Help fix my 'tank of death'

IceH2O said:
Is it possible you just got a bad batch of cories?

How did you acclimate them?

How long were they in the tank before they died?

I'm inclined to think that since everything looks good parameter wise that the fish either weren't in the best health or weren't added to the tank correctly.
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After exhaustive research and from what I can determine I think that may be a likely scenario. I got a group of 4 to begin with and one died immeadietly on the way home (15 minute trip, kept them covered and secure). I chalked it up to stress or a fluke occurence. Got home and made sure I acclimated them properly. I put them in the water and floated them for 15 minutes, added some of my aquarium water and waited 15 more, then added a little more and waited 15 more. Then I fetched them out of the bag and put them in the water careful to not get any of the bags contents into the aquarium.

The cories did die rather unexpectedly with the exception of the last one. The first died within 24 hours and I after I examined him and didn't see anything wrong I guessed he didn't acclimate as successfully as the others. The rest looked perfectly happy and active scavenging away. 2 days later I woke up to a dead cory on the waterfall. I got a little upset wondering why this was happening. The next day my last cory started swimming his barrel rolls and i did everything I could think of to help him. Tested the water, water change, and he seemed ok for a while. Then 15 hours or so later he started spinning again and that's when I noticed what he looked like from the above pictures.

One of my danios died during this time too but I thought he may have gotten accidently caught in the filter and got away (he was a tiny little guy) because he was unable to close his mouth for some reason but didn't show any other symptoms of being sick.

I may fish out my remaining danios and put them in something temporarily and clear out my tank and treat it like I would treat ich just to be sure. However I never observed any ich like symptoms on the cories or the remaining danios.
 
I don't like the look of that substrate... What is PFS substrate, or what's it supposed to be? It looks kind of "glassy" to me and I wonder if it is a little too sharp and irritating to the cories, and they developed injuries and disease consequently due to that. Just a thought.
Take care,
Mary.
 
PFS is pool filter sand, I believe it's silica based and that's what I read many people recommend for bottom dwelling fish like corries. I watched him go to town on the substrate and never seemed like he was uncomfortable tossing it around looking for food. As a matter of fact it looks a lot smoother than the alternatives availible it local pet/fish stores around here.
 
If I did want to do a preventitive ich treatment on my tank could I take the fish out treat them in a QT tank, and just add a lot of salt to the water to kill of any remaining ich that could be suspended in the water? I would think removing the fish and large amounts of salt would kill off any ich in the water much faster than I could with the fish still in-tank.

Anyone else have any ideas what could have happened to the fish? I don't think it's ich just because I didn't observe any spots on any of the fish, but maybe high salinity will help kill of any other bacteria/parasites potentially remaining in the water.
 
push350z said:
If I did want to do a preventitive ich treatment on my tank could I take the fish out treat them in a QT tank, and just add a lot of salt to the water to kill of any remaining ich that could be suspended in the water? I would think removing the fish and large amounts of salt would kill off any ich in the water much faster than I could with the fish still in-tank.

Anyone else have any ideas what could have happened to the fish? I don't think it's ich just because I didn't observe any spots on any of the fish, but maybe high salinity will help kill of any other bacteria/parasites potentially remaining in the water.
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you said it was a julii corydoras? I think thet are collected from the wild a lot, and as a result have very comprimised immune systems. yours were most likely wild caught and not properly acclimated at the store.
 
i agree with fishcatch. if you don't see signs of ich (flashing, white dots like salt) don't treat for it. although if you want to add salt to temporarily relieve stress (the key word is "temporarily"), i guess it wouldn't hurt. just remove the salt with water changes and refilling with fresh water.
 
fishcatch22 said:
you said it was a julii corydoras? I think thet are collected from the wild a lot, and as a result have very comprimised immune systems. yours were most likely wild caught and not properly acclimated at the store.
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Yeah that's what they claim they are. I also heard they are mis-classified a lot so if someone who knows better could confirm that these are the julii or are the trilaniteus would be a help.
 
plah831 said:
i agree with fishcatch. if you don't see signs of ich (flashing, white dots like salt) don't treat for it. although if you want to add salt to temporarily relieve stress (the key word is "temporarily"), i guess it wouldn't hurt. just remove the salt with water changes and refilling with fresh water.
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I never saw any flashing with the fish, I would have noticed them scratching. I was going to move the remaining danios into a temporary holding tank an then on the main tank (with no fish in it) administer high levels of salt and temperature to kill of any remaining bacteria or parasites that could be left in the water. After a little time I will do like a 90% water change to get rid of the salt water remaining in the tank.
 
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if you just keep the tank empty of fish, the ich parasites will die without a host. don't know how long that takes, though. their life cycle is sped up by higher temp, so if you turn up your heater, it will go faster.

actually, if you have no fish in there, and just turn the heater up as high as it will go, the heat alone will kill the ich, too.
 
plah831 said:
if you just keep the tank empty of fish, the ich parasites will die without a host. don't know how long that takes, though. their life cycle is sped up by higher temp, so if you turn up your heater, it will go faster.

actually, if you have no fish in there, and just turn the heater up as high as it will go, the heat alone will kill the ich, too.
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Yeah that's what I was thinking, I remember from my old school biology classes that a lot of marine bacteria and parasites are somewhat sensitive to temperature. My fear however is that I'll lose the beneficial bacteria and have to re-cycle. Could I just put my filters in plastic bags with treated water and some fish food and keep the bacteria alive long enough to I can get the tank temp back down?
 
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