sitting at the bottom of the tank all day!! when he finally moved I saw that the whole part under his mouth in between his gills is BRIGHT red. What is going on??? What do I do?Oh and a shrimp died. I just did another partial water change in the big tank, did one yesterday too. And another in the QT. I keep testing the water and the params are fine. no ammo spike, no nitrites nitrates around 20. What do I do??? How can I stop the DEATH???

 

[Meredith]

one of the rasboras that looks like its color has faded swam straight at me and on its side it looks like either there is a clearish milky coating on the fish that is built up in a few places or it has a blister on its side. I looked at pictures of dropsy and that is not it. I cant find a picture of what this looks like. I was thinking velvet maybe, but its not golden in color.

 

[Guest]

woah sounds like a huge disease breakout. I would tear down the whole tank down and bleach it. Make sure you rinse it well after & make sure it's completely dry with no water drops before you fill it up again. Treat the fish with antibiotics & isolate the fat fish from everybody else. Sounds like he may have dropsy. Are his scales raised up when you look at him from the top? I went through a situation similar to yours. How old is this tank? Did all the fish start getting sick when you brought in a new fish?

 

[Menagerie]

Treat with a kanamycin based med right away--that sounds like septicemia. If it is bacterial septicemia, there is a chance you can save your fish. If it is being spread by a virus, it is up to the fish to fight it off.
When the other rasboras were dieing, did you notice red around their fins, or underside?

 

[Meredith]

when the other fish died, I couldnt see anything wrong. which was so weird!! I am treating my cory for damaged fins, its been three days and they are growing back yea!! but I moved all the sick fish into that tank (its being treated with melafix.) That is the only other tank I have. I am just in deeper and deeper. I am running around blind. It(sickness) could be from the angel fish but the fish seems fine. Could it just be a carrier? Should I just treat everyone? The big tank has been up about a month and a half. I should tear it apart? I woke up sick this morning. I could barely manage coffee, HOW am I going to tear up my 55 gallon tank and haul it outside?

 

[Meredith]

photos

they are bad but the best I can do at the moment. the otos redness looks like it does n the pic. The whiteness on the rasbora is more pronounced today and the "broken vessels"? are mostly on the underside and at the base of the fins some on the side though. also the oto is not pooping a bit of redness I noticed on his side, and the scales are not sticking out. does he have scales? anyway hope this helps some. sorry about the bigness of the oto pics

 

[Menagerie]

It looks like your fish are sufferring from hemorrhagic  septicemia. There is no need to tear down your tank, just treat the fish--all of them!! As I said, if this is viral, you will not be able to help. I have no idea who is carrying the disease, but the best you can do is treat everyone. Go get that med I mentioned--it can be put in food and in the water. GO!!!!

 

[Meredith]

thankyou thankyou thankyou!!!!!!!

 

[Menagerie]

You're welcome, I hope some of them can be saved. Keep us updated.

 

[Meredith]

dumb lfs!! went to get some meds for the fish, all they had was expired!! they would have sold me expired medication. Lucky I looked before hand. Had to drive a half an hour to petco, all that I could find for septicemia was mardel maracyn-two. I just did a 50% water change in the QT and I am going to move the last oto and the angel into there as well to treat them too. Does this sound ok? Should I move the last cory and the shrimp too? I don't want to take the chance that anyone is carrying anything!! They were exposed for so long. I wish I had done something sooner. ARGH!! I lost another rasbora.

 

[Menagerie]

Yikes! I'm not sure what to say about moving the others over--they very well maybe immune. When my pleco was sufferring from hemorrhagic septicemia, none of the other fish got it. This may mean that what you have is stronger or more communal. Did you get the mardel maracyn-two? Anything at this point is better than nothing.

 

[Meredith]

yep. I did. I moved everyone but the shrimp.The other oto is getting red around the gills, I just dont want to lose any more fish. I don't want to get my hopes up, but since putting in the maracyn-2 my really sick oto is more active than he has been for days, swimming around, seemingly looking for food. I am going to do a big water change in the big tank and just keep an eye on the shrimp. Truthfully I am not so concerned about them dieing, I just don't want them to spread anything. Thanks again for all your help! I don't know what I would have done with out this forum!!