I'm just tired of getting fish and then they die within a week...and it's nothing I'm doing or not doing...I change my water regularly, I get it tested, I don't over or under feed...I know it's probably the quality of the fish I'm getting to begin with but it's annoying...
parasites and what to do now...
- Thread starter barbiegrl75
- Start date
What exactly do you mean by "stable" water params? How did you cycle? Which parasite do you think you had?
I had set my tank up 4 months ago and kind of had a mix of cycling with fish and fishless...my ammonia spiked as is was supposed to then the nitrites and then finally everything was 0 and my nitrates were at 25, pH was 7.8. It never fluctuated very much after that. I'm not really sure what parasite it was I just know that I had one fish that died (after spitting out his food and hanging out at the top or laying at the bottom, mean while the other two guys were fine) soon after another fish got sick and showed the same symptoms except this time I watched closer and he had white stringy poop and he died that night, the very next morning my last guppy was showing the same signs and he died. After doing research (some one told me they thought it was hole in the head, I doubt that) I just figured it had to be some kind of parasite...Like I said I'm 99% sure it wasn't the water because I'm really dedicated to doing this right.
Oh and right after I noticed my second fish being sick I went to Petsmart and told the lady in the fish department the symptoms, she recommended Melafix, I came back that night and started the dosage but as you can see it didn't really help...
Oh and right after I noticed my second fish being sick I went to Petsmart and told the lady in the fish department the symptoms, she recommended Melafix, I came back that night and started the dosage but as you can see it didn't really help...
okay so I also have a question about this fish...he was the second guy to go. He seems bloated but I fed them shelled peas one night and starved them the next day before this picture was taken and I never saw him poop but once and it was just a little bit of white string and that was all...he also looked like he had some kind of fungus or something maybe? (That's what I circled in the one picture.) All this showed up over night and he was gone within 48 hours...any clue what this could be symptoms of? He was the only one that seemed bloated and had a weird patch pop up...
if you can't tell anything from the pictures I understand just thought I'd give it a try.
if you can't tell anything from the pictures I understand just thought I'd give it a try.
I see no reason to bleach anything and start over. If you're sure the tank is cycled (meaning 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and measurable nitrates), you could probably just leave it running, perhaps adding a teaspoon of pure ammonia right before you leave.
Most fish can live with parasites for a while at least before killing them. I think they would likely display other odd behaviors in the meantime, like scratching, not eating, or have worms hanging out of their anus, so the quick deaths in succession does seem to point to the water, but without more specifics it's hard to say.
edit: just saw your pics. Hard to tell for sure, but it's possibly Columnaris, which would indeed kill them quickly. If that's the case, disregard what I said previously and bleach the tank.
Most fish can live with parasites for a while at least before killing them. I think they would likely display other odd behaviors in the meantime, like scratching, not eating, or have worms hanging out of their anus, so the quick deaths in succession does seem to point to the water, but without more specifics it's hard to say.
edit: just saw your pics. Hard to tell for sure, but it's possibly Columnaris, which would indeed kill them quickly. If that's the case, disregard what I said previously and bleach the tank.
Last edited:
if you bleach the tank, be sure you rinse really well and when you are done, rinse it again. When you add water back into the tank, use the dechlor and it should work fine. If it were me, I'd do that. Since you are going to be gone for 4 weeks, I would add 5ppm of ammonia and then treat the tank as if you were going for a brand new cycle. Be sure you clean everything out for 4 weeks, you will miss the beginning of the cycle, but that's the boring part.... where not much changes. When you get back is where the water checking and the daily water changes take effect.
