found a dead fish w/hole in stomach

Thanks for the info lol though should of had a warning LOL I was eating my lunch. No problem though just joking. :D My stomach is a little strong.By the dead fish was alot smaller than the loaches. It was a glo-lite tetra I think.
 
Sully said:
mouth fungus is almost always columnaris--a bacteria. Try maracyn/maracyn 2 in a combined treatment approach. Frequently works.

Depending upon the strain of Columnaris it may be that a stronger med is required. A chlortetracychline should do the trick for you if the Mardel products mentioned above do not work.

Turn the heat down to 76-77. Not higher. Columnaris grows much more rapidly above the 77 F limit. It will not slow down growth if you dialed it back to 68 F. Higher temp simply accelerates reproduction.

Concurrent with meds will be water changes. That will act to reduce the bacteria population the meds are attacking.

With the water changes do thorough gravel vacs to eliminate detrius from substrate. Feed the minimum possible amount. Columnaris feeds on decaying organic matter (fish food) so you need to eliminate it.
Not an absolute that it is columnaris--just a guess based on the quick description you provided.
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That is what I come to say on the mouth fungus and I have use that med also. You name it I've used it if its commonly found in lfs. I was told on here somewhere to turn the heat up instead of down like I'd been doing. Come to think of it I turned it up 3days or so ago and now the mouth stuff is back!
I do the water changes as directed on the meds also. Should I only feed them once a day instead of 2 little feedings a day? Also will it help them to keep the lights off all the time till they are better?
These fish are cheap as my hubby said and lfs told me to flush them cause its costing more to cure them than they was. I just cant bring myself to do this. Thats cruel and I bought these as a pet(family) and I will help them if I can and have the money for it.
I will look for the tests then Bubbles. If I cant get em I will get the exact readings. This is new to me. When we got our first tank 3 yrs ago I thought this cant be too hard. Feed,clean, and add water LOL. Yeah right! I learn more every day and I hope I can master this testing thing. Is it hard to do? Thanks everyone. Shannon
 
glad you're benefiting from this forum! it's always great to hear someone wants to learn.

anyway, the liquid tests (strips are unreliable and hard to read) aren't very difficult. it's just that some require more than one kind of drops. like my ammonia test requires 3 kinds drops, done at specific time intervals ("exactly 1 minute apart" is what it says between steps 2 and 3). Also, ammonia takes about 20 minutes to develop. Nitrite test (at least for mine) is just one drop solution, and takes about 5 minutes to develop.

The biggest mistake, I think, is not letting the tests have time to fully develop color. That's the error I made, I read the ammonia test immediately and it was zero! Then I finally read the instructions and let it sit, and it developed a dark green TOXIC color. Oops. This was after weeks and quite a few fish dying. I guess I should have been tipped off when the tank stunk...

I know it might seem silly to spend more time, effort, and money on treating the fish than they cost to begin with. But it's all a learning experience for you, and you'll be that much more prepared for future fishies. Plus, like you said, they're living things and don't deserve to be put down or allowed to die just because they're "cheap". So we support your actions, even if your husband doesn't :)
 
plah831 said:
anyway, the liquid tests (strips are unreliable and hard to read) aren't very difficult. it's just that some require more than one kind of drops. like my ammonia test requires 3 kinds drops, done at specific time intervals ("exactly 1 minute apart" is what it says between steps 2 and 3). Also, ammonia takes about 20 minutes to develop. Nitrite test (at least for mine) is just one drop solution, and takes about 5 minutes to develop.
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I have aquarium pharmeceuticals freshwater master test kit and it is very easy to use. The ammonia requires 2 kinds of drops but no waiting in between drops, nitrite is only one kind of drop and so it PH, but nitrate is 2 kinds of drops, have to shake one of them for a minute, but thats the hardest thing about it. All tests done in 5 mins except ph which is immediate. Plus if you print off petsmarts online price on www.petsmart.com and take it into your local petsmart, you can get the test for the online price of $13.49. That is a huge deal!
 
trkyhunter91 said:
These fish are cheap as my hubby said and lfs told me to flush them cause its costing more to cure them than they was. I just cant bring myself to do this. Thats cruel and I bought these as a pet(family) and I will help them if I can and have the money for it.
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Never flush live or dead fish. Not only is it cruel to the live ones, it can introduce diseases into the waterways that don't belong there. There have been plenty of threads on how to humanely euthanize your fish on this forum. I know you said this was unacceptable to you, but for others that may be reading this, I repeat, DO NOT FLUSH YOUR FISH!

You do need to have your own water test kit, especially with all of the problems you are having. You should be checking your parameters daily. It also concerns me that you said you put your filter back in two days ago. Did you have your filter out of the tank or off during your treatment of the fish? If so, your tank is cycling again because all of your beneficial bacteria died off. Hopefully, you mean that you replaced the carbon into your filter. Please let us know which it was.

Whenever I treat for illnesses I do water changes. Even if the medicine instructs you not to. Fresh water is the best cure for sick fish. Do you use dechlor in your water when you do water changes?

As for the fish with the hole... I had a similar experience with a platy. Basically, it exploded. It was fine the night before, the next morning it was floating on the top, belly swollen with a perfectly round hole in its side. The scales around the hole broke off into my hand and there was blood. It was by far the most gruesome fish death I have seen. The culprit was either a very quick running bacterial infection which sometimes do this, or it was a parasite of some sort. Unfortunately the parasites will sometimes just linger in the substrate and wait to infect another host. A really gross thought.
Take care,
Mary.
 
trkyhunter91 said:
I usually do a 30% water change/vac every week, but with the maroxy it was a 5 day treatment and the green powder stuff was a 3. So its been at least 8 days since I ve done a change. I did put the filter back in 2 days ago.
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Fish could be dying because your tank is without a bio filter. Removing it mst likely eliminated the population of "good bacteria" required for denitrification. (ammonia to nitrite, nitrite to nitrate). That very easily and precisely fits into the poor water conditions conducive to various pathogens (not just columnaris) present in your tank...at the same time creating a toxic level of ammonia and/or nitrites that cause death on their own.

You need to do daily water changes to get the tank back under control. And you most definitely require an AP type test kit. They cost somethng less thatn $20.00 last time I looked.

Dosing a tank with antibiotics on a daily basis does not preclude the ability (or the efficacy) of pwc's. The reason for the daily dosing is to assure a therapuetic dosing level. The point being the antibiotic will kill or reduce the bacteria level in the tank giving the fish a chance to recover. Water changes export not only ammonia, nitrite and ammonia, but other pathogens as well.

Some people utilize a turn up the heat approach to treat many diseases in order to speed the metabolic rate of the fish--hoping that helps create a stronger and more effective immune response. With some diseases (bacterial, parasitic, or fungal) that works. In others it is a bogger assist for the disease. You always need to understand the disease being treated in order to formulate a treatment approach. One size does not fit all.

Columnaris is a bacterium that is present in virtually all tanks. The issue is keeping it under control or within the limit the fish can contend with on their own.
 
I have a 29gal tank setup from walmart. I removed the carbon filter, but left it running. I know they need it to live. Did I do this wrong? It said to remove carbon and I looked for something that I could replace it with till after treatment, but couldnt find anything.
Im glad I moved all the other fish when the problem first started or I'd have an even bigger problem. I miss counted also there is a total of 5 fish now in the tank. A neon tetra (last one from the school my catfish ate),2 danios, and 2 tetras. Its been so long ago when I bought them I dont remember the names for sure. All are small so hopefully if my tank is trying to do a mini cycle again it wont be so bad. I will have to find a petsmart. I think theres one about an hour away from me and I've been wanting to look there anyways. I will go and get the test kit. Im glad you all are helping me on this I was about ready to give up. :sad: :duh: This sure has been a battle and I hope its over soon. My fish are even starting to chase each other in the tank now. Getting ready to do another water change after I'm done here. Do you think it would be ok to take a sample of the water with me even right after a water change?
Thanks everyone you have been so helpful and informative. Ive learned alot on this site. Shannon
 
Hi everyone I just got done cleaning all my tanks. The 29 gal did have a very little amount of left over food in the bottom, but really wasnt as bad as i thought it would be.I done a 50% water change to be on the safe side though.Is this too much and also with daily wc's how much should I be taking out and not harm or stress the fish anymore than they are now? They are going crazy in the tank now from where I cleaned it. The fish that has the fungus on the gill looks diff. now also. I dont know if this is good or bad...around the edges of the one gill it is turning darker almost black and the white stuff isnt as bad looking. Is the tissue dying or what?Thanks everyone. Shannon
 
trkyhunter91 said:
.I done a 50% water change to be on the safe side though.Is this too much and also with daily wc's how much should I be taking out and not harm or stress the fish anymore than they are now?
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Still waiting on those water test results trkyhunter...they will tell you if your water changes are enough or not...
 
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