Please Help, Fish Dying

Tank size: 75 Gallon
pH: 7.8 Alkalaine
ammonia: Don’t know…
nitrite: Safe
nitrate: Safe
kH: Ideal
gH: Soft
tank temp: 80 F

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): A few months ago my gourami started to develop a spine deformity. Since, I have had many swordtails also slowly die of curved spines. Soon after, I noticed my angelfish had a redness in their lower spine. It has gone down on some of the other angelfish. But it is still very inflamed on another.

Their color and behavior is normal (swimming patterns are off for those with curved spines). They all eat.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 20% water change every week

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: I have added Aqueon's Aquarium Plant Food

Tank inhabitants: 3 Adult Angelfish, 1 Gourami, 2 Swordtails, 3 Platies

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): None

Exposure to chemicals: None

Digital photo (include if possible):

I have no experience with this but after doing a search I there are several possible causes.

1. in breading. Since you have multiple types of fish with this problem , in breading is not likely the cause.
2. Genetic. Again due to multiple types of fish affected, it is not likely the cause.
3. Infection. There may be some sort of microbe that causes this. i don't know what type of microbe or how to treat it.
4. Bad water quality. Your use of Aqueon fertilizer is of concern for me.

Aqueous fertilizer was the fist one I tried in my aquarium and at first it appeared to work. However over time plant growth slowed down and even stopped. I eventually figured out it was a copper deficiency. Copper is a critical plant nutrient. Without it plants will not grow. And Aqueon doesn't have it. Do you have any algae growth in your tank?

If your plant growth is slow waist products from the fish and the food and fertilizer you add may be building up in the water and causing the fish deformities. Unusual strontium levels may cause this according to one study I saw. phosphate is also involved in tone growth. When I was using Aqueon phosphate levels built up to very high levels. perhaps high phosphate levels can cause this problem.

I would suggest doing the following:

1. I Stop using Aqueon fertilizer for now. We don't want to add any excess nutrients to the water until any excess minerals are removed.
2. Increase your water changes to 50%. Do that several times this week and than after that do a 50% water change once per week.This should get any excess minerals out of the tank. This should quickly get any excess mineral levels down faster than a 20% water change. Now I don't know if the spines of your fish will straighten out if a mineral imbalance caused the problem. However any inflammation, redness, and swelling should.
3. Long term I would recommend replacing the Aqueon with SeaChem Flourish Comprehensive fertilizer. It is basically the same but also has copper. As a result it is much more effective fertilizer. Accurately measure the amount your add to the tank and follow the recommended dosing as accurately as possible. Note the small amount of copper it does have will not harm anything in your aquarium.

I hope this helps. Also note if anyone recommend any medicines you can probably use that in addition to my recommendations.

Are you getting your fish from a reputable source ? Due to simply trying to make a profit some sources sell bad stock right off the bat that they got from junky breeders that have no concern for keeping or maintaining a quality product, over breeding, back crossing what has become genetic garbage etc.

Based off the curved spines, you might want to look into fish tuberculosis. It's not all that uncommon for live bearers to become curved in the spine because of all the inbreeding they go through, but I hardly ever hear of gouramis with this problem.

I found a few links on TB in fish
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/curved_spine/
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/sp/feature/

I would be quarantining all the fish with curved spines. I would also think about euthanizing them because once their spines begin to curve they don't ever straighten back out (not in my experience). The gourami already looks very thin and I don't think it has a very good quality of life. You can try treating them with some sort of antibiotic and lots of water changes, but I can't say for sure it will work all that well, especially if it is TB.

To add onto the fish TB theory, try to keep any skin with open wounds (even something small, like a papercut) out of the tank water until you find a solid diagnosis. Fish TB is transmittable to humans, and although rare, it's best to take precautions.

StevenF said:

I have no experience with this but after doing a search I there are several possible causes.

I would suggest doing the following:

1. I Stop using Aqueon fertilizer for now. We don't want to add any excess nutrients to the water until any excess minerals are removed.
2. Increase your water changes to 50%. Do that several times this week and than after that do a 50% water change once per week.This should get any excess minerals out of the tank. This should quickly get any excess mineral levels down faster than a 20% water change. Now I don't know if the spines of your fish will straighten out if a mineral imbalance caused the problem. However any inflammation, redness, and swelling should.
3. Long term I would recommend replacing the Aqueon with SeaChem Flourish Comprehensive fertilizer. It is basically the same but also has copper. As a result it is much more effective fertilizer. Accurately measure the amount your add to the tank and follow the recommended dosing as accurately as possible. Note the small amount of copper it does have will not harm anything in your aquarium.

I hope this helps. Also note if anyone recommend any medicines you can probably use that in addition to my recommendations.

Click to expand...

I did the water changes all this week, and plan to continue to follow your advise. I changed fertilizer to the one you recommended. 2 more fish have died, and all still seem to have the inflammation in their spines.

Purple Spotted Gudgeon said:

Are you getting your fish from a reputable source ? Due to simply trying to make a profit some sources sell bad stock right off the bat that they got from junky breeders that have no concern for keeping or maintaining a quality product, over breeding, back crossing what has become genetic garbage etc.

Click to expand...

I have gotten most of my fish from Petsmart and Petco. I made sure to choose the best and healthiest looking fish, but I am unsure of their genetics.

Demeter32 said:

Based off the curved spines, you might want to look into fish tuberculosis. It's not all that uncommon for live bearers to become curved in the spine because of all the inbreeding they go through, but I hardly ever hear of gouramis with this problem.

I found a few links on TB in fish
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/curved_spine/
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-07/sp/feature/

I would be quarantining all the fish with curved spines. I would also think about euthanizing them because once their spines begin to curve they don't ever straighten back out (not in my experience). The gourami already looks very thin and I don't think it has a very good quality of life. You can try treating them with some sort of antibiotic and lots of water changes, but I can't say for sure it will work all that well, especially if it is TB.

Click to expand...

What kind of antibiotic? I have purchased some general fish medicine. My pet stores don't carry any specific one, especially one that will treat something like this. This has been going on for some time now... And I am wondering if I should just bleach the whole tank. They all seem to get sick... At a very slow rate. I really don't want them to suffer. And I truly do not want to infect other fish. What would you suggest?

It would have to be something pretty strong which you will most likely have to order on line.

Take a look at possible treatments on these cites: (the first cite seems the best)
http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2012/04/tb-in-fish-mycobacterium-tuberculosis.html
http://www.fishdeals.com/fish_diseases/curved_spine/

You should probably do some more researching on your own. If any of the fish that are left don't look or act sick, I'd quarantine them in a different tank to try and prevent them from getting sick as well. There isn't much point in removing all the sick fish from the main tank as the TB (if it is TB) is already in there. Either way, I would be treating the sick and healthy fish with some sort of strong antibiotic.

I tried to treat them with Seachem MetroPlex. I'm not sure what do. They all seem pretty balanced with it, but you can still see the internal bleeding. Today, one of my adult angelfish started bleeding from his eye. What can I do to help these guys? What is going on with them?