Do I need to "disinfect" my aquarium now?

[LindaD]

I lost all my fish from an internal parasite, and moved the one survivor into my 10g. I didn't see ANY symptoms until it was too late. I noticed stringy white feces on the last fish I lost. They basically just stopped eating and died within 12-24 hours. With no visable symptoms, other than the last fish showing white feces.

I'm worried about re-stocking the aquarium and re-infecting any other fish. I've been looking for pure ammonia to start the tank over without much luck. So if possible I'd like to keep the filters seeded at least. Unless of course they may be harboring some nasties.

What do you all think? Should I do a complete takedown of this tank and disinfect everything?

Thanks.

[Dangerdoll]

if it were me, I would. Especially now since you've got no fish left and you saw evidence of some kind of parasite on the last fish to go. What are your plans of disinfecting it? What will you be using?

[LindaD]

If was thinking hot water and bleach on the tank, all decor, filters and media. Rinse well, and let everything dry. Then fill the tank back up, use lots of dechlor and fishless cycle the tank.

I'm pretty sure I found some pure ammonia. There is no ingredient list on the bottle though. But it's clear and doesn't foam when shaken. It's Goldex brand..

[ChicoRaton]

You could also nuke the tank with a mega-dose of ammonia... then do like a 90% water change to get it back down to 5 ppm... I don't know if it'd work but it's an idea I just had, so remember to view it as such.

[beviking]

The feedback on bacteria-in-a-bottle (at least some brands) is good. You could try that.

[Dangerdoll]

yikes!! I think it might be better to follow the plans of disinfecting Linda. Chico, I'm not confident that nuking the tank with ammonia would kill anything left behind.... then doing a 90% water change, then getting your level back into the 5 range while going for the fishless cycle would do it...... it wouldn't feel "cleaned up" to me..... maybe because I'm in the mid of a fishless cycle and am amazed at the snails doing just great with the levels..... who woulda thought. I just think you would save a lot of time and possible aggravation by cleaning the whole thing out since you are going to be cycling anyway..... and here's your chance to change a few things around such as substrate, deco, plants.... you name it!

[ChicoRaton]

I'm not confident that nuking the tank with ammonia would kill anything left behind....

Don't worry I'm not either :p

Bleach would definitely work though. I hear good things about oxy-clean as well.

[fishpoor]

As long as there's nothing alive left in the tank. I would remove the media from the filters and either disinfect it seperately or discard it. Then add bleach up to a 10% solution with the filters running. Stir up the gravel several times and make sure the solution circulates freely around & through any ornaments. Being paranoid, I would leave it this way for at least a day. Then gravel vac/siphon as much out as you can and refill with new water. After letting the new water circulate through the empty filters for a couple of hours, i would again gravel vac/siphon out as much as you can and refill with fresh water , add dechlorinator, stir up the gravel a couple of times swish the ornaments around and after an hour, drain again & refill. Add dechlorinator. If you chose to disinfect the filter media, make sure that you dechlorinate it very well. After that , if the tests come back okay, the tank is ready to start over.

[Analog Saint]

I agree with fishpoor. A bleach solution (aqueous sodium hypochlorite) is about as powerful a disinfectant as you can find, and can easily be removed to nontoxic levels by sunlight, water dilution, and time. If you want to be sure everything's gone for good, bleach is the surest and safest way to do it. It's surprising how safe bleaching is, considering how powerful a detergent/antimicrobial Sodium Hypochlorite is.

[LindaD]

Thanks all. I'll go ahead and bleach everything. But I think I'm going to completely tear it down and scrub everything. I want to make sure I nuke every last bit of the parasite.

Now I just hope that the ammonia I bought it safe for fishless cycling.

[PumaWard]

Just a thought, but parasites usually take a little longer than a one symptom then death. I would suspect something more along the lines of a bacterial infection.

I personally would find out, if you can, what happened before " disinfecting" the tank... the tank may not even be the source. What were your water perameters?

What kind of fish were they and what did you feed them?

[LindaD]

My water parameters are... PH 8.0, Ammonia=0, Nitrite=0, Nitrate between 5-10ppm on the color chart. Temp is 79. The PH of the stores the fish were purchased at was also in the 7.5-8.0 range.

Fish were 4, 1 inch baby oscars in a 50g rubbermaid. With a AC300 and an AC500. I was attempting to get a pair.. and all 4 were going to be moved into my 75g once I got a new stand. Which was in approx 4 weeks. But I didn't get that far..

One by one they stopped eating and before I could even attempt a course of treatment they had already died. It was litterally 12-24 hours by the time they quit eating and died.

The last oscar was moved into my 10g, since the rubbermaid sprung a leak. He was fine for 4 days and then he started showing the same symptoms.

When I first posted this yesterday I thought the last oscar was dead. I went to net him out of the tank after my last post here and he is still alive. But barely. I'm currently treating the tank with Metro. The lfs doesn't have any medication in stock that even remotely sounds like what I'm dealing with here.

Any ideas?

[PumaWard]

If the fish are flashing, than it sounds like external/gill parasites rather than internal. Regaurdless, I see little point in disinfecting tanks with disease short of TB. I could be mistaking, but, if it were intestinal parasites, fish actually have to eat a source containing the parasite before they can become diseased... I also believe that all fish have a small amount of these parasites already in their gut and that stress allows them to move ahead in the population department.

Did the fish lose the capability to stay upright? Did they should any signs of distress besides loss of appetite? What have you been feeding them for a diet? How long have you had these fish? Are there other fish in the tank?

[LindaD]

I called both lfs's today where I purchased the fish. They said they have also lost some of the baby oscars with no explanation. So I'm beginning to think I bought diseased fish in the first place. But I would like to save this little guy since I'm quite attached to him now.

I had them for about 2 weeks. I lost the first fish 2 days after purchase. Then another died 3 days later, and the 3rd died 2-3 days after the second. And the last remaining oscar stopped eating 4 days after the 3rd fish died. No other fish were in the tank..

They were all being fed Hikari gold and Nutrafin cichlid sticks. 3-4 times a day.

I didn't notice any other symptoms other than not eating with the 3 other fish. Although the Remaining oscar is now gasping and having some balance problems. Not as bad as yesterday. He seems to be improving and swimming around more. But still will not eat anything. I even dropped the water level so the filters disturb the surface more.

I double checked ammonia and nitrite and they are both 0. I've been doing large daily water changes and adding a full dose of Metro each morning. Today was day 2 of treatment. Maybe it's helping?

[PumaWard]

Is he at all bloated in the stomach region?

[ryan]

I once lost all of my fish to ick (in my marine tank). obviously those are harder to tear down than fresh, so i just left it, fishless but otherwise running for a month then restocked. parasites can't live without a host, so if you starve them (be mindful of the length of the life cycle also) then your back in buisness. i'd just keep adding small amounts of ammonia for the duration (to prevent a re-cycle) then restock after a period of time, it'll take you longer than that to clean/ recycle anyways.

Thats what i would do, BUT thats assuming you dont want to re-do the tank. Its always unfortunate to have a tank whiped out, but it does offer a fresh start, a chance to go into a different direction (as far as deco., stocking, etc.) if you wanted.

ryan

[xytrix01]

Rubermaid? like one of those big storage containers or garbage cans? I dont have any proof to back this up, but I have been told that the plastic they use can leech chemicals and kill fish. Unless it was rated for food/drink, you might suspect that.

[LindaD]

xytrix01, There was a code on the bottom of the rubbermaid. I can't remember off hand what the exact code was. But it was it was food/drink safe. I had fish in it before with no problems.

For my piece of mind, I tore the tank down anyway. I'm going to attempt a fishless cycle. Good practice for me anyway since I'm going to need to fishless cycle my 75g and I've never done a fishless cycle before.

PumaWard, Nope no bloating at all. But he died this morning. I checked his gills and they were a pale pink/white color. The gills looked fine other than the color. No white spots, swelling.. nothing.

[xytrix01]

Ok, I had heard that there were some that weren't safe. *shrug* sorry to hear about your loss.

[LindaD]

No you are right there are some that are not safe. I just meant that the one I had was food safe.

[cushi272]

Ack, thats a bummer man :<

Makes my setting up a quartine tank all the more imperative.

[PumaWard]

Ok, I had heard that there were some that weren't safe. *shrug* sorry to hear about your loss.

Hmm, I'm sure that there are somethings that aren't fish safe, but a lot of people use rubbermaid trash cans as storage bins.