Complete Water Change....

[fiorile833]

I wrote about my worm problem on here a few months ago, and still haven't gotten rid of them.
I lost 4 more fish since then so my last resource is to take the remaining fish (1 large sucker, 1 large shark, 1gourami, 3tigerbarbs, 3mollies, 35gallon tank) out of the tank, get rid of the gravel and clean everything.

I'm really worried about the fish and how they'll handle the move, however i'm even more worried about how to disinfect the tank. I don't want to use anything that will harm them, but wanna make sure all the worms/parasites whatever they are, are killed. Warm water will be kinda hard too, considering its about 40degrees outside where I will have to do the majority of the cleaning. Any ideas?


Also, any tips anyone has about moving the fish back in would be great. It'll be a 100%water change (I went out and bought something called Cycle thats supposed to help after moves) and have the thing that *instantly* purifys the water.

Thanx for all your help

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

100% water change is a bad idea, chances are it will cause the tank to cycle wether you use the "cycle" product or not("Cycle" contains beneficial filter bacteria, but these often die off when the bottle is not kept in a cool place and the product does nothing at all).

Im quite new to your situation- can you give us more info as to what has been happening exactly i.e how many fish you have lost, what are their symtoms before death, do you test your water for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates etc? Do you use dechlorinator?
Tearing down the tank will probably change nothing, if its a parasite you will see alot of symtoms displayed in the fish and if the fish are infected with them, they will only re-infect the tank.

 

[fiorile833]

You were right, 100% water change wasn't good at all...
I had some wierd worms that no one could identify, and lost 3gouramis, 6swordtails, 5mollies, and 2 tiger barbs. The fish didn't really have any symptoms, they would just one day become lathargic and not eat, and within a few hrs go into convolsions and die.

I talked to a few people, and a couple diff pet and fish stores, and they say told me it had to be the worms and the only way to fix the problems was to start from scratch.

So... i took the fish out, they were doing good in their holding tank (about 2hrs) I emptied, cleaned the tank (bought some tank cleaner that wasn't harmful to fish) washed it out really well, boiling water and everything. Put in new gravel, cleaned all decorations. Added the cycle stuff, let it run for awhile. And then everything went to hell....

The heater was on the ground accidentaly was turned on and caught fire, shatter and melted a bunch of stuff. Then my shark got all nervous with the net flipping a fish out of the container and onto the floor. But they all went back in and were swimming around all fine.
So I ran to the store to replace the heater, come back, and 2tiger barbs had died. Within minutes my shark was acting strange and then didn't eat when I fed them. Suddenly he was swimming belly up. Then began to thrash around the tank, and eventually died. Then another tiger barb and a mollie died.

The rest of the fish are all now sitting on the btm of the tank, only the gold gourami is swimming around.

I just don't know what to do! I can't test the water until tomorrow. But i've never had soo many fish die at once. I just don't know what happened, or how to keep all the rest from going...

 

[Boxcar Muzzdogg]

The new tank water has a different water chemistry than the new water, which is just one of the many reasons for the "partial water change." By doing a partial water change, your only adding a small amount of new water, and it is less of a shock to the fish. The longer the water goes without being changed, more the chemistry of the water changes, so if you had not done a water change in a long time, then chances are the new water was significantly different than the old water.

Another reason for a partial water change is that breaking the tnak down and performing a complete water change, as well as cleaning the gravel, destroys the benneficial nitrifying bacteria that has colonized the surfaces of the tank and gravel.Due to the absence of the bacteria, those fish are swimming around in ammonia that is not being broken down into less harmful substances.

Also, a partial water change helps to keep the water temp stable, in case a mistake was a made and the new water was a significantly different temp.

These are the most likely factors that contributed to the fish deaths, along with the stress of being moved, and the stress of the worms, depending on what these "worms" really are. It would be good if you could post a pic. I would suggest not taking advice from those lfs' you visited, especially since they had no idea what the worms were, yet still made a reccomendation as drastic as a complete breakdown of the tank.

Can you give us a breakdown of the fishs' and worms' behavior, and other symptoms that occured during the worm infestation so that we may get a better idea of what these worms might be?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hvae you ever tested your water for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites? If not i would go out ASAP and grab yourself some test kits from your lfs(local fish store). How long has your tank been set up?
The worms you are seeing are most likely harmless, they are alot of types of harmless worms that naturally live in fish/water ecosystems and these worms eat up excess food, they are usually eaten by fish themselves but if you are overfeeding your fish, these criters will flourish in your tank uneaten. How much and what do you feed your fish on average?
I would not buy any more fish until you have your problem fully diagnosed, they may be(and are quite likely) dying of water quality issues, and adding more fish to your tank bioload will most likely only worsen them.
Here is a link which explains on treating and avoiding new tank syndrome, many fish keepers encounter it and it is not only just confined to new tanks, its about maintaining the right water quality/ecosystem in your tank so fish can survive and thrive ;

http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=10099