What is killing my fish???? So many different symptoms!

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rebexx

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Apr 9, 2014
Messages
4
Hello,

I have a 45 gallon fresh water planted tank. I've got Mollies and Platties, a few cherry red shrimp (no, the fish don't bother them:)), a leopard pleco, about 30 fish in all. It's hard to keep an exact number as they are live bearers, and we're only talking about 15 adults here and 15 fry. I get rid of fish as they grow to avoid over crowding.

I keep the temperature at 82F. I use a canister filter.
Water parameters are pristine. I use a master test kit, and have 0 readings on Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia. PH is 8.2, and has been that way for as long as I've had the fish, with the exception of the initial tank set up almost 3 years ago.

Had a nasty battle with Callamanus worms about a year ago, got my hands on levamisole, and everything has been great since.

I replaced some fish 3 months after the worms were gone and added some shrimp as I lost my ghost shrimp with the levamisole. This was about 9 months ago.

Everything was good until about a month ago.

I started to see the fish hanging out at the top of the aquarium. I did a thorough cleaning, 50% water change, vacuuming, and added an air stone. This worked for a day or two, but then the fish were up at the top again. I gave away a few fish in case this was an over-crowding issue. Nothing was better.

Then they started dying. All kinds of symptoms. Clamped fin, dropsy, wasting. Loss of colour, And it seems to strike one or a couple of fish at a time. Each fish can have different symptoms. I'm worried about fish TB, but symptoms are so varied. I don't want to give up hope yet. Also surprised that the fish just started showing symptoms out of the blue with no introduction of new fish. Maybe the vacuuming stirred up something that was there all along? I don't know, but I do vacuum at least once a month, so you would think this would have been a problem in the past if this were the case.

Also none of them loses its appetite. They will eat at their evening feeding, be dead in the morning.

I've now got one with dropsy, one seeming to have wasting and pop eye and 3 that are hanging out at the surface, and have lost at least 10 in the past month- a new batch of fry was born about a week ago, bringing the numbers back up. I will get rid of more fish as they grow, but are afraid at this point to give anymore away in case they infect other tanks with whatever is making them sick.

I feel like I'm doing everything right....what is going wrong????
I have some left over API Cure All from when I was trying anything to kill those nasty worms (obviously that didn't work, but I was desperate until I found levamisole) which I could try but am worried about killing the fry.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Update-Just checked on my tank since it occurred to me that my Pleco hadn't been spotted in a day or two. Found it lying on the bottom of the tank. Thought it was dead, as it usually is either on the glass or drift wood. Got it to move by poking it with the net, but it's not looking so good either. :'( What is going on???
 
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Sounds like Flexibacterium and fungus. May not be anything you can do at this point, immediate action is necessary if this bacteria is to be stopped. Really the best thing you can do is lower the tempearture and add either Kanamycin/Furan Green combo or Maracyn 2 /Primafix combo and add some salt and unplug the heater to slow down the bacteria (grows faster at highter temps)
People will tell you that dirty water contributes to columnaris infections, its simply not true, that is fungus/Mold (Saporgelia) which is equally deadly and often goes in hand with Flexibacterium. Hope this helped, may be to late buddy but its not the end of the world, dont give up on your hobby. If your fish all die, oh well, just means you can get some diffrent ones. BTW columnaris is a opportunistic infection and is the result of stress and direct contact with the bacteria, mostly stress. It has nothing to do with water quality, unless its excessive ammonia. Its all about stress and the bacterium being present or transefered from like a net or siphon.
In worst case scenarios it is helpful to make a brackish water tank or bowl or continer whatever and add something like furan green or methy blue and give the fish a long bath in this (or just leave them in there) No airstone in the tank either, the bacteria needs air and warmth and organic living tissue to survive.
 
Thanks. I appreciate your thoughts. I will try the treatment you suggested, turn down the temp, but unsure as to why the fish are so stressed....any idea if this is going to kill my cherries too?
 
Sorry, one more question. There aren't any signs of white spots, cotton mouth, leisons, anything like that which is typical of Flexibacter, which is why I'm not sure if this is what I am dealing with. Any other suggestions, or could it still be that even without these symptoms?
Thanks
 
A couple of things I would like to ask/add. If you have carbon in your filter remove it. In a canister with planted tanks use some other media that helps maintain beneficial bacteria even a simple sponge or filter floss works amazing.

Right now the best thing you can do is to start doing water changes daily. If you can only do it once a day I would do 50% water changes and if it's possible raise the water return on your canister so that it is splashing the surface of the water. Yes this will gas off the CO2 that your plants need but right now your fish are primary and the plants will survive while you try to get this under control. (Don't add salt if your tank is heavily planted...this can help fish a lot but you will lose much of your plants if you do this)

You can add a gentle broad spectrum antibiotic (Maracyn 2 perhaps) to the tank but this will kill your cycle so be prepared. You said you have readings of 0 on Nitrite and Nitrate...what about ammonia? It is possible that something crashed your beneficial bacteria already or that with the new fry the BB in place can't keep up. Since it's all of your fish it makes more sense to treat the whole tank at this point.

Kudos for trying, it's hard to go through everything you already have with parasites to end up here but you care and that is the most important thing. Start doing the water changes immediately. If this were my tank I would do two 50% water changes every day and watch things. Drop the temp down as the previous poster suggested. I would go slowly down to 78 degrees. If they keep dying even with all the water changes then I would add the antibiotics as a last result. It's hard to make that call with Fry in the tank because they may not make it through that. But your first step is to get the oxygen level up and the more fresh water you give right now the better.
 
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