Fish deaths.

[fish lady]

Hi All,

I have had my tropical tank for about 6 months, I have (had) 7 Neons, 3 Marbled Mollies, 2 Lyre Tail Mollies, 2 Loaches (clown) and a Leopard Catfish. After about 3 months in the tank the Mollies started mating, Fry everywhere. I put the fry in a baby hatcher and most of them grew fine. We have since had 2 more batches of fry and some of these survived too (I now have a total of 6 mollie fry from 3 batches) and all seemed ok. I have a Rekord 70 tank with the built in filters and regularly check and change the water. Whenever I check it it registers as having very low levels of all the bad chemicals.

At about the same time the first batch of fry were born BOTH of the Lyre Tails died, with no obvious signs of infection, but I had noticed they were chased around CONSTANTLY by the male Marbled mollies and started to spend most of their time hiding. I put their deaths down to stress caused by the constant unwanted attention and the slightly aggresive attempts to mate.

About 2 months ago I bought a Brown Aquatic Frog (all my purchases have come from the same Aquarist Store who come highly recommended).

After about 6 weeks the brown frog died (he had shown signs of what I thought was him shedding some skin). As soon as I saw the shedding I spoke to the store and they advised me a may just be a bit of algae growing on him and advised me to use some Protozin. After a few days of using this he died, and then some of my other fish started to show some weird symptons. One of my Neons developed what looked like an open sore on his side, and viewed from above he appeared to have a kink in his spine. This very quickly turned white and a 'fur' grew on it. At this point I got quite worried and spoke to Aquairum store again, they advised this time to use BSB.

I used BSB for 5 days (medium infection - as advised on the packet) and as soon as I stopped I lost the poorly neon. Two days later another neon died. Then the next day two more Neon died. Yesterday 2 more neons and a clown loach died! None of these fish (apart from the first poorly neon) have any obvious signs of infection, but I hav enoticed they all seem to be breathing very hard and gulping at the water (contsantly opening and closing their mouths).

I hav ereturned from work today to find another dead neon (two left now - one very skinny one that is behaving perfectly normally, and one larger one that has hardly mved for two days). The remaining clown loach is now very still (alive just about) and so is the cat fish. The crazy thing is ALL the mollies (fry included) are absolutely fine - their behaviour is hardly any different but they do seem to be spending more time at the top of the tank and seem to be gulping in air.

I am at a loss now - I have tried the fungicide with no effect and I have tried the Anti Bacterial solution, with seemingly no positive effect. From hat I have described can anyone suggest what may be the problem? Any thpughts would be appreciated!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read all this!!

 

[Billsjunkie]

Sounds like there not getting enough Oxygen. Do you have a power filter and any additional airating tubes? Sounds like ammonia poisoning maybe since you said all of the bad chemical readings were low. AMmonia readings and nitrite readings should be ZERO. Hope this helps a bit

 

[phoenix]

I agree the gulping and going to the top of the tank sounds like a lack of oxygen, with all the chemicals you added I guess it is possible that it robbed your water of much needed oxygen. Though I wouldnt think it should..

Also when was the last time you did a water change And what about airation and water movement?? good bad nil??? Do you have a power head or something to get the water moving good???

 

[fish lady]

The tank has a power head yes, and I have it angled so that it ejects water up against the wall of the tank so that it rolls back in breaking the surface - I believe this a good way to aerate the tank. But just to be on the safe side I also have an Airvolution Mini air pump that is always on.

When the frog died I thought it may be down to poor water quality so I did a large water change - about 70%. Usually I do around 15-20% every other weekend and clean the gravel with the vacuum as best as possible (there always seems to be a lot of very fine debris -overfeeding maybe?). Generally the tank looks prety clean and healthy, even to the point that one of our friends who has had fish for many years came over and saw it a couple of months ago and commented on what a clean tank it was - saying it wouldn't last!

Also, I have been studying our remaining Neons very closely and they too look like they are developing Kinks in their spines. The one that died today was not very nice either. When it was removed from the tank its abdomen split and a green goo leaked out. All I can find about kinks in the spine on Neon Tetra is Neon Tetra disease and I am sure that cant be right - where could it have come from?

I might be able to get some photos up on my website, will have a go tomorrow when the light is back on....

 

[fish lady]

Oh, and the last time I checked for all three chemicals - Ammonia, Nitrate and Nitrite all were in acceptable levels - Ammonia less than 0.1 mg/l, Nitrate Usually less than 12.5 mg/l ocaisionally reaching 25, and Nitrite less than 0.1 mg/l.

However, fo the last couple of months I have been using these dip sticks (quick and easy) but they only show two chemicals that I recognise but cannot exacylt identify (and I lost the leaflet) they are: NO3 and NO2 Nitrates and Nitrites? Or is one ammonia? Either way, they both register as having NONE or 10 mg/l of NO3 and 1 mg/l NO2. I have been led to believe this is OK.

I have just done a 10 L change (around 15% I think) and poured the water into the filter area (so as not disturb the gravel etc from a hieght to ensure i got plenty of air mixed up in it).

I have to say after doin gthis they all look more active.... hmmm....

 

[fish lady]

THink I may have found the problem... Velvet. Anyone had any experience with this? I say I think this is the problem as I have a couple of fish (black mollie, 1 mollie fry and my deceased clown loach) that had some gold speckels on them.

I may be stupid, but when I first saw the gold on the mollie I thought it was just a slight change in his pigmentation (as he was marbled but has gone almost completely black). His top fin has grown about 5 mm taller since we have had him and this new growth is much paler than the rest, but is tipped off with a yellow gold band. When viewed from certain angles it is possible to see other slightly gold patches on his body.

So how do I get rid of it? Have just recently used Protozin (which seemed to kill my frog and upset my loaches) and then BSB, which seemd to finish off the loaches, my catfish and most of the Neons.

What dya reckon about aquarium salts?

 

[jobysp]

Here is the info from one of my books.

Velvet (Oodinium limneticum)

This tiny parasite is seen as a fine gold dist on the know. It penetrates the skin cells with roots through which it feeds. Like plants, it contains a pigment which uses light as an alternative energy source,

Things to look for:
The fish's skin and fins are covered in a fine velvety gold sheen that is said to resemble gold dust
The fish makes rapid gill movements.

Treatment
Treat the aquarium with a proprietary remedy. This may also advise shading the tank to rob the parasite of light energy, removing activated carbon from filters.

Interpet do an Anti Slime & Velvet treatment (No 7)

 

[fish lady]

Thanks Jobysp - will look out fo rthe interpet treatment!

Trying to get some photos of my fish so others can see exactly what I mean and provide their opininion, unfotunately my digi cam doesnt have a macro setting...

 

[fish lady]

Here's what my black, marbled mollie now looks like - notice he is almost completely black and his fin has grown almost transparent with a gold tip. Is the normal is could this gold coloring be Velvet?