Dead and dying fish

[witch-1]

My daughters tank is a 60ltr one thats been set up at the beginning of December. She had 5 black skirt tetras, 3 corydorus, 3 angel fish, 3 cherry barbs and 3 silver bala sharks (bala's to be housed in my tank when set up!!).

A few weeks ago the smaller angel fish died. No other visible problems so just thought 'its one of those things'.

Last weekend she decided to move her tank (without asking for help!) - it was then decided that we look after her fish for her and moved the tank downstairs. This I understand was stressful for those fishes being netted and transferred via bucket, to being netted again.

Since then, we lost a corydorus. Then a bala shark. The other two bala's are looking sickly! Swimming upside down, floating on the bottom, and then darting about headbutting a few stones before resting again. Its quite upsetting watching them.

I'm not sure but they may have white spots - something my daughter spotted. As they are not my fish, I haven't studied them much.

Is this the dreaded Ich? Do I treat them anyway?

Oh before I forget - did a pwc yesterday and the monthly filter change. Water levels on amonia/nitrate/nitrite were all normal. PH is 7.5. Temp is 79.

 

[meegosh]

It could be ich, I've never had Ich so I'm not too sure about that. Was the tank cycled prior to adding fish? If not you are in for a tough few weeks. What are your actual water parameters?

You have way too many fish in a ~15 gallon tank. The angelfish alone are too big for it. Not to mention 3 balas!! If it was me I would ditch the angels and balas for the time being and let things settle down. Eventually you could up the number of skirts and barbs.

 

[missileman]

It is so hard to say with such little info.
Salt and/or heat (above 86*) is not only an Ich cure but helps with other problems.
Make absolutely sure you have good oxygenation when doing any treatment.
Watch those barbs around those angels. The barbs I have are terrible fin nippers.

 

[witch-1]

Thanks - the balas were to go into my tank when ready (we knew they would be too big for her tank, but they were only babies) - anyway both died today.

I'm treating the tank for ich.

The tank was cycled and working well - it was moving it all downstairs that started the problems - stress I think?! (which meant completely emptying the tank - we reused all the removed water etc. and I put off a pwc until it had all settled down).

I checked on temperature for all fish and 79 was the median for them all but I will raise it slowly for them to assist.

Not noticed a problem with the barbs and angels - I know not to have tiger barbs with them, but believed cherries to be ok! Still lot of controversy on compatibility with fish.

Will let you know how they're all doing.

Meanwhile my empty tank is progressing well on its fishless cycle!

 

[fort384]

Some water quality parameters would help to diagnose a problem,

pH, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate.

Also, your maintenance schedule, i.e. how often are you doing PWCs, how much water are you changing at a time, are you using a good dechlorinator, etc.

I would say the most immediate thing you could to help out though would be to decrease your bioload in the tank... way too many fish for a tank that size. The 5 blackskirt tetras would be about right as far as bioload I would think.

 

[witch-1]

I put my water parameters in first post - all reading 0 (normal) and ph is 7.5.
We do a 10% water change weekly - although this was left out this weekend due to moving the tank, I did the pwc last night and put in the new filter which was due last weekend.

As for amount of fish - they are all small, rough size in total of remaining fish is approx. 30cm (60cm being optimum for 60ltr tank). As said before, I have another tank I'm doing the fishless cycle on and a few of the fish are only there until this is ready.

I have notched the temperature up half a degree and will do the same again tomorrow night. The remaining fish look ok, was just sad to lose the silver sharks.

Hope we've started treatment early enough or the problem is solved.

 

[missileman]

The sad thing about fish illness is sometimes it is very difficult to find the actual cause.
I bought fish at Petco in December and right away started losing fish. I continued to lose 1 or 2 fish a week until the first week of February when, on a whim, I decided to treat for internal perasites. That was the cure, a mollie that was near death has completely recovered and no further deaths.
The point is I tried everything else first. There was no visible signs like spots, lost fins, swollen eyes. So it was really anyones guess.
I hope the Ich cure works for you, it is good for a number of other problems as well and probably the best thing to try first.
You may consider a broad range antibiotic to prevent any secondary infections. Check with your local pet store on that.

 

[joy13]

The sad thing about fish illness is sometimes it is very difficult to find the actual cause.
I bought fish at Petco in December and right away started losing fish. I continued to lose 1 or 2 fish a week until the first week of February when, on a whim, I decided to treat for internal perasites. That was the cure, a mollie that was near death has completely recovered and no further deaths.
The point is I tried everything else first. There was no visible signs like spots, lost fins, swollen eyes. So it was really anyones guess.
I hope the Ich cure works for you, it is good for a number of other problems as well and probably the best thing to try first.
You may consider a broad range antibiotic to prevent any secondary infections. Check with your local pet store on that.

My friend has had the same problem I am about at wits end trying to find a cause, his water is always fine and no visible signs of illness. I keep telling him use a QT. What type of medication did you use?

 

[witch-1]

I am using Waterlife Protozin for Whitespot & Fungus. On the bottle it says it treats Whitespot (Ich), Oodinium (Velvet), Costiasis, Trichodiniasis, Neon Tetra Disease and Fungus.

So far no more fish have died - my corydorus sterbai was looking maybe abit sluggish but is still swimming this morning.

The treatment is for every day for days 1,2 & 3 and then day 6.

My other tank is maturing nicely. My biorb is causing no problems at all and looks lovely. So hopefully onto a winner. I'm sure it was having to net the fish twice that caused them stress due to the move! They were fine before hand.

 

[witch-1]

just to add... I'm also raising the temperature slowly.

 

[missileman]

My friend has had the same problem I am about at wits end trying to find a cause, his water is always fine and no visible signs of illness. I keep telling him use a QT. What type of medication did you use?

I started with the Jungle anti parasite medicated food but I have one pleco that wouldn't eat it so I switch to Jungle Labs Parasite Clear, its fiz tabs that treat the whole tank. Worked like a charm, but again I got lucky and stumbled on the answer.

 

[witch-1]

Lost my three cherry barbs today
Keeping a close eye on the rest.