Fish dying off 1 by 1/need HELP FAST!

fishywishywashy

fishywishywashy

AC Members
Dec 4, 2008
55
0
0
39
Virginia Beach, VA
Hello:
Tank: 75 gallons Fresh
Planted
Inhabitants: mystery snail, 9 assorted barbs (auralius, odessa, tiger), 1 rainbow shark, 7 rainbow tetras
Water conditions are good, do a 20% water change 1x a week to 2x a week

So, here is whats going on. I have had this tank for 2 years with no issues. All of a sudden fish start dying off after I got lazy and didn't keep up with the water changes. Nitrates got high and PH a little wobbly, but now all has been well for as long as two months. However, at a faster and faster rate certian fish are dying off from a mutitude of issues. Symptoms and deaths inculde: dropsy (porcipine scales and bloat), frayed fins(could be from bullying as they usually can't swim well by that point), head standing and generally can't swim, and loss of appetite.
Also, many have long strings coming out of "butt" that are sometimes eliminated. I have heard that I had Callmenaus worms, but I never could confirm it. Fish seemed fine for over a year, however now I think it is the worm killing them off.
Finally, the only fish dying off are the tiger barbs and odessa's. (used to have ruby barbs, but they died a while ago). The tetra's, Auralius and tetra's seem fine. Osessas the only one's who got dropsy. though!

Anyway, I know it is long, so those of you who read it I appreciate it!
Danielle
 
Ouch. Well hey fishywashy I recommend doing a good 50% water change, buy maracyn and maracyn 2, dose it off for the fish and keep up every 24 hours.

By the way, welcome to Aquaria Central.
 
the white poop, loss of appetite and bloating can all be symptoms of internal parasites, that usually will result in death. I've battled these before, mostly with gouramis who can be very prone to them. Best treatment I found was Fish Zole. Don't even BOTHER with the parasite food. It smells like checmicals and no one would touch it. If I were you, I'd go straight for the fish zole.
 
Could be, could also be a systematic bacterial infection, even TB. Any wasting, bent spines or ulcers?
 
many internal parasite can be cured or eliminated with proper medication.
Understand tho that Karl is correct.. the Sx for internal parasites can also be bacterial infection.

if it is camallanus it can be treated but they do not normally respond to standard medicine. the use of flubendazole, fenbendazole and Levamisole have proven effective,

btw camallanus are usually thread like and red(blood) they can sometimes be seen protruding from the anus.

http://www.rhusmann.de/aqua/bilder/camallan.jpg

often the death of the fish is due to a secondary bacterial infection when the worm(parasite ) dies but does not pass out of the gut.
 
Think its the lack of water changes over an extended amount of time, then suddenly changing it by doing maintenance. Classic case of OTS.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom