Amazon Melting

[gsparsan2]

Tank Basics: 90 Gallon Tall with 20W LED light. No CO2, no fertilizer, with tropical community fish. Stable for several years with same stock. Almost no maintenance other than weekly 50% water changes.

Hi guys. I have an issue with my Amazon swords all melting away very rapidly and I would like to know why. The 2 pictures below have been taken 2 weeks apart. These plants are about 2 years old and one in particular grew really well and I like the way is took over half the tank on its own. 10 days ago everything was normal.

Then I added some additional fish. Some young angels and some rummy nose tetras. Against my better judgment, I did not quarantine. The next day the lights happen to die and needed replacing. I was busy with work and it took me 4 days to get around replacing the lights with exactly what I had before, 20W LED. When I put on the new light I immediately saw that most of my fish had white spot. I started treating immediately with the only medication I could get my hands on that day - Ultra Life Anti-Ich from India. I added same dose daily for a week and in that time I lost almost the entire stock. There has been no sign of white spot for a week now but I continued to lose fish. I am not sure they all died of Ich. Some may have died of lack of oxygen. All my Siamese Algae Eaters dies overnight for example. I did not add salt and I did not raise the temperature. Ambient temperature is 32 deg c here. But the medicine may have caused drop in oxygen level.

My main question is what caused my amazon swords to melt so fast. Most of the leaves have turned yellow is just 1 week, specially the bottom leaves. The previous light that was replaced is exactly the same as the new one. Same brand, same model, same intensity. But the new one seems brighter. The old one had got a bit dim before is stopped completely. Is it the sudden change in light brightness? Or is it the medication for Ich? I don't know the composition of the medication. Can you tell from the pictures what is causing this? Is there anything I can do to limit the damage and avoid the plants to die completely?

Today I stopped all medication and did an 80% water change. I'll keep an eye on the remaining fish and I don't intend to restock before another week at least. And this time I will definitely quarantine.

Any advice most welcome.

 

[fishorama]

I could not find a quick search for your ich med so I'm not sure if that could be part of your issues. I didn't see what it is, so I don't know. A dye? Or what? It should say on the label.

Looking at your tank, I see a lot of old sword leaves dying. You can pinch or cut off the lesser yellowing leaves close to the crown (near the substrate) especially on the larger sword. But I don't know that's from a few days without a light. It shouldn't matter a lot; remove the yellowing leaves.

I do see a lot of angelfish & some rummynoses but I can't see ich on them. Try for better pics.

My best advice is to change water often & redose the ich medicine.

Your tank is not a size/shape I've kept. Can you tell us its dimensions please? Bowfronts are different...but I think you may have too many angels...something to think about

 

[gsparsan2]

The tank size is 150cm L x 45cm W x 60xm Tall (5ft x 1.5ft x 2ft) bow front. Actual water volume is 360L.

The medicine looks like its based on formalin, same color and stains the hand the same way. But I don't know its actual composition. See a picture of bottle below. Since the 80% water change, I did not dose the med again and the fish and tank seems stable. I will wait for another week at least to start restocking. I have set up a quarantine tank.

The 'old' leaves were all green just a week ago. It has now turned even more yellow since. I agree that I probably need to remove the leaves at the crown and hope the plant doesn't die.

I found that keeping 6 or more angels turn out better than having only 2 or 3. They behave less territorial and overall more peaceful. Before the outbreak I had 3 large white angels and 3 younger black ones. Water quality has never been an issue, with Nitrate never exceeding 20 ppm before a water change.

 

[fishorama]

I'm not super acquainted with formalin. It's an old treatment, but that doesn't mean it doesn't work well. But it may not be the most "plant happy". Swords are pretty easy care with some root tab fertilizer if your substrate is deep enough (2inches/5cm or more). Don't worry about that right now. Keep the yellowing leaves trimmed off; you don't have to do it all at once.

Can you post more detailed pics? I'd like to see what makes you think it might be ich. It looks like salt sprinkled on the fish's body or fins. In general ich goes from on the fish, then falls off into the substrate. Then it goes into the water column & back onto the fish. Each time it goes through that lifecycle it gets worse & fish get weaker. It can only be killed in the water column with meds. You'll need to treat for 10-14 days with big water changes AFTER all signs of ich are gone. It can just come back, don't slack off!

Keep up water changes before redosing the medication.

 

[gsparsan2]

UPDATE:
Following your advice here and speaking to others as well, I am now convinced it was not white spot. I don't know what is was but when I discovered the disease the fish were covered in white (I don't have pictures unfortunately). So I jumped to conclusions.

Anyway, After a few water changes and 2 weeks to stabilize with the minimal surviving stock (6 Rummy Nose, 1 Cory, 1 Cherry Barb), and after trimming the dead leaves, I have started re-stocking gradually. Current stock = 15 Rummy Nose, 5 Cory, 1 Cherry Barb, 4 Harlequin Rasbora, 4 SAE and 3 Black Ram). The new ones were in quarantine for the past 2 weeks.

I will wait another 2 weeks and add some angels to the tank.

The plants also seem to have survived and are doing well, except for 2 red flame swords that were new additions. So my low-tech, low maintenance tank is back on track I hope. Here is what it looks like now. I am tempted to re-arrange the plants to put the bigger amazon sword towards the back left and replant the other swords in order of decreasing size towards the right, but I'm scared to disrupt anything at the moment so I'll just leave it be.