Dead Stock / Algae? Mold?

[Byron]

I think @Colin_T is on the mark here. I have had fungus from certain wood, and initially fish are lethargic, then they start dying and several together. The only way to know if the fungus on the wood is toxic is by analysis of a microbiologist. Many fungi are harmless, but some are highly toxic. They are not discernable visually.

To remove the wood and do a clean as Colin outlined, and not replacing this wood, may solve the issue.

 

[connorlindeman]

Guppies are especially fragile these days.

I got three healthy guppies just the other day and added them to a tank that already had a guppy. No symptoms in any of the fish for about 24 hours. Then BOOM. One after another, the new fish died, leaving the one guppy that was already in the tank as the only survivor. The new fish grew some sort of white fungus on them that later started bleeding. No idea what it was .

 

[Colin_T]

The seeds were just a bag of a variety of seeds, I don’t actually know what plants they are. After leaving the wood out do you think I could put it back in once the poison is off it? And what do you mean by flush out? Also will the fungus just go away?

Where the seeds sealed up in a foil packet?
If yes, they might have a fungicide on them.

The poison would be from the fungus growing on the wood and in the substrate. If you an hose and scrub that off the wood, it might be safe. But you would have to try it and see. To do that you would wash the tank out and set it up. Add some fish and see if they are good for a couple of weeks. Then add the wood to the tank. If the fish start to die, then the wood needs to be removed and not used in aquariums.

Flushing out the tank simply means removing everything and washing it out with tap water. Then setting the tank back up but don't put the wood back in the tank.

 

[connorlindeman]

Just wondering, whats the point of adding seeds to a tank?

 

[Colin_T]

I got three healthy guppies just the other day and added them to a tank that already had a guppy. No symptoms in any of the fish for about 24 hours. Then BOOM. One after another, the new fish died, leaving the one guppy that was already in the tank as the only survivor. The new fish grew some sort of white fungus on them that later started bleeding. No idea what it was .

If it looked like a white film over the body, then it was excess mucous produced by the fish. They do this when there is something in the water irritating them.

Bleeding is normally associated with bacterial infections but poor water quality from ammonia, nitrite or nitrate can do it.

So you have pictures of the fish?

 

[connorlindeman]

If it looked like a white film over the body, then it was excess mucous produced by the fish. They do this when there is something in the water irritating them.

Bleeding is normally associated with bacterial infections but poor water quality from ammonia, nitrite or nitrate can do it.

So you have pictures of the fish?

I posted a thread about the first one that got sick... Dont want to highjack this thread so heres the link.

Guppy not well

Woke up this morning to one of my guppies lying on its side on my water sprite. One other is staying close to the heater. The other two are happily swimming around Here's a picture Here's a video

www.fishforums.net

Strange thing is that the guppy that was already in the tank is 100% fine

 

[PhantomCarp]

Where the seeds sealed up in a foil packet?
If yes, they might have a fungicide on them.

The poison would be from the fungus growing on the wood and in the substrate. If you an hose and scrub that off the wood, it might be safe. But you would have to try it and see. To do that you would wash the tank out and set it up. Add some fish and see if they are good for a couple of weeks. Then add the wood to the tank. If the fish start to die, then the wood needs to be removed and not used in aquariums.

Flushing out the tank simply means removing everything and washing it out with tap water. Then setting the tank back up but don't put the wood back in the tank.

Yeah it was in a packet. Going to do a flush as soon as possible, I’m going to put the wood in some boiled water to see if that’ll let me salvage it

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Yeah it was in a packet. Going to do a flush as soon as possible, I’m going to put the wood in some boiled water to see if that’ll let me salvage it

Did you buy this packet from Amazon, sold as "aquarium plants" or "carpeting plants" fairly cheap? I've heard of these things, and they're a risky scam. Often the seeds are of a none aquatic plant that will grow for a while, then die off, potentially spiking ammonia as the plant matter decays.

Most hobbyists aren't growing plants from seeds. We buy a rooted plant, stem cuttings, in-vitro grown young plants - things like that. Planting any kind of seeds in an aquarium isn't usual, and it's likely a dodgy scam where they send you any old seeds, even normal grass seed! As pointed out, they may well be coated in pesticides, fungacides etc.

Look up "aquatic plant seed scam" and see for yourself.

It's easily done. On impulse I bought some cheap Chinese root tabs capsules once. Thin clear capsules containing dozens of little bright yellow balls. I added five capsules underneath my root feeding plants. Within days, the capsules had dissolved. They quickly fell apart in the sand and released way too much of something unknown into the water. Luckily my fish were not poisoned, but it lead to very high nitrite spikes despite 75% daily water changes, even twice daily to try to save my fish and get the nitrite down, while sifting through the sand to remove so many of these random yellow balls of "plant fertiliser" which could have easily wiped out my whole tank if I hadn't tested the water and done the huge water changes.

Aquariums are fragile, and while cheap deals are tempting, I've regretted more than once getting something from a dodgy source, Could have been anything in those yellow balls. I won't ever add something to a tank now unless I trust the source and know what it is I'm adding. It took weeks to stablise that tank again, and I lost a guppy to the high nitrate.

I second/third/fourth the suggestions to strip the tank and start over. I wouldn't trust the wood piece, but might try cleaning it/boiling etc and try it once, maybe in a quarantine tank first to see if the fungus regrows and whether it's poisonous. Since these seeds are scattered in the substrate, I'd bin that and get new substrate too.

 

[Lynnzer]

Often it's less expensive, less hassle and much less of a worry to just do a complete clean out and start all over again.
Perhaps hang onto the guppy you still have or take it back to the LFS for store credit and go about a full set-up again with new substrate, plants etc.
Sometimes this hobby demands brutal decisions to be made and this appears to be one of the times to just get on with it.
Let's look at it like this. Without bringing death into the equation, if you had a room in the house where every time you made one of the children sleep in it then watched them quickly fall very ill, would you continue using it as a bedroom?

 

[Byron]

Wood should never be boiled. This breaks apart the fiber and it will begin to rot, which is another hazard to fish. If the fungus can be scraped off, and if it does not reappear when the wood is placed in a tank with no fish, it may be safe. I would never risk it though, I lost fish twice to wood issues.

 

[StevenF]

I looked at the picture of your tank and it is very yellow. the yet the light reflecting of the water look white. How often do you do a water change and how much water do you replace? What is your normal weekly maintenance routine?

Are you using any fertilizer for the plants and if so which brand and how much do you add and how often?