HELP - Tank water going DOWNHILL!

L

lscall

AC Members
Mar 22, 2005
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This is gonna be somewhat of a long post, but here we go:

About two weeks ago, I noticed what looked like a white head pimple (It was not ICK) on my blood purple parrot fish in an established tank. I treated with CopperSafe.

After 3 days, I noticed no improvement and spoke with a local fish store that I have bought some fish from...They told me I had anchor worm and I should treat the tank with Dimilin and remove carbon. Even though I had already treated with CopperSafe. Looks like they were wrong...Nothing about anchor worms talk about white spots.

After two days, the spot was gone but a small whole appeared...So the told me to treat with Melafix for secondary infections. I put the carbon back into the an AquaClear 70 filter and woke up the next morning with a horrible case of Green/Cloudy Water. No algea on side just water a murky green/gray.

Same place said treat with Algea Fix...Cloudy water subsided (never went away). Then in the last 24 hours my fish started going crazy. A Peacock Cichlid started darting all over stop and died.

My Texas Cichlid started lurking and got cloudy eye...Then today has started to do the darting/crazy thing. My Green Terror looks like it has fin rot and just started the darting/crazy thing.


So today...I did a 50% water change and moved my Blood Purple Parrot, Purple Chocolate (GREAT FISH) and Firemouth to a well established hospital tank. I treated them as precaution with CopperSafe.

I have left the Green Terror and Texas Cichlid; along with a large Algea eater in the tank with the problem water.

I have used both CopperSafe and Melafix before with no adverse affects. My guess is that the Dimilin destroyed the good bacteria...

Any help in what I should do next is GREATLY APPRECIATED????

I am planning on adding nothing else to the tank and doing 20% water changes for next two days and then dropping to 10% with water changes daily for a week.
 
So you treated with Coppersafe, Dimilin, Melafix and then Algea Fix, all pretty much at the same time without water changes in-between? yikes!
*note: when you treat with ANY medication, remove the carbon from the filter or else it will just suck up all the meds, and they wont have any effect on your fish.*

Ok, get that carbon back in the filter ASAP (get new stuff). I think you treated with too much all at once, using all these different meds cant be good on your fish.

Water changes, water changes, water changes. How large is your tank?

The condition you are talking about is not common, but one of my fish had it. It was an unidentified condition, and so far everyone i have talked to who have seen it doesnt know what it is or how to treat it. Sometimes the fish will heal on thier own and survive, and sometimes they succomb to it. So far from what i've read treating it doesnt help. One fish will get it and none of the other fish will be effected, usually.

It doesnt appear to be any sort of parasite. It starts off looking like a little reddish bruise, then starts looking like a pimple - red and swollen, then it will turn white (pusy looking), and then pop, leaving a hole or open wound. Eventually the hole heals but usually there is a scar. Its like fish acne :confused:

HTH
-Diana
 
Update - HELP - Tank water going DOWNHILL!

Sorry...Should have mentioned in first post. I did two 25% water changes (once a week) during the medication period.

And yep on too many chemicals...I am new to Cichlids and trusted what I now think was an uneducated fish store!!!

Next time, I'll stick to water changes and a reputable store...

I was just hoping someone had some insite into what to do to save my green terror and texas cichlid...Same pet store told me to do a 90% water change on my sick tank (55 gallon). Just didn't sit right...So I went to a store recommended by a friend. They almost lost it when they heard the chemicals and 90% water change.

They are the ones that said do a 50% today, 25% next two days and 10% after that for a week total.

Thanks...

Larry
 
Yep keep up with the water changes and the carbon should help with the water discolouration. in the future if you have a fish that needs treating I recomend moving it to a 'hospital' tank with no substrate or decor and treat it on its own.
The pimple was prbably nothing to worry about, my Sev is prone to them, every few months he gets one pop up like a white head on his body or fins and then after a few days it goes away again, dosent seem to bother him.
Oh and yes the meds will have killed off your friendly bacteria so test your water regularly to make sure your tank dosent get a nasty amonia spike.
 
Copper toxitity may be your problem with the odd behavior and deaths. if you have used "coppersafe" before there was proabably already a decent level of copper in the tank. adding more may have put it over the edge. coppersafe breaks down as do most cheleated metals, and copper is notorious for being difficult to remove. once the coopersafe breaksdown you have straight copper in the tank. it is deadly to virtually all life forms at appropriate levels. Unfortunately the Name "coppersafe" is a huge misnomer. It is as dangerous as any copper product ever was and not something That I would ever put in my fishtanks. There is no doubt it is effective against parasites, but to me the risk of killing my fish and contaminating a tank is not worth the effectiveness against parasites.


As said water changes are really your best friend now, and switching out Activated carbon every few days may help overall. You will need to re-cycle the tank one way or another, and watch ammonia and nitrite levels while this is being done.

Water changes can be done in any volume you wish as frequently as needed. The only time Water changes are dangerous is in neglected tanks that have naturally changed chemistry over time, or in situations where tap water and tank water are not similar in parrameters for some other reason. Given the water changes you have alredy outlined, your tank and tap should be roughly the same chemistry. As long as temp is close and you treat for Chlorine/ chloramines you will not cause any problems with frequent high volume changes.

dave
 
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