fishes dying in my tank one by one!

[elmj]

my tank's fishes are acting really weirdly and seem to be dying. i've lost besides the three albino corys bought on monday and dying one after another, another bronze cory this morning and 2 neon tetras!! and the glass catfishes are behaving weirdly chasing each other. could it be som new disease that my albino corys brought it?

i had no choice but to put them immediately in the tank because i did not have the luxary of having a quarentine tank yet,. but ever since their arrival all my other fishes have been dying!

i've changed about 40% of the water. and administered ich medicine for the white spots on their fins.

could anyone out there help me???

[wetmanNY]

You mention white spots on some fins. Are the fishes dying of Ich?

Can you describe the behavior that's weird? Darting. Frantic? Color changes? Flashing?

You mention Ich medication. What ingredients? Formalin and Malachite Green?

It's odd that you describe a quarantine tank as a luxury just at this particular moment. In summer weather you can quarantine fishes in a 5-gal. plastic ("fish-only") bucket with a sponge filter, if you have no spare tank.

[anonapersona]

Still cycling?

[elmj]

anonapersona : cycling? as in new tank cycling? not really. this tank has been around for maybe 3 months? but i did do an over all water change as in 100% water change and cleaning up of the gravel once i realize my fish looked sick. but the bacteria in the filter is still alive because i didn't change the filter. but now the tank looks...slightly cloudy. and could you help me by suggesting how to get rid of the cloudiness? i did a 25% water change but it doesn;t seem to help.

wetmanNY : i'm not sure about the fish med for ich because it was given to me by a friend in a normal bottle and he labled it ich but i do know that its makes is aqua master. actually i always thought a quarentine tank needs to be a proper tank with another filter and everything. that's why i described it as a luxary. you mean a bucket with air bubbles will do as well? now the ich seem to be gone, but my glass cat fish looks raggered. its thin body seems to have been slightly torn (imagine a piece of paper with a small tear of about one cm?). and its tail seems shreded. could it be something in the tank attacking it? all i have is another glass cat fish, a bronze cory, neon tetras and ghost shrimp. thanks for helping

[wetmanNY]

elmj: could that slight cloudiness suggest that you're trying to fatten up the thin glass catfish with an extra pinch of flake? Is there a pencil-line of whitish edging where the fishes' fins are frayed? I'd suspect bacterial/fungal finrot. Keep up the water changes.

(It's hard to help from a distance...)

[elmj]

wetmanNY: you're right.... on closer look, the tear seems to be bordered with a think white line. can normal finrot medicine cure this? my finrot med is by 'aquarium treatments' its this back and white bottle in a blue box with pipette and a measuring cup inside. will this help? should i put this in at the same time i am putting in my ich medicine? now my cory is just swimming up and down the glass as thought searching for a way out.... funny... i don;t think i am overfeeding because all the left overs are cleared by the ghost shrimps i bought purposely for that purpose. so i'm not sure why its cloudy. thanks for your help!

[elmj]

on second thoughts, my ghost shrimps are dying on me too. i thought it was normal but out of the maybe 20+ that i bought, maybe half of it died. any reason?

[Tempest]

Have you checked ammonia and nitrite levels?

[beviking]

What goes in, must come out. Even though the shrimp are acting as cleanup, the more food you put in, the more waste is created (as in fish/shrimp excrement) which is not the ideal condition while treating your tank (excess food/waste that is).

[elmj]

beviking: i never realise that! thanks for informing me. i've given away most of my ghost shrimps. was kinda sad to see them go but i guess its for the best!

thanks for all who have tried to help! :)

[wetmanNY]

elmj your ich medication may be formalin/Malachite Green. This combination is often recommended against finrot too. But it's toxic over a long treatment.

Finrot is a combination of bacteria and Saprolegnia (a water mold). (People with labs and microscopes do try to distinguish between "bacterial finrot" and "fungal finrot"-- then they treat them similarly.) Warmth discourages the "fungus" and salt has worked for me. But I haven't kept glass cats. Not salt tolerant, maybe? Google Kryptopterus bicirrhis. The Cories aren't salt tolerant, though someone's quite likely to post, "I added some salt, and my Cories haven't floated to the surface..."

In general, the active ingredients in a medication tell you more than the brand-name distributor does.I sure wish you had a Q tank. How about the bucket trick?