Fish Waking Up Dead..

[vancouver]

OK.. I have a 75 tank, and recently I've had tons of cichlids die.. I put them in at night, in the morning they appear dead or almost dead, and covered in slimey white stuff. All over their fins, eyes, and gills. I really wasn't sure what the deal was, so I changed about 80% of the water, and added a parrot cichlid last night.. sure enough woke up dead.

A pleco has been in there throughout this whole deal, and has had no problems.

I'm too poor to get test kits, so I really cant tell you much about the parameters. The tank has been running for a good 8 months at least, with a fluval4plus internal filter, and the biggest aquaclear HOB.

I don't know if I should be treating the water as I don't know if that's really a disease or what to do.

I have pimafix, should I just start treating the tank with that for a few days?

 

[WILDER]

Is the tank 75 gallon, sounds like a parasite, are they laboured breathing or flicking and rubbing against objects.
Excessive slime build up mean the fish have been producing more slime to protect themselves from parasites.
Is there a build up of slime on the tank glass, if the slime is that bad on the fish they could also have a bacterial infection on top.

I would take a sample of your water to the lfs and tell them to write the readings down for you.

 

[IceH2O]

I'm too poor to get test kits, so I really cant tell you much about the parameters.

If you have a Petsmart nearby click this link, http/www.petsmart.com/global/product_det...&N=2030068&Ne=2 and print out the page. They will match the price and you get an entire test kit for around $15.

Its cheaper than buying new fish weekly.

 

[vancouver]

No fish ever flicking on anything.. no laboured breathing, no slime on the tank or glass or anything in it..I don't know why the pleco is fine.. it swims around happily and has never had any problems.. but anytime I add any fish from my other tanks they are covered in white slimey film and die..

There are no petsmarts near me.. but I guess I could take a sample into an LFS..

I'll try some pimafix for a few days, and try another cichlid.. then see what happens.

 

[WILDER]

Well it bacterial or parasite, any fluffyness on the fish, as if you don't think its a parasite it's bacterial, and bad water quality, i would recommend some water changes till you get your water tested.

Look under slime desease.
http/www.goldfishinfo.com/ailment1.htm#slime

 

[IceH2O]

How often do you do water changes?

Its possible you have high nitrates in this tank. The pleco would be used to them, though its still not healthy for him, and any new fish you add would go into a toxic state and die.

When you take the water to the LFS ask for exact numbers. Don't let them tell you its fine.

Don't let them sell you a bunch of worthless chemicals and removers.

The best fix for bad water quality is fresh water. When i had high nitrates it took about 10 days of daily 33% water changes.

 

[vancouver]

I don't think it would be from high nitrites or bad water quality, as I'm always on top of water changes. I do about 30% a week, sometimes twice a week.

It does sound similar to the slime disease.. Slimey stuff on the tips of the fins, slimey eyes, slimey gills.. I caught a few of my fish with it in time and moved them to another tank, and within probably 2-3 days they were back to normal.. now I'm down to an empty tank.

Was planning on buying new fish today, but thought I'd try a parrot cichlid in there before I go buy new fish, and sure enough this morning he ended up dead..

So I think I will treat the tank with pimafix and do water changes for a week before I try adding fish again.

It's just weird as I've never had any diseases in my tanks for the longest time, and I haven't added any new fish either.. I'll try the pimafix and water changes.. hopefully I can get this sorted out.

I never had test kits as I'm always on top of water changes, and never really had to worry about fish getting sick.. I guess maybe it's a good idea to buy a nitrite/nitrate test kit.

Thanks for the help

 

[clareriley]

Instead of buying new fish, use the ££ for the test kits, they really dont cost that much when it comes to having to get fish after fish after fish.
I remember I had a problem a few years ago when I was a hobbyist before I came back to it. it was reason I quit. I had a 5ft 100G community tank and everything died and I did water changes but nothuing changed... in the end all my fish died but my 2 plecs...
I tranferred the plecs to another tank and cleaned everything, changed all my filter and boiled all the bits and cleaned the tank, cleaned the substrate, rocks, everything... then set it back up and low and behold I got new fish and they were fine but then I didnt have the ££ to fuly stock the tank again so I sold it with its occupents.... I then stopped being a fish keeper. all because of this unknown thing in my tank.. but now I know that if I cant cure it... I clean it and recycle it...

 

[vancouver]

I don't know if I really see the need in test kits.. if I do my water changes like I do, there's no reason the water should go bad.. I don't know.. I'll see what happens. I don't think I'm going to buy new fish anyways..was just going to buy tetras to go with my cichlids.

 

[WILDER]

Test kits tell you alot, you don't have to do them every week, only on a cycling tank,but it is a good guide to tell you if you are doing enough maintance on the tank, only a fool would say you didn't need them, as you will be fubbing around in the dark, you do need them, like now you don't even know your water stats are fine.

 

[vancouver]

I don't see how it's possible for them to be bad.

 

[CBTF]

are you buying them all from the same place? could it be the fish store, and not you? i hate testing too so i can relate, but you may have to... sounds fishy, no pun intended. perhaps they're already sick when you're buying them? could the pleco be doing anything? very odd indeed.

 

[WILDER]

If you don't have a quarantine tank, fish can fetch anything into the tank.

 

[CBTF]

Isn't that the truth! I'm treating a nasty fungus right now because of that..

 

[vancouver]

None of the fish are new.. They're all fish I've had for months. I was having aggression problems so I got rid of a bunch of fish, and cleared this tank out.... then when I started adding fish again (from other tanks of mine), everything I added ended up getting really sick, or dying.

I don't think I want to deal with cycling the tank again, so completely cleaning everything isn't something I want to do.. I'm hoping if I treat with pimafix and do water changes as the pimafix says to do, next time I add fish I wont run into problems.