Fish dieing? Water seems fine

Plec 1

The plec that had the white stuff on yesterday ??
This picture was this morning

The shark this morning ... The belly is bloated, not moving. Not sure if the eyes are bulging or not?

I would say they have an internal bacterial infection running through the tank. The shark is bloated and its eyes are bulging out. The guppies have gill flukes but that isn't causing this problem. The other fishes look fine but it doesn't mean they won't get sick too.

You need some medicated food or anti-biotics for this, but it depends on which country you are in as to what you can use. If you're in America then anti-biotics can be picked up from any pet shop. In the UK you will need a vet to prescribe something. In Australia you might be able to get Tetracycline otherwise it's off to the vet for a prescription.

If you need a vet, take the sick shark in and get them to necropsy (autopsy) him and see what it has. This will cost a bit of money (probably a lot more than replacing all the fish) so the choice is up to you.

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If you do get anti-biotics, wipe the inside of the glass, do a huge water change and gravel clean the tank, and clean the filter.

Remove carbon from the filter.

Increase aeration.

Ok up some RO water today and he did offer me stuff for internal infection but I declined thinking all chemicals were bad. Would I just add it to the entire tank after the water changes without effecting everyone else?
I'll take the carbon media out of my filter. What would the advantage of taking carbon out be??

Carbon will adsorb any medication you add to the water and you won't treat the fish.

What medication did they offer you?
Different medications treat different things so you need to know what the medication is.

Annnd the sharks gone ..

I'm not sure what it was would you advise going back there now and putting some in the tank anyway? He just said internal infection when I mentioned bloating. I mean it can't be expensive I might just purchase it anyway before the shop closes and ask you on here when I get back

Yeah if it treats internal infections grab it and come back and treat the tank. But post info about the medication before treating

Right got it. It's just called Anti internal bacteria+ by Interpet. Treats systematic bacteria. With symptoms listed as swollen eyes, open sores, abdominal swelling , reddening loss of appetite, eroded gills, unexplained deaths.
Shall I give it a go??


Also I am still a little confused is it most likely stress that has caused this bacteria infection? Or is this just in my water and being passed on through my fish? Would (as earlier posted) stress of the hard water cause this kind of illness ?

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Internal bacterial infections are normally brought in by sick fish but could also have been from the bloodworms you used. If a sick fish dies in the tank and the other fish eat bits of it, or even pick at it, they can pick up the bacteria and get sick from it too.

Stress and hard water will not cause this.

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I would treat the tank but before you do, use the formula to work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "How To Tips" at the top of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Hmmm must have been the Rams. And yes when the rams died they did get chewed on but couldn't see who by as it was just pretty much bones.

I was kind of hoping it to be stress as I'm going to be doing RO water now!

Ok will do all the above steps.

My tank holds 120 litres and says 1ml per 10 litres so I'll just put 12ml in

All fish look healthy in pics.

Also could a plant bring this disease Colin? I'm not too fussed about removing the plant to be honest if it could be a culprit

Colin_T said:

use the formula to work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

Click to expand...

Use the formula to work out exactly how much water is in the tank. You don't want to overdose with medications because they can kill the fish.

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If you haven't been using R/O water, don't use too much R/O water yet. Bacteria grow faster in soft water and don't grow as quickly in hard water.

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Plants don't cause this. If a plant is poisonous, all the fish will gasp at the surface and die within a short time of it being added to the tank.