Kilgore
Aquarium Advice Activist
Hi Everyone,
I seem to have the most trouble with the fish that are supposed to be very tough. Usually it's the guppies, but this time, I am losing my zebra danios. Oddly, they are the only fish in the tank that seem to be affected. - other much more "sensitive" fishes are doing fine, including rams, marbled hatchets, dwarf chain loaches, and Sterbai cories.
Out of six danios, one was discovered dead during the weekly water change (all were present and accounted for the night before, so he had not been dead long), one has developed a very large tumour-like swelling on the right side of his abdomen (looks like half of a pregnant guppy!), and one was showing signs of fish TB - arched back, shallow abdomen, general listlessness. The latter one was moved to the fish hospital ASAP, but I couldn't catch the lumpy one. He has been like that for about a week now.
I treated the skinny/TB one with M1 and M2, expecting him to die, really, but after 24 hours he actually looks slightly better. His abdomen has filled out some. Maybe that'ts just swelling due to internal infection, though, so we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, Lumpy isn't any better or worse. Additionally, I noticed that the four remaining danios seem to have slightly reddened, gaping gills. Maybe they are always like that and I never noticed before?
What could I possibly be doing to kill off these supposedly "tough" fishes? I think temp. might be part of the problem... my temp has ranged from 78*F -88*F this summer due to the heat, and apparently danios prefer cooler water. Also, the pH is rather low, since this is a CO2-dosed plant tank. The pH varies from about 6.4 - 6.8. Last but not least, there was a crazy algae bloom recently, and while it is getting better, it has left behind a large amount of dissolving particulate matter that may be irritating the fishes' gills. But wouldn't that affect all the fish? Maybe it is, and it is just more noticeable with the danios. I have been doing 50% weekly water changes and running the diatom filter to combat the algae problem, which has helped a lot.
If you have any ideas on what I can do to save my danios, I would love to hear it.
Thanks,
Kilgore
Tank Info: 46 gallons
Temp: 80*F
pH: 6.4
Hardness: 4dGH
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5-10 (very low due to plants)
No recent fish additions
I seem to have the most trouble with the fish that are supposed to be very tough. Usually it's the guppies, but this time, I am losing my zebra danios. Oddly, they are the only fish in the tank that seem to be affected. - other much more "sensitive" fishes are doing fine, including rams, marbled hatchets, dwarf chain loaches, and Sterbai cories.
Out of six danios, one was discovered dead during the weekly water change (all were present and accounted for the night before, so he had not been dead long), one has developed a very large tumour-like swelling on the right side of his abdomen (looks like half of a pregnant guppy!), and one was showing signs of fish TB - arched back, shallow abdomen, general listlessness. The latter one was moved to the fish hospital ASAP, but I couldn't catch the lumpy one. He has been like that for about a week now.
I treated the skinny/TB one with M1 and M2, expecting him to die, really, but after 24 hours he actually looks slightly better. His abdomen has filled out some. Maybe that'ts just swelling due to internal infection, though, so we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, Lumpy isn't any better or worse. Additionally, I noticed that the four remaining danios seem to have slightly reddened, gaping gills. Maybe they are always like that and I never noticed before?
What could I possibly be doing to kill off these supposedly "tough" fishes? I think temp. might be part of the problem... my temp has ranged from 78*F -88*F this summer due to the heat, and apparently danios prefer cooler water. Also, the pH is rather low, since this is a CO2-dosed plant tank. The pH varies from about 6.4 - 6.8. Last but not least, there was a crazy algae bloom recently, and while it is getting better, it has left behind a large amount of dissolving particulate matter that may be irritating the fishes' gills. But wouldn't that affect all the fish? Maybe it is, and it is just more noticeable with the danios. I have been doing 50% weekly water changes and running the diatom filter to combat the algae problem, which has helped a lot.
If you have any ideas on what I can do to save my danios, I would love to hear it.
Thanks,
Kilgore
Tank Info: 46 gallons
Temp: 80*F
pH: 6.4
Hardness: 4dGH
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate: 5-10 (very low due to plants)
No recent fish additions
