what could i be doing wrong

[dwayne.aycock]

i am not saying your tap wayer is bad. Just suggesting that you check it. You could have indroduced fish that were already carrying something. The fish could have made each other sick. If you are using carbon, how old is it? What foods are you feeding?
Is it clean? Are you washing your hands before doing anything with your tanks or equipment? If you are not clean, you could be the problem as well. Mix Metro with your food..it comes in powder form. The enemies you are fighting can be biological, viral or parasitic. Hard to say, but you have to use water and food as your weapons, as these items can be traced directly to you. Remember to remove carbon when dosing meds, increase O2 saturation and temp as well as more frequent water changes. Don't add any new fish and get the basic meds. General cure is a broad spectrum treatment, but must be combined as a part of water changes until the problem is eliminated. A de-wormer is also a good idea. The easiest and fastest remedy is improved water quality through frequent water changes and consistency. For example, i do water changes 3X per week at 40 gallons (120 total) each for my Discus tank and have had excellent results. Remember that fish care and tank maintenance go hand in hand and can not be ignored. One has a direct effect on the other.
Good Luck!
D

 

[Berylla]

i put him in my bettas tank and rehomed the betta for now.

this is just going to be my hospital/quarantine tank from now on. i have two more tanks still in my garage that i want to get going once i sort all this out.

if the firemouth makes it that tank is getting restarted anyways so it really doesn't matter much to me if it kills off bacteria

I would only medicate in a barebottom tank. In the main tank, take out all the plants and soak in a potassium permangante solution for 24 hours, making sure the water remains a purple color for the duration of the soak. Keep it fishless for a month, raise the temps really high 95 degrees for 2 weeks to kill off ick, then lower temps for next two weeks. Add back the plants as they won't survive at 95. Give the substrate a good vacuum, clean filters by squeezing in some tank water. After the month do a massive water change. You should have kept your cycle and have a pathogen free tank.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

i'm going to suck the gravel out tomorrow when i do a water change. since i've been using paraguard, will the methelyne interact badly with it?


so i should check for parasites in my water. how do you do that? i've had my water tested from all my tanks multiple times. nothing points to water quality

i feed nls cichlid, hikari cichlid and bio-pure. and even vitachem. they get the nls almost every day with me throwing a pellet or two of the hikari pellets so i can use it up. couple times a week they get a little bio-pure. i also dose with vitachem and add it to their food.

i'm more looking at the fish having compromised immune systems.

with whatever i am battling, could i have not kept up the meds long enough and caused a mutation of whatever was lingering?

 

[smooth_cannibal]

i did have carbon running but i ditched that weeks ago. i only ran it for about three weeks in the canister.

 

[Berylla]

i'm going to suck the gravel out tomorrow when i do a water change. since i've been using paraguard, will the methelyne interact badly with it?


so i should check for parasites in my water. how do you do that? i've had my water tested from all my tanks multiple times. nothing points to water quality

i feed nls cichlid, hikari cichlid and bio-pure. and even vitachem. they get the nls almost every day with me throwing a pellet or two of the hikari pellets so i can use it up. couple times a week they get a little bio-pure. i also dose with vitachem and add it to their food.

i'm more looking at the fish having compromised immune systems.

with whatever i am battling, could i have not kept up the meds long enough and caused a mutation of whatever was lingering?

Don't mix the meth blue with paraguard. Meth blue can be used with some antibiotics only.

You can't really test for parasites other than with a microscope. The high heat will kill most of them. If you are going to break down the tank completely, bleach will kill everything.

Remember to use the meth blue in a bare bottom tank.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

thanks for the heads up with mixing the two. i think i am going to just roll by the lfs tomorrow.


as far as heat i don't think my heater will do it. i had to turn it up almost all the way to get it to 86.

i'll definitely remove the substrate.

i don't know if its from flashing or him rubbing on something but the lump on his head seems to be getting cottony in appearance.

 

[Berylla]

thanks for the heads up with mixing the two. i think i am going to just roll by the lfs tomorrow.


as far as heat i don't think my heater will do it. i had to turn it up almost all the way to get it to 86.

i'll definitely remove the substrate.

i don't know if its from flashing or him rubbing on something but the lump on his head seems to be getting cottony in appearance.

Cotton appearance can mean fungus, if its puffy like a real cotton ball. If its more dense with no stringy appearance, it's columnaris, which is deadly.

Change the water out at least 80% to get rid of other drugs, and treat with meth blue immediately. Personally I would give him a potassium permanganate bath, but it's very risky since you could OD on the potassium and kill him for good.

Pet stores don't sell meth blue since it's so cheap. They will try and push antibiotics.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

that's dumb the stores don't carry it. the one my mom worked at did. thats where i got mine waaaaay back in the day. i thought i still had the bottle but can't find it. i'll just speed deliver some to me. i still have a dose or two of the paraguard which is imo working somewhat for him. he's not getting worse.

strange writing this i looked at my 55 with just the girl in it...

she was at the glass acting hungry, wiggled a bit, then quickly slammed her belly into the gravel a couple times.

i know what flashing is but is that considered flashing?

 

[dwayne.aycock]

There is no way to check for parasites in source water, but you can store and treat it. For example, I keep my source water which is 50% R/O and 50% filtered tap in a 64 gallon can outside here in Florida. I have a 350 gph powerhead in the can as well as an air-stone, submersible UV sterilizer and thermometer for the cooler months. The water is constantly in motion, sterilized and aerated. I treat my source water with formalin 37% the day before I do a WC. The formalin breaks down within 8 hours, but surely kills anything in the water. BTW, when the water comes out of the holding can, it is 92 degrees and treated with formalin....nothing can survive that.
This may be overkill for many, but I don't take chances with my Discus. What I am saying is that the problem or the cure starts with the water.
D

 

[Berylla]

There is no way to check for parasites in source water, but you can store and treat it. For example, I keep my source water which is 50% R/O and 50% filtered tap in a 64 gallon can outside here in Florida. I have a 350 gph powerhead in the can as well as an air-stone, submersible UV sterilizer and thermometer for the cooler months. The water is constantly in motion, sterilized and aerated. I treat my source water with formalin 37% the day before I do a WC. The formalin breaks down within 8 hours, but surely kills anything in the water. BTW, when the water comes out of the holding can, it is 92 degrees and treated with formalin....nothing can survive that.
This may be overkill for many, but I don't take chances with my Discus. What I am saying is that the problem or the cure starts with the water.
D

I like the addition of a UV sterilizer in your aging barrel and the formalin is a good idea since you have your barrel constantly full and warm.

 

[Berylla]

that's dumb the stores don't carry it. the one my mom worked at did. thats where i got mine waaaaay back in the day. i thought i still had the bottle but can't find it. i'll just speed deliver some to me. i still have a dose or two of the paraguard which is imo working somewhat for him. he's not getting worse.

strange writing this i looked at my 55 with just the girl in it...

she was at the glass acting hungry, wiggled a bit, then quickly slammed her belly into the gravel a couple times.

i know what flashing is but is that considered flashing?

It sounds like flashing but for now, just keep an eye on your fish and see if there are any other signs of disease. I always do a massive water changes, sometimes a every day, when things aren't "right" in the tank.

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Check out my DIT album...the setup was not expensive and gives be 50 GPD of high quality water for my WC. On accasion I do hve to treat for algae, but a backflush through the lines with formalin in the source water takes care of it. I just have to pull out my carbon filters and R/O membrane. Backflush takes about 15 minutes and I put everything back together.
D

 

[dwayne.aycock]

If one fish is sick, then they may all become sick. Some deal with stress and disease better than others. Some show signs of distress externally...which is what we notice, while others show no consistent signs. Formalin is a good treatment but should be used with caution. It should be used with an increase in temperature and oxygenation. Treat one day, wait one day, do a partial WC and wait one day, then start the process over. 7-14 day treatment is recommended. Things may look a little worse before they get better...but they will be better. You just have to be diligent and patient.
D

 

[smooth_cannibal]

okay now wtf!!!!

i'm over run in the hospital tank and the main tank with i think plamaria. i don't leave food in the tank and anything that does sit is eaten within a couple hours. i look for it.

i think it might have been the duckweed but i did the potassium dip


the main tank especially is literally crawling.

would a uc sterilizer solve this if i can't get rid of it. i don't know how. this is a new one to me.

a uv isn't necessary except in a pinch and i don't mind if it'll help

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Hours is way too long....should be minutes.
D

 

[smooth_cannibal]

need more advice

fudgin heck


sicky was doing well and swimming around and acting like a fish but within 15 minutes of not paying attention to him he died in the hospital tank.

now i just have the girl in the 55.


what i am concerned about is this damm worm problem. its like a snow storm and my tank is crawling with them.

i'm sure it has to be planaria but could it be a parasite???

i have them in all my tanks i've seen. the bug a boo is i put duckweed in all the my tanks. i did the potassium dip before i introduced the plants and i think it didn't work.

like i said i do leave food in the tank but if its still in there after a couple hours i get it out of there.

but this has been my general practice for years and never resulted in this. i've seen them before but not like this!

with the problems i've had, water changes have become almost daily between all the tanks minus my 30g. it has the worms but its not very bad.

i have separate nets vacs etc for all my tanks. and i bleach rinse rinse rinse rinse then let them sit in the sun til they are dry and rinse some more til i can't smell bleach.

i apologize for my previous post but i was wasted when i wrote it. getting back into tanks again was supposed to keep me sober but well i'm having a rough go at it. i've always used the fire water to keep me numb. and stress is my trigger

ironic because stress causes fish disease so i'm sick too!

 

[Bbush]

Meetings my friend. Meetings keep people clean / sober... Not fish. But they do say you should have a pet / plant for a year before getting into a relationship... Or something like that.

 

[smooth_cannibal]

okay so ijust played god and whacked the last one.

 

[dwayne.aycock]

Planaria are caused my a dirty tank and lack of vaccuming and water changes. The planaria are generally not harmful to fish, but indicate overfeeding. Some fish (tetras) eat them. Prazipro or formalin are very effective at treating flagellates and nematodes. Potassium Premanganate (PP) is also effective. You made a mistake, and I know you are bummed. But if you can get back up after being knocked down, your lesson will have been learned. One day at a time my friend. Serenity iswhat you should be seeking. Get up...start small....clean tank and gravel if you have no more fish. Stay away from bleach for sterilization. Hydrogen peroxide 3% should be enough. In the end, you may have introduced a sick fish to your tank that made all the others sick. There is no true way to tell. A good vaccum and a 100% water change should be done now. Most parasites etc have to have a host...without a host they die within 7-10 days. Raising the tank temp also helps. From what i have read in your posts, you left food in your tank waaaaaay too long. Give your fish 5 minutes to eat and vaccum up any leftovers. If you make this a gospel rule, you should not have this problem again. So do have any fish left?
D

 

[Berylla]

Check out my DIT album...the setup was not expensive and gives be 50 GPD of high quality water for my WC. On accasion I do hve to treat for algae, but a backflush through the lines with formalin in the source water takes care of it. I just have to pull out my carbon filters and R/O membrane. Backflush takes about 15 minutes and I put everything back together.
D

Dwayne, could you give us a link to your album? Thanks. Would like to take a look