need help! fish dying

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Mumma.of.two said:
Just reduce the heat, add salt and increase water changes. It might be enough to knock it on the head.

Will the salt harm my plants?
 
Mumma.of.two said:
What plants do you have? Most plants will tolerate salt for a short period of time.

Java moss, cornuta, rotala indica, vals, armatica, micro sword, and pygmy chain sword. Oh and anubias
 
Mumma.of.two said:
I'm not familiar with a couple of those. But the rest I know will be fine. You can start off with a half dose and see how they far.

Okay, thanks for the help.
 
Okay so added salt last night, I wake up now and find two more fish have died..-.- is there anything else I can do?
 
Mumma.of.two said:
I'm sorry to hear that :(
How much salt? Did you turn the temperature down? Any more water changes? The next step would be antibiotics.

2 tbl spoons. And yeah turned it down to 72 degrees. Did a small water change last night. I'm all out of water conditioner but have a bottle coming in soon. I'm down to 6 fish.
 
Up the salt dosage. A full dose in 36g is 7 tablespoons. Add it slowly over today. IMO 2 tablespoons won't be doing very much. you need to get on top of this fast. If you can go out and get some antibiotics. I'm going to PM jlk. She's knows more about meds in the US than me.
 
I did small doses to see of the plants would be affected by the salt. So far they haven't so I'll add more. Thanks! What meds will I need just in case??
 
fishdud said:
I did small doses to see of the plants would be affected by the salt. So far they haven't so I'll add more. Thanks! What meds will I need just in case??

I suck at medication names sorry! I've PMed jlk. She will know what to recommended. :)
 
Hi! I would definitely keep up with a low dose of salt. I am honestly not sure what is going on here but it sounds serious to have lost this many fish in such a short frame of time. My best guess is a columnaris infection which can kill before fish even have a chance to show symptoms. Kanamycin would be my first choice of meds but most lfs dont carry it & I dont think you have time to wait on an order of meds online. I would try a combo of Maracyn (erthromycin) & Maracyn 2 (minocycline) which most Petsmarts carry. The erthro is gram positive & the mino is gram negative so you will be addressing both types of bacteria because im not sure what you are dealing with here. They can be used together safely. I wish you luck & hope this helps! Keep us posted!
 
jlk said:
Hi! I would definitely keep up with a low dose of salt. I am honestly not sure what is going on here but it sounds serious to have lost this many fish in such a short frame of time. My best guess is a columnaris infection which can kill before fish even have a chance to show symptoms. Kanamycin would be my first choice of meds but most lfs dont carry it & I dont think you have time to wait on an order of meds online. I would try a combo of Maracyn (erthromycin) & Maracyn 2 (minocycline) which most Petsmarts carry. The erthro is gram positive & the mino is gram negative so you will be addressing both types of bacteria because im not sure what you are dealing with here. They can be used together safely. I wish you luck & hope this helps! Keep us posted!

Thank you! :) I really should learn the American meds!
 
jlk said:
Hi! I would definitely keep up with a low dose of salt. I am honestly not sure what is going on here but it sounds serious to have lost this many fish in such a short frame of time. My best guess is a columnaris infection which can kill before fish even have a chance to show symptoms. Kanamycin would be my first choice of meds but most lfs dont carry it & I dont think you have time to wait on an order of meds online. I would try a combo of Maracyn (erthromycin) & Maracyn 2 (minocycline) which most Petsmarts carry. The erthro is gram positive & the mino is gram negative so you will be addressing both types of bacteria because im not sure what you are dealing with here. They can be used together safely. I wish you luck & hope this helps! Keep us posted!

Thanks for the help! Both of you. I'll see what meds I can find.
 
I think another reason why they're dying is cause the other fish keep nipping or eating the dead ones. I didn't notice till I woke up and found another dead one -.-
 
Columnaris is highly contagious. If you see a fish with any symptoms at all, you should cull it. When I discovered columnaris in my community tank, I culled the two symptomatic fish, did a 50% water change, dosed at 1/2 strength with aquarium salt and scrubbed the interior walls of the tank. I didn't lose any more fish.
 
LyndaB said:
Columnaris is highly contagious. If you see a fish with any symptoms at all, you should cull it. When I discovered columnaris in my community tank, I culled the two symptomatic fish, did a 50% water change, dosed at 1/2 strength with aquarium salt and scrubbed the interior walls of the tank. I didn't lose any more fish.

I can never tell when they show symptoms until they die. I'll do another water change with salt
 
Mine looked like they had fin rot and also little tiny white patches of what looked like fungus. I had to look really closely to see it.
 
LyndaB said:
Mine looked like they had fin rot and also little tiny white patches of what looked like fungus. I had to look really closely to see it.

They all look fine, nothing like that is on them but the dead ones would always have some red soreness around their bellies.
 
Back
Top Bottom