Help - Clown Loach Just Lying At Bottom Of Tank

[Marclau]

Well found the dead sharks........

All in all, this has wiped out all but my 2 Gouramis.......they seems to be O'K.........look a bit in shock from the expressions on their faces.........
So far they have made it......I again did a 80% water change and this time I added Seachem Stability (Cycle) yesterday and will continue to do so each day for a week.

Well, after getting therapy for myself, the wife and kids, it's been a very sad week.........
Will slowly rebuild the tank but want to wait at least another fortnight beofre starting to slowly add fish again..........maybe different types all together.

Had a good long talk to Melbourne FS about what had occured and he said these things happen.
They also believe that it could have been a parasite on the loach (cause of his initial scratching) which then eventually turned to secondary bacterial......hence Sesticemia ( i cant spell this late in the night)........eventually to attack my whole tank.

Any help or suggestions would be very warmly appreciated.........

 

[Marclau]

Well, after thinking all was finally going well, my last 2 Gourami's have past to the fishbowl in the sky.

As I have already done 2 80% water changes, cleaned my tank, 2 courses of Tetracycline, a course of Pimafix and Allcure.............not sure where to go from here.

Do I now simply go through the fishless cycle process again? Would all bacteria be dead? Go through another Tetracycline course?

Please, any help here would be good...............

Do I turn of the heater so that the water gets cold so bacteria would die and then begin a fishless cycle again?

So many questions..........

thanks

 

[WILDER]

Thats awful losing a tank full of fish. Had it happen to me with some new neons that had ntd.
The bad bacteria should of gone with the tetracycline.
If the fish did you have parasites I would strip the whole tank down and steralise everything and start again.
You need to let the tank and equipement all dry out for aday or two.

 

[Marclau]

what do you mean strip the tank and how and what would you use to steralise??
Also, do i do anything with the filter........??


Remember that I already did 2 X 80% water changes, several smaller changes and cleaned glass with scraper. Also cleaned plants under tap.......
and cleaned driftwood..........

So not clear on what you mean about striping tank??

thanks Wilder.........

 

[WILDER]

The lfs said to you that the fish could of had a parasite that caused the septicemia.
Did the lfs say which parasiite they thought it could be.
Did any of the clown loaches look on the thin side.

 

[Marclau]

Not really Wilder...........they simply think that perhaps the loach may have had a parasite of some type and that the Septicemia was the secondary infection.......
Not much help really..............

Would adding ammonia and cleaning class with ammonia be the way to go...........of course take out live plants..........and another gravel vac??

Or like you said the tetracycline killed off everything and vac would suc it up if i did another 80%+ water change.........so maybe do a 95% change??

Sorry, i just want to be clear............

 

[WILDER]

Just covering everything to make sure you don't start off with a parasite in the tank.
Clown loaches can get skinny desease, the fish will look skinny.
Septicemia can be caused by parasites.
You have to cycle the tank anyway with using the tetracycline, I would just strip in down now and start again.
Cleaning everything. You need to sterlalise the live plants, but you would have to ask how to do that in the plant section of the forum.

Look under septicemia.
[URL="http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm"]http/www.fish-disease.net/diseases.htm[/URL]

What I do when stripping a tank down is use bleach to clean the tank and rinse well and let dry out for aday.
Steralise the substrate in boiling water, or just throwi it away and get some new.
Clean filter in a bucket of hot salty water and let it run for a white. Then fill bucket up with cold water then run gain.
Then let filter dry out for a day.
Steralise heater in hot salty water.

 

[Marclau]

Excellent...........going camping with family over the weekend so might leave this for the Easter holidays.............will do what you have mentioned..........unfortunately, cause i have heaps of substrate, not willing to throw it away so will drain all water and then add boiling water to tank and vacuum that out again..........hopefully this will do it........and also follow your suggestions with filter............it is a Fluval 305 canister so will struggle with it...........maybe have 2 buckets and keep filling it with boiling salty water for a minute or two........as i use noodles, i assume i clean them in hot salty water as well..........then leave everything to dry out..........perhaps fill tank 50% and then vac it out before completing with complete water fill and then proceed to fishless cycle..............

If this is wrong, let me know...........

 

[WILDER]

Nothing worse than stripping large tanks down.
I would steralise the subtrate in boiling water, But not in the tank as it could crack the tank.
I know it will take ages but it will be worth it.

You need to remove eveything from the tank to steralise the tank with bleach. Don't use bleach on substrate.