Fish Dying, Help!

[scholar]

80F is Ok. There is some agent bacteria or otherwise that is causing the problem.

I am told by my LFS which is the best in town that 30-40% water change every three days is ok. I highly recommend water changes 30% every three days. Be asue wnatever itis, it is in the water. Until you figure out what itis. the water change is yourlife line. 30% minimum every three days. I consider your situation as emergency as you may loose them all. So 30% water chang every three days is very appropriate.

Good luck,

If you have another tank, you may wish to remove the fish without symptoms.

 

[peifc]

One time my GT was about to die on me, got cloudy eyes and all. I put couple of penicillin right on top of him...he was himself again the next day...swimming around and chasing fish.

My other fish got attacked so badly...that he started to have cotton patch on him. I put in some fungal infections capsules. Now that fish is so healthy...and the skin grew back.

If you believe that it is parasite, and all the water change does nothing...really should start thinking about some med for the fish. The best brand fish med is Aquatronics. Their penicilin is always out of stock.

There are many website that gives you tips and fish disease symptoms. You might wanna look into that. That's who I learned to cure my fish.

 

[jimbo]

Originally posted by dcallen
Also I've been told by a LFS not to do 50% water changes per week, as the fish can be sensitive to larger water changes, is this true?

Not really.
Just keep in mind that water from Lake Malawi is on average ten times more pure than our tap water.(with the exception of some industrial areas)
In Lake Malawi they have found 10 bacteria in 1 mg of water whereas in tap water a hundred on average.
In our tanks this will increase to a thousand or even more.
I think there is no such thing as to much "pure water" in our tanks.
I know of some hobbyists have made a system which continuously adds tap water to their tanks with no problems at all. So I’m pretty sure a 50 or even a 60% water change won’t harm your fish.

Jimmy

 

[dcallen]

Hi,

Well I haven't had anymore fish deaths yet, and they did eat this morning, but then after they ate they went back to the same place behind a big rock and pretty much stayed there. I did another water change yesterday to help things along, and I did add some medication to the tank, although I can't remember the name it does treat several different diseases so I thought I would give it a try and see what happens. I also added a power head for flow. I plan on doing another water change in a few days. As far as nitrates go, is there any way to lower them besides doing water changes?

I was also told that salt could help as well so I'm going to add some tonight and see.


Thanks for everyones help...

 

[scott]

Your pH is fine, for some reason I read German Ram instead of German Red. If there is a white spot and a worm you definately need to medicate. I am no disease expert but my feeling is you need a specific drug for parasites, I don't think salt does much of anything.
As far a lowering nitrates I have read about deep sand beds growing nitrate consuming bacteria in reef tanks but as far as I know it does not apply to fresh water (you might get more info in the reef keeping forum?). I think just good ole fashioned water changes are the way to go. Check out WetmanNY's site www.skepticalaquarist.com for some specifics on disease and parasites. It's a great website in general too. HTH.

 

[Eric86]

Sounds exactly like what happens weekly at my friend's house... dechlorinator poisoning is what that sounds like... either that or not using dechlorinator.. Maybe hard to breathe if you have little to no water disturbences...

 

[scholar]

nitrates less than 60 ppm can not cause any damage. So lowering nitrates further woul d not do anything.

 

[jimbo]

Originally posted by scholar
nitrates less than 60 ppm can not cause any damage. So lowering nitrates further woul d not do anything.

ABSOLUTELY WRONG INFO.
Why would you let it come that far in the first place
Just give me one good reason.
It will never come that far unless you don't perform regular partial water changes or your tank is heavily overstocked, either way something is seriously wrong.
Just try to keep your fish in your own tank alive for a couple of weeks or even days with nitrates at 60 ppm.
When the nitrate is 60 ppm, it will become toxic(nitrite again) within 24 hours so you'll be having a hard time to keep it on 60.

Jimmy

 

[scott]

I don't know the science behind it but doesn't temp and pH have an effect on toxicity of nitrate?
I always heard to keep nitrate below 20 as a rule of thumb. But I guess there are lots of rules of thumb that don't work, inch fish/gallon for instance.

 

[dcallen]

It seems like it's going to be very hard for me to keep the nitrates below 20 ppm. The nitrates in my system seem to want to hover at around 20 ppm and not go down much, so that may be the best I can do. It would be really nice to get them down to 10 ppm but I'm not sure that's going to happen based on what's happened in the past.