Feeling A Bit Disheartened...

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Meh...One of my fish tanks, which has a lot of livebearers in it, has been suffering from a nightmarishly bad bacterial disease for a few weeks now. I've been medicating the tank loads (not over-medicating BTW) but the casualties have been pretty bad, i've mostly lost platys, guppys and a few cories- symptoms come about so fast and kill the fish in question within days, its very disheartening. Things do seem to definitely be getting better though, but i'm still loosing fish every now and then. The symptoms are rather dropsy like (scales pine cone, usually starting at the tail, which looks rather discolored, fish usually has swimbladder problems before it dies), often couple with bacterial finrot. At one point i was doing small water changes every other day and re-topping medicines, but i'm trying to let things settle down more now though.
I think i'm controlling this bacterial disease a lot better now, only had a few fish deaths over the last week (in comparison to about 12 in the first week), but i've never had to deal with a fish disease anywhere near as vicious as this and all the fish deaths have just made me feel very disheartened- at some points i almost wanted to stop fishkeeping. Even though i've lost some very loved old fish, i'm feeling more positive about things now and in the future since the meds seem to be destroying the disease better now. The disease was introduced by some seemingly very healthy platys i bought from a trusted pet shop.

After i've eradicated this disease from the tank, i think i'm going to get back into raising my own livebearer fry to try and help re-stock the tank from the surviving platys and guppys. I have some relatively new dark beautiful blue male guppys which have survived all of this trouble with ease so far, which i'm hoping will father some gorgeous fry with strong immune systems and good physique.


Have you guys/girls ever had to deal with a particularly vicious and/or infectious disease/parasite, which despite you doing everything you possibly could, it still claimed fish lives?

 

[manwithnofish]

What is the most common cause of bacteria infections and what do you think caused your outbreak?

 

[WILDER]

Uk meds are not strong enough to cure bad bacteria infections, that why you lost quite alot of fish.
R.I.P.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

What is the most common cause of bacteria infections and what do you think caused your outbreak?

There isn't a common cause of bacterial infections in particular- undesirable water quality can make fish prone to falling ill to all sorts of diseases, however the water quality in the tank has been ideal throughout this entire incident (ammonia and nitrites 0, nitrates 15-20).

I'm positive that the disease came from some new platys i bought, at the time i thought they have been quarantined for long enough (and they had come from a pet shop that usually sells very healthy fish), however i must have not quarantined them for long enough...It was my fault not to quarantine the new fish for long enough, i was too trusting, and its a fault which i have payed dearly for and will never make again.

But even so, by bacterial disease standards, this bacterial disease is unbelievably vicious. I've heard though there are some really nasty/vicious diseases in the hobby because of over-use of antibiotics with treating sick fish, which has led to some super-strong antibiotic resistant diseases- i suspect this bacterial disease could be some such thing, the speed at which it took to kill the fish after symptoms showed was unbelievable at times. "sigh"...

 

[WILDER]

This is a good read.
http/www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29060.htm

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Uk meds are not strong enough to cure bad bacteria infections, that why you lost quite alot of fish.
R.I.P.

Really? If thats the case then it would explain a lot- even though i was using the right meds ("anti internal bacteria" by Interpet, Pimafix and small doses of marine salt with increased aeration in tank and regular water changes) to treat the disease, it was like they were hardly taking effect on the fish at all (although they seem to be doing a bit better now). What anti bacterial med/s would you recommend?

 

[WILDER]

Someone on the board contacted interpet saying there meds was doing nothing, they advised to double dose.
Ive used a double dose before if the fish are really bad, the only thing is that the fish get used to the dose where it no longer works.
Jbl do a bacterial med but it wipes the benefical bacteria out in the filter.
<a href="http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485" target="_blank">http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485</a>

Scroll down to no16
[URL="http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485"]http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485[/URL]

http/www.jbl.de/dl_documents/uk/uk_WWW4.pdf

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

This is a good read.
[URL="http/www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29060.htm"]http/www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29060.htm[/URL]

"The third type of infection produced by Aeromonas is by no means the least. This form is often the most virulent (potent) and can be rapidly fatal. This insidious form does not produce any noticeable external ulcers. The most notable feature is a behavioral change in which the infected fish generally become listless and lethargic. Some fish may lose color or appear darker. The fish do not feed, frequently seem off balance and may sink to the bottom laying on their sides. The course of the disease is rapid, and by the time the behavioral changes are noticed, the entire population of a tank may succumb, sometimes in a day or so. This is an internal infection, with the bacteria being found in the kidneys and blood of these fish. The bacteria produce potent toxins that account for the severity of the disease."


This sounds a lot like what a lot of the fish were dying from.

Someone on the board contacted interpet saying there meds was doing nothing, they advised to double dose.
Ive used a double dose before if the fish are really bad, the only thing is that the fish get used to the dose where it no longer works.
Jbl do a bacterial med but it wipes the benefical bacteria out in the filter.
[URL="http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485"]http/www.houseofpet.com/catalog/product_...e0f77e6b1d66485[/URL]

You sure it will be safe to over-dose on stuff like Interpet's meds? I want to try and avoid using filter bacteria damaging meds, but i may resort to such measures soon and order some such meds if this bacterial disease continues.

 

[WILDER]

Sometimes it better to wipe the bacteria out when you had a bad strain.
You could alway use sponges from another tank once the med is finished, thats what I done before now.

Double dosing on the interpet med didn't alter my stats much.
More worried if the fish got ill again and the med didn't work.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Sometimes it better to wipe the bacteria out when you had a bad strain.
You could away use sponges from another tank once the med is finished, thats what I done before now.

Should i just do daily water changes while the anti-filter bacterial cure med is doing its stuff? My worry is that ammonia problems could make things worse, although on the other hand i guess the tank is stocked rather lightly considering the volume of water it holds.

 

[manwithnofish]

It was my fault not to quarantine the new fish for long enough

How long did you quarantine them? I'm just trying to learn from your experience. I can't help.

 

[WILDER]

If you have to preform a water change during a med course, you just add the correct amount of med back to the water removed.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It was my fault not to quarantine the new fish for long enough

How long did you quarantine them? I'm just trying to learn from your experience. I can't help.

Well the pet shop said they had had the same platys and guppys in their tank for 2weeks with no problems (and the fish really did all look very healthy- in fact they were some of the healthiest guppys and platys i had seen in any pet shop for ages), so i decided to quarantine for just a few days as the fish had already been practically quarantined in the pet shops tank for a fortnight already. But i should have quarantined the fish for 2 weeks in my own tanks regardless of whether they had all been healthy in the pet shops tanks for weeks or not.
I usually quarantine fish for a fortnight, but this pet shop had a history of always being honest and helpful and of selling very healthy fish etc, so i trusted them this time (which looking back on things now, i shouldn't of). I only have myself to blame in all of this.

Lesson no.1: No matter how healthy a fish looks in a pet shop or how long its been in there, quarantine the fish yourself (in a suitably sized cycled tank of course) for 2weeks just in case.

If you have to preform a water change during a med course, you just add the correct amount of med back to the water removed.

Yes i always do this (and have been doing it during the current course of treatments) .

 

[WILDER]

That furanol link is in euro now it was in pounds yesterday.
Here another link if you want to buy the med.
http/www.onlineaquariumstore.com/cgi-bin...;PR=-1&TB=A

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

That furanol link is in euro now it was in pounds yesterday.
Here another link if you want to buy the med.
<a href="http/www.onlineaquariumstore.com/cgi-bin...;PR=-1&TB=A" target="_blank">http/www.onlineaquariumstore.com/cgi-bin...;PR=-1&TB=A</a>

Ah i have found the med even cheaper on ebay, i think i might buy it later, thanks anyway though