Losing Fish, White Spots And Fungal Infection

[sarah40011]

Request Help with losing fish, a couple have just died and floated to the top another had a white fuzz all over its tail which i only found when he was at the end of his illness. there are lots of plants and he must have hidden away.

Tank size: tank is 30 gallon
pH: 7.2
ammonia:strip test so cant test for it (please advise a better way of testing)
nitrite: n02 - 0
nitrate:n03 - between 50 and 100 (and this is right after a 20% water change)
kH: 10d
gH:16d
tank temp:78/26

Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): Unexplained deaths mostly being unable to stay the right way up. one death from tail being covered in white fuzz. one sick fish with dissapearng tail and small white lump by his eye. other fish with white spot.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 20 to 30% weekly water changes

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank:stress zyme and stree coat on water changes. first application of interpet anti whitespot (another in 4 days) is a planted tank with an external aquis 750 filter. filter is about a month old as changed from and internal filter. used old filter media so trying to keep good bacteria

Tank inhabitants: 1 molly, 6 corys, 2 plecos, few black loaches and 15 tetras plus rapidly breeding shrimp (4 of the corys being returned to the store as breeding well and no space)

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): no new additions

Exposure to chemicals:none other than current whitespot meds. plan to finish course, do a water change and then treat for fungal infection cotton wool growths. I really need advise on why are my nitrates so high. are there too many fish? is my filter too new to cope, has something died in there... i dont gravel vac just swish it with my fingers but cant get to the back as is heavily planted.

 

[KittyKat]

Raise your temperature to 29 C, while you treat the whitespot. It will usually only be killed while in the freeswimming form.

When you do the water change, do a 75+% one, it will help remove the remaining whitespot and the fish will benefit from the clean water. Don't forget to dechlorinate and match water temperature.

 

[karin]

How old is this tank set-up? And if new, how did you cycle this tank? How do you know you have white spot? What are the symptoms that you are seeing?

 

[sarah40011]

the tank is 6 to 9 month? its was set up with a fishless cycle although recently i have changed to an external filter. i am guessing its whitespot. the symptoms are small sugar grain dots on fins and some on body, fish rubbing on the wood. ive stopped buyiong fish from garden centres and pets at home and now go to a brilliant man who really know his stuff. ive turned the temp up as suggested. they seem happier, ive cut their food right down i think maybe ive overfed and its effected water quality. i use those strip testers, what is a better way to test the water? altho my new fish man is very good he does like to push his expensive products im not always sure i need everything he suggests. last visit i went for more plants and came away with two plecos, something to lower ph, more drift wood, a natural fungal infection medicine, a bag of daphnia, co2 injector, plant food and a box of bioclean fresh!

 

[KittyKat]

Yes, a liquid test.

No, do not use anything to lower the pH. It will only cause problems in the long term and that will harm the fish more than a more suitable pH for some in the short term.

You shouldn't use CO[sub]2[/sub] or fertilisers until you understand how it works: ask in the planted section and do some research.

2 plecos? What species? Research *ALL* fish before you buy them. Write down the species name, go home, research, come back and but later. A good LFS will order the fish in, if they run out by the time you come back.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I would return the pH lowering stuff and the CO2 injector and in their place buy an ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kit. (API makes a 'master' kit that includes the aforementioned and a pH test (low range 6.0-7.6 & high range 7.4-8.8). The driftwood will release tannins to your tank slowly, and this will lower your pH much more naturally and safely than any chemical additive you could use.


What is the pH of your tap water? If its lower than 7.2, then just the simple act of doing a water change will lower the pH as well. If the pH is higher than that, you are fighting a losing battle trying to lower it.

 

[karin]

Sarah,
Agree with all the above. If the increase in temps do not solve the ICH problem see the link in my signature. The temp thing works for some, but it did not work for me. The meds worked great.

Good luck.

 

[J.M.S.]

Sorry about your fish loss

You can get an API Master Test Kit. It is liguid and a little pricey, but it has tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

 

[sarah40011]

i had already connected the co2, its an aquagro disposable can, it fills a small hood once a day, should i not keep it? i havnt used the plant food my plants really thrive anyway and are great colours. my ph i thought wasnt too bad a 7.2 so im not too worried about that ph stuff... ive forgotton the plecos name which i do with ALL fish im terrible, they might be snowflakes... i'll look again or post a pic for ID. API master test kit ordered off ebay, not too bad was about £25. no more fish deaths so far, hope the white spot treatment from yesterday is working, another dose on monday. when that is finished im thinking to use the anti fungal infection med for the one with no tail and white lump on face like cotton wool... these sick fish have been hiding in my huge amazon sword and escaped earlier treatment. i wont be so easily fooled next time i should have missed them sooner... also trying all the time to convince my other half we do have space for hospital/quarantine tank but no luck so far...

 

[KittyKat]

How did the escape treatment? I assume you're treating the whole tank?

 

[sarah40011]

they escaped treatment by hiding away i didnt see anything was wrong. im treating the whole tank for whitespot. im sad as i love my fish, i think the problem was overfeeding i have learnt my lesson and im reducing the community too. as a beginner i think i got a bit 'buy loads of fish on a whim' happy

 

[KittyKat]

Ah, that makes sense.

You should only stock what you are comfortable with, even if people say the tank will take more. Yes, it is quite hard to resist impulse buying fish.. I know the feeling well! I end up going to the LFS with a list of what I want, and always coming back with another list of what they have and I don't know about! I am lucky that my (one and only) LFS will often stock very rare and unusual fish at good prices.. I do end up going there quite often just to look, as I don't have space at home for everything.

As a one time beginner (many years ago), I can highly recommend keeping detailed logs of your aquarium. I used to do this in a notebook, but now do blogs of webpages, in the hope that my experiences may help other people.

And of course, I am sure you have heard this 100s of times before, research, research and research again

 

[sarah40011]

thank you kat for understanding, often beginners get very told off by others although i understand fish are living things that deserve the best environment you can manage. just a quick last question, i put the white spot treatment in on thursday, im sposed to water change then put a second treatment in monday, would i be ok to bring this forward a day? my nitrates are high i cant work out why and want to do some extra water changes for a while but obv with the meds they might be effected

 

[KittyKat]

thank you kat for understanding, often beginners get very told off by others although i understand fish are living things that deserve the best environment you can manage. just a quick last question, i put the white spot treatment in on thursday, im sposed to water change then put a second treatment in monday, would i be ok to bring this forward a day? my nitrates are high i cant work out why and want to do some extra water changes for a while but obv with the meds they might be effected

Are there still any signs of whitespot? If none at all, it should be fine to bring it a forward by a day. I recommend that you change 90-95% of the water with warm, dechlorinated tap water. That will get the remainder of any ich you may have had out and the medication too. If there are any signs of ich left, do a second treatment. Even if there is a single ich spot on one fish, then still do it. By the way, the only reliable signs are the spots, you shouldn't treat flicking as definitely ich because fish will flick for lots of reasons and without any too.

If there is no sign of ich, I would treat for fin-rot/fungus, if there are still signs of that and it looks bad. Be careful - some medications will kill the filter.

What is the current stock?

 

[sarah40011]

there is ich still, i'll do a big change tomorrow morning and then the second treatment. when that is complete i'll add the anti fungus. its interpet anti fungal and finrot, ive seen some people write it knocks fish out sort of drunk ? bit worried about that...
exact numbers are tricky because the neons and cardinals keep getting in a tangle when im counting lol, 6 corys, four are going back theyve been breeding and theres no room now! 5 black loaches ive never seen since they went in, two snowball plecos, 1 molly, 3 black tetra, 5 serpae tetra and 2 unknown big eyed see thru tetra no one can ID when i put its pic on here, 5 glow light tetra and some rapidly breeding glass and cherry shrimp. fish have an organinsed food and meds drawer plus a notebook now to keep track