Power Cut

Hi folks,

Looking for a bit of urgent advice here,

Just got home to discover my power had tripped at the fuse box at around 9pm last night. I was away for the evening and only returned at 11 am today. The temp in the tank had dropped to about 19c, my Keyholes were not looking very pleased and my festivum has some sort of red lump on his side behind his left pectoral fin, looks like he has damaged himself on something or the stress of no filtration and temp drop have bought out an infection.

Got a few questions here really, I have performed a 25% water change and added stress zyme to the tank along with melafix and primafix.

Do you think that my filtration will be buggered and the tank is going to re-cycle?

It is a very heavily planted tank so I am hoping this will aid in excess N02, NO3 build up, do you think this will be the case?

What would you suspect is the cause of the ulcer / lump on the festivum?

Are the meds I am using okay? I have used them before with success for minor damage to fish but this lump is quite severe,

It says to perform a 25% water change after 7 days of treatment, do you think I would be okay doing daily 25% changes if the tank is going to re-cycle and still dose the same with the meds?

Any other advice to maintain the tank througout this process would be greatly received?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

EDIT: Water stat are 0 amonia, 0 N02, <12.5 gm/l N03

Temp now up to 22c

Let the temp go back up gradually. Don't do warm water changes.

Water changes and increase aeration.

The lump does it look hard, or soft like filled with fluid.
Any whiteness to the lump.

Wilder said:

Let the temp go back up gradually. Don't do warm water changes.

Water changes and increase aeration.

The lump does it look hard, or soft like filled with fluid.
Any whiteness to the lump.

Click to expand...

Hi Wilder,

The lump looks soft like exposed flesh, it is protruding out and looks like a couple of scales are missing in that area. Its about 2mm wide and is white in the middle and slightly reddish toward the outside.

Thanks

Mark

It sounds like columnaris.

Can you issolate the sick fish and use a bacterial med.
What's your location.

Get you some info on lumps and bumps.

http/badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article25.html

Thanks Wilder,

Unfortunately I cannot isolate him at the moment as the quarantine tank is in use for some new cories I purchased last week.

I have treated the whole tank with primafix and melafix

Are you familiar with this produce? Do you rate it?

Link below

http/www.warehouse-aquatics.co.uk/index.php?p=product&products_id=3567&cid=1

Fish seems to be eating but not as voratiosly as usual, should I cut right back on feeding also?

Thank for the help,

Mark

To be honest I don't rate melafix. It's only good on cuts and wounds.

I would use a med called esha 2000.
But you would have to do a water change and run some black carbon, to get the other meds out of the tank first.

thanks Wilder

I am currently doing daily 25% water changes and treating the tank with aquarium salt and full doses of Primafix and Melafix.

All the fish seem to be fine at the moment, the only fish showing any visible signs of the ordeal is the Festivum which has developed the infection but is otherwise swimming and eating normally.

I intend to carry this method of treatment for the next 7 days unless things start to deteriorate then I will look at some stronger meds if required.

On another note, do you think my beneficial bacteria will have died back considerably in my external filters during the power cut? It was off for about a 13 hour period.

I will be keeping a close eye on the situation over the next couple of days, appreciate the assistance.

I have attached a photo of the affected fish for your reference

Regards,

Mark

If your filter been off for a number of hours it can cause the tank to go into a mini cycle.
Just keep up with water changes.

Let me know how you get on if you don't mind.

Well I guess I found out what caused the initial power trip! Woke up at 5am this morning to discover the power had failed again around 1:30!

Covered the tank with some blankets and phoned the electicity company, around 8am an Engineer declared a fault in the cable and it would need to be dug up and a jointing team called to repair it, this would take most of the day

Managed to get a generator from a friend and run my 2 tanks and the freezer from it from about 10am this morning until 3pm today when the power was returned.

I did not suffer a massive temp drop as before only to about 22c but I guess this means my biological filtration on my externals will be buggered if it wasn't already!.

I have treated the tank with stress zyme (I do not actually believe these products work) but though it would not harm and am going to be doing daily 25% water changes for the forseable future

Does anybody have any advice on my filtration?

The fish seem to have coped remarkably well and even the festivum with columnaris is swimming around and still bossing for the food.

I will continue with the Primafix and Melafix treatment as well as adding 1 tbls aquarim salt to every 20l of water I add back during water changes.

One other question is that I have read that salt is bad for cories and other scaleless fish so I should not dose too high, is 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon going to be okay in the short term during treaement for disease? I have BN catfish and Botia strata also in the tank which I believe are also scaleless and don't want to do more harm than good.

Thanks for your help,

Mark

Hi Wilder,

Just thought I would update you on the treatment of my tank.

Treated with Melafix and Pimafix at full strenght for 7 days along with daily 25% water changes, also dosing with tablespoon on aquarium salt for every 5 gallon.

The infection on the Festivum has almost healed now and thus far I have not lost any fish which is a great relief. Left the tank for a couple of days and thought I would conclude the treatment with a mild antibiotic medication at half strenght to hopefully clear the last of the infection.

Have had some algea issues due to the plants suffering from the power cut also and probably the medications too. Had a bit of melt from one red leaved plant (not sure of name) and also my valis torta which I had only just planted
Will test the water again tonight and slowly cut the water changes back to twice weekly, hopefully the tank is now stable once again and all is back on track.........

Thanks for your help,

Mark

What questions do you want answered on filteration.

The salt far to much. One tablespoon to 5 gals is the full dose.
I would only add a teaspoon to very 5 gals with the fish you keep.

If you add an antibiotic to the tank it will wipe the beneifical bacteria out in the filter.