Whirling fish!

[Krogman]

I have 10 blood fin tetras and three panda garras in my 55g. I had 7 blue flame tetras but now have one here's the rundown:
Friday lfs calls and has all 23 of my fish. 10 each of tetras and the garras. When I arrive Saturday they only have 7 blue flame tetras, employee says that he doesn't know what happened to the other 3. Sunday I have a blue tetra just being pushed around my tank by powerheads and not swimming well at all, I did away with him. Also noticed a dead one stuck to my filter intake and he was gone. Monday I had two not swimming properly and this is when I started researching. Did away with those two poor fellas. This morning I found one more corckscrewing and away he went. Finally this afternoon I have found another tetra dead and on the filter.
All this said it appears my fish may have whirling disease. Which if I'm correct is a parasite for which there is no cure? If another should I remove my last blue tetra and see what the lfs will do for me? It seems to me they were bad from the get. Any way to prevent my other fish from this horrible fate? Or do I just wait and see what happens?

 

[Krogman]

EVIL! Now three of my bloodfins are showing signs of ich. They have white spots on their tailfins. Temp was at 76, turned to 77/78 this Morning, I will be raising the temperature up to 86. I am afraid that my panda Garras won't make it past that. I will have to keep a good eye on them the next few days while the temperature rises.

 

[pip walters]

This is probably ammonia poisoning in the bags when the fish were shipped to your lfs, especially as they mysteriously lost three overnight!!. The gills have been damaged and that has restricted oxygen supply to the brain. As it is just the blue tetras that are affected, I would say it isn't the parasite that causes whirling disease.

You say the lfs got all of your fish in. I assume these are fish they ordered in for you? It is a little irresponsible for them to sell them on to you so quickly after arrival. I won't make any assumptions here regarding your fishkeeping experience, but that is also a lot of fish to add all at once.

 

[Krogman]

Yes they ordered all of them for me. I was a little skeptical about them being shipped to the lfs and then moved again to my place. I am not going to be getting new fish for a long time but will look into better practices when I do. I am new to fish keeping but love it and am always researching and learning.
So far the last two blue flames and the other fish are doing well. Temp is at 78 now. The garras are a little more active this evening. The bloodfins are not schooling though, I have only seen them swim as a group twice, mostly they chase each other and hang out alone, sometimes in pairs.

 

[pip walters]

Hopefully they are settling now then and you can sort out the ich problem.
At work, we have to be extra careful with certain fish as they are prone to this problem after arrival. They include rosy barbs, tiger barbs and silver dollars among others. Releasing them too quickly seems to send them into shock.

Good luck with your future fishkeeping and read plenty of books, especially those by herbert r axelrod!

 

[Delapool]

This is probably ammonia poisoning in the bags when the fish were shipped to your lfs, especially as they mysteriously lost three overnight!!. The gills have been damaged and that has restricted oxygen supply to the brain. As it is just the blue tetras that are affected, I would say it isn't the parasite that causes whirling disease.

You say the lfs got all of your fish in. I assume these are fish they ordered in for you? It is a little irresponsible for them to sell them on to you so quickly after arrival. I won't make any assumptions here regarding your fishkeeping experience, but that is also a lot of fish to add all at once.

Hi Pip, can ammonia poisoning in the bag build up quickly?

Still a little confused on this. Saw one that looked like ammonia burns on scales and it made a bit more sense when I saw a few articles that said this showed recovery from high ammonia which could be 2 to 3 days before (rather than direct burns). I guess that would be the skin under the scales? But this to me still begs the question of anything that can damage the scales or under the scales would be really severe for the gills. Or perhaps they are actually quite damaged but still can get by (?) and we just don't see it. Thoughts?