Fish dying

[Mitch_Wilson]

I have a planted 30 gallon tank that has a peacock eel, 3 ghost shrimp (originally intended as food for the eel but ended up permanent residents) 7 harlequin rasboras 2 cardinal tetras (was at 7) 2 dwarf gouramis and 1-2 oto cats, not sure if one was eaten by the eel, i haven't seen it in a few days .

Over the past month or so the cardinal tetras have been dying off. I originally attributed it to the stress of having new fish added but then i seen some strange white spots on my flame gourami that slightly resemble ich but he doesn't seem to be showing any signs of distress and i cannot remember if they were there prior.

The ghost shrimp and the eel are both new to the tank (my last eel unfortunately found a 1/2 gap that i hadn't seen and escaped the tank while i was out) and they all seem to be doing ok and showing no signs of distress either.

What I'm not sure about is if the disease is ich or not and if not is it a disease. When i assumed it was ich, i slowly raised the temperature of the tank to 85-86 degrees to try and kill the ich however, 4 days later im not sure if its doing anything. I've lost 2 cardinals and the spots seem to be the exact same on the gourami with no signs of ich or anything else on the cardinals.

Ill try and add a picture of the spots however the gourami is not the most cooperative picture taking fish i've ever had.

 

[GNarnian]

They are the spots on the fins, right? It's hard to tell from the picture, but it doesn't really look like ich.

How long has the tank been set up?

What are your water parameters, and when was the last water change/what % of the water was changed out?

These answers will help us figure out what's wrong with your fishy friends.

 

[Mitch_Wilson]

The spots are most concentrated on the tail however they are also on the body. Also i apoligize about the picture, my camera flashes once then again in order to take the picture, causing him to swim away before the picture.

The tanks had fish in it now for almost 2 months prior to that it had a 3 week cycle.

0 ammonia and uncertain on the other paramaters now, girlfriend has the tests at her house right now but the nitrites were 0 last test last week and 20 nitrates last week.

Last water change was almost two weeks ago now. didn't do my normal water change last week because all sources that i found said don't water change during ich, wait till after. and that was a 30%

 

[GNarnian]

Last water change was almost two weeks ago now. didn't do my normal water change last week because all sources that i found said don't water change during ich, wait till after. and that was a 30%

Where did you read that you shouldn't do a water change when there is an ich outbreak? Usually, you want to do several, unless you are treating with a medication. Especially if you are just using the elevated temperature method. It is the easiest, but you do want to do your regular water changes, maybe as much as 50% twice a week if not more. Changing the water and vacuuming the gravel is what removes the ich from the tank.

I would do a water change as soon as you can. I'm not sure what time it is where you are, but it's pretty late here, so in the morning would probably be fine.

 

[Mitch_Wilson]

Ok i did a 50% water change last night after unfortunately losing one more tetra.

I get up this morning and the spots are clearly all over the gourami but still nothing on any of the other fish, which seems odd if it were ich.

Ill try and upload a picture of it that i got but my phone is being utterly stupid right now so i have to get it fixed before it will even let me have my picture.

They appear to be clustering a little bit, mainly right behind the gills on both sides

 

[Mitch_Wilson]

 

[Wiggles24]

You can have an Ich outbreak and it not effect every fish

 

[Mitch_Wilson]

OK new information. I am now down to my last cardinal tetra and the spots on the gourami seem to be fading and he still has shown no signs of distress.

I turned the light on in my tank this morning to find a snail on one of my decorations. Could this have had anything to do with my problems??

And i realize that an ich infestation doesn't necessarily infect all fish in a tank it just seems odd that only one would show any signs, none of the cardinals ever showed any distress they've just been dying off pretty much one a day

 

[Wiggles24]

The snail itself wouldn't be the cause of your problems, but if you added plants recently they could of brought an illness into your tank

 

[Spongeandgary]

Did any of the cardinal tetras have an opaque milky appearance to thier body prior to dying?