Dead Fish

[scottca]

Hi All,

I have lost my first fish, a Red Phantom Tetra

My Tank has been established for about 9 months now with no issues, I had 10 Phantom Tetras (5 Red, 5 Black), 5 Pantazona barbs, 3 Sterbai corys and 2bn plecs. I recently inroduced 10 mountain minnows and 3 male (I think) Bolivian Rams. I started to notice that many of my old fish seemed to hide away more once I put the new fish in, although I have never seen the Rams chase them. During feeding they all come out and feed ok, but then seem to hang around the back corners of the tank.

I have sat and watched the tank both in the day and night and the Rams dont chase them or hasstle them, the rams do however pick on each other from time to time but nothing major as I know they can be terratorial with their own kind. Yesterday I discovered I had a red phantom dead, couldnt determin the cause of death as it was pretty well eaten by the snails I think etc while at work.

First thing i did was test the water, All tests ok including PH etc, I have not had any chemicals near the tank and the fish physically look fine, but they still hang around near the back of the tank (the rams and minnows dont, they are arround all the time).

Im not sure why the fish seem to be hiding when they dont seem to get picked on day or night, and im not sure why the other died, could this just be a coinsidence??? I heard the bolivian Rams are quite peacefull (from the lfs and from reading up on the internet?) - Im worried as I dont want to loose anymore fish!

 

[WILDER]

Can we take a look at your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
How long did you climatise the new fish for, what was the ph of the store to your tank.
If there hiding away something is wrong, could be there were not climatised properly or you have fetched something into the tank.

Any sign of twitching or flicking and rubbing against objects.
Check the gills over to see if the pale withe excess mucas on them, or red and inflamed.
Any other symtoms to go on besides hiding away.

 

[scottca]

Hi Wilder,

Sorry for the delay in replying, not had that much access to the internet - it was my old fish that were hiding away, the new ones i introduced (rams) were fine.

I thought the rams were chasing the other fish, so I took them back to the shop, however my 9 phantom tetras and 5 pantazona barbs seem to hide awar at the back of the tank, they are not very active. At feeding time they are, but then after they just go to the back corners. My tank stats as of this evening were

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: approx 40 (what my tapwater is!)

There are no obvious signs of redness etc, there are 10 mountain minnows that are happy also in the tank

Nothing is visibly wrong, just seems they are shy for some reason, could this still be the aftermath of possibly being chased by the rams?

 

[WILDER]

Any excess slime on there body, or looking pale.
Some tetra don't do much they sit about, but if there hiding it can be a sign thats something wrong.
Have you lost any fish.

 

[scottca]

Not that I can see to be honest, nothing obvious, could it be hard to see?

I say hiding, they are just in the back corners where there is a small ammount of open space, the middle back is heavily occupied with bogwood / plants. Its off because they seem fine while feeding. There is one that sits up behind the filter output, so the water is pretty still - im wondering if they dont like the output of the filter, they never seem to have any problems before though.

I have lost 1 fish, couldnt identify the reason though, I presumed it was the barbs chasing them so I took them back. Could they be scared of the mountain minnows (they are very active and fairly quick, but half the size of the phantoms)

Maybe i just have really lazy fish! (although i thought the pantazona barbs would be more active, but they are the same, sit in the same place with the phantoms

 

[WILDER]

With no symtoms to go on its hard.
If you only lost one fish and the others are fine apart from hiding I would just keep a close eye on them.
Ask in the tetra part of the forum if they should be active and not hiding away, as i'm not familar with phantom tetra's.

When I had glow lights tetra some of them would hide away.
Some tetra don't do much they only shoal when stressed.
http/www.fishforums.net/category/29/Cypr...and-Atherinids/

 

[scottca]

Thank you Wilder, ill keep and eye on them and pop a post in the tetra part

thanks again,

Craig

 

[scottca]

Hello..

I have just noticed that one of my Mountain minnows possibly has a while film near the back of its tail - unfortunatly its really hard to confirm as they are so fast moving, looks like a fungas but cant confirm, it doesnt look like whitespot etc and its not a power type look, more of a film/fluff.

Can anyone recomend what my next step should be, should i increase the temperature slowly? Not sure what or if to treat it until i can confirm exactly what it is. Unfortunatly i dont have a hospital or isolation tank

 

[WILDER]

When you say fungus do you mean fluffy looking.
Any signs of flicking and rubbing against objects, or increased breathing,

 

[scottca]

Thanks for the quick reply

It looks like the start of a fluffy looking fungus, After closer looking, some of the fish do seem to be breathing slightly faster, I have seen one fish flick, but literally once or twice in a long period of time.

Should I increase the heat, I know it sounds silly but can these things come and go, or do I have to add a chemical to the tank. Have checked all water stats again, everything is fine

Craig

 

[WILDER]

Ok they can flick and rub with columnaris and labour breath if it attack the gills.
Just want to make sure it columnaris and not fungus growing on dead tissue, and also it't not a parasite.
How do the gills look.
Look under columnaris.
http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm

 

[scottca]

The gills dont look red or inflamed - its now becoming clear why my tetras may have been not as active as before, the breathing on some of the fish definatly seem to be increased - The tank is heavy planted and has a large ammount of water movement so i think it has enough oxygen (and the fish are not near the top)

Should i leave the lights off to reduce some stress till we figure out whats going on?

 

[WILDER]

Don't see it very often that the fish labour breaths with columnaris.
How many fish are affected, is it just the one with the fluffy fungus.
Are the other fish flicking and rubbing, increased breathing.

 

[scottca]

Two of my minnows look like they are getting a white'ish patch on the top of the tail, my other fish seem to be still alot of the time, they are not as active as I believe they should be!

There are quite a few fish which seem to be breathing heavily

 

[WILDER]

White patches see can be bacterial to parasite.
I would treat it as columnaris for now then.
Uk myxazin and pimafix or anti internal bacteria med by interpet and pimafix.