stumped and needing help --- red gills, sick fish

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jiff

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
6
After hours of google searches, and building frustration, I've decided it was time to register and post my problem and see if anyone can help me out. Thanks in advance for responses.

About 6 weeks ago, my girlfriend's brother moved to amarillo, so we set up a 20g tank and took on his fish. The hobby got a hold on me, and I've become very interested.

After building a new tank stand this last weekend, i drained about 70% of the water out, got all but the pleco and frogs out, and moved the tank. Put water back in, then fish. I awoke the next morning to the 2 neon tetra's and the danio having very red enflamed gills. 1 of the neon's also had cloudy eyes. The tank just started reading 0 ppm nitrites and ammonia about 2 days before this, and the nitrates are at about 20ppm. I do weekly 10-20% water changes. Since then, all my fish have gotten noticably red gills. After google searching and thinking i might have gotten gill flukes in my tank, i euthanised my neon with cloudy eyes and looked at his gills for the symptoms, but found none.

I bought melafix yesterday, and removed the carbon and began treating with that. As of now, the condition has not improved. The tank as of now has 2 rummynose tetras, 2 hatchetfish, 1 sunset gourami, 1 danio, 1 neon tetra, pleco, and 2 red eye tetra. I'm very worried for my tank and hope someone can help me out. Sorry for the lengthy post.
 
Yes i dechlorinate with every water change. The cloudiness of the eyes seems to have been just the one. No, the fish weren't acclimated to the tank when we first got them, as i was new to the sport. It just seems strange the day after i transferred the fish into a holding bucket and put them back, this happened. Will water changes help in the event i accidentally contaminated the tank during that procedure? I did a 30 yesterday and was thinking of another tomorrow. The fish are all acting relatively normal other than the bright red gills. Fed them some frozen bloodworms earlier and all were eating a healthy amount. I'm perplexed :\
 
Have you tested the water? You could be having a mini cycle.
I didn't know my fish had internal parasites until a year after I got him, and he never infected any other fish. :( He didn't show any signs of sickness until we moved and he got stressed out.
Try changing 25-50% of the water every day, if you aren't medicating the water, and see if you can get some anti-parasitic food for them.
 
You should hold off on melafix and check your water for ammonia again. As dkpate said, you might be having a mini-cycle. Adding all those fish back at once can cause the mini-cycle since 70% of water has been changed right after the tank has cycled. I know ammonia can cause cloudy eyes, so I would check water parameters first before you start messing with meds.
 
When I moved the tank onto the new stand, I didn't drain out 70% and do a water change, I used a big holding container for my water and then once the tank was moved, I siphoned the water back in and added my fish.

I started testing 0ppm nitrites and ammonia 2-3 days before moving the tank. I've been doing pwc's to keep the nitrates down to below 20ppm. I've not tested anything above 0 on nitrites or ammonia since then, and i do tests for all 3 every day after work.

As of today, the fish still have the blood red gills, are breathing a little harder than normal, but are still eating and acting relatively normal. I've also noticed some of my green gravel in the tank turning a dingy golden brown color. Thinking back, it started a little before the red gills. Not sure if it's related?
 
I am not sure I understand exactly what you did...

What tested 0ppm ammonia/nitrite? Did you run the tank with nothing in it but water and then test for ammonia/nitrite? That is not cycling a tank... there has to be a source of ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to colonize your tank/filter.

This very much sounds like a case of ammonia poisoning. Have you tested the tank again now that the fish are exhibiting these symptoms?

If I have misunderstood the sequence of events, I apologize... was just confused to exactly what happened.
 
Let me clarify. I trip over myself typing long paragraphs, so my apologies.

Got the fish about 6-8 weeks'ish ago. Set up the tank on a table, threw them in. Since then I've gotten really into it, so my father and I built and painted a new aquarium stand. I fought through cycling my tank with about 12 fish in there, doing water changes every day or every other day. My ammonia finally dropped to a consistent 0 after about 4-5 weeks, nitrites dropped to 0 last week. I finished painting my aquarium stand this last weekend, pulled 70% of the water out along with all the fish, moved the tank from the table onto my new stand, put the water and fish back. Woke up the next day and 4 fish had bright red gills, since then all have developed the problem. I've been dosing with melafix since monday with no effect. Fish still have red gills and slightly rapid breathing.

Unsure if the whole tank move was related or if it's just a weird coincidence. I use nutrafin aqua plus dechlorinator on every water change, so i'm doubting chlorine poisoning, although the symptoms seem to fit. Unsure what to do right now. Was thinking some antibiotics might help, but I'm really really not wanting to re-cycle the tank.
 
I used a relatively new trash can for a large portion of the water. Used my 5g water change bucket to hold the fish. I scrubbed the trash can very well with a sponge and dawn dish soap, then rinsed it quite a few times. I thought that would take care of anything in there that would affect the fish, but I'm sure you're about to tell me I'm wrong? :(
 
dawn dish soap

It's possible that there was some remaining in there. When you poured the water back into the tank, did you disturb the substrate? If you messed it all about then it makes sense why the nitrates are higher.
 
I always use my 5/8" hose to siphon water in/out of the tank when I do any adding or removing water. Read it is less stressful on the fish. My nitrates are reading 10ppm as of about 2 hours ago. Did a 30% pwc. Nitrites and Ammonia at 0. I'm unsure what to do at this point. Was thinking i may keep up the melafix until the 7 days are over, and then if it still hasnt cleared up do a round of antibiotics and re-cycle the tank. Any thoughts?
 
Your tank is cycled, so don't try to re-cycle. ;)

Just keep the water super clean for a while, and maybe get some Stress-Coat.
 
+1 on residual dish soap as the culprit. About two years ago I killed some fancy guppies by cleaning their tank w/dawn...
 
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