Melafix and Oxygen Deprivation

[enchanted]

There are two questions here that may be related. I hate to ask this because I know for many bringing up lost fish in memory isn't easy, but has anyone ever lost fish to Oxygen Deprivation? If so, would you mind posting the symptons and death acts?

The next question is related to first in the sense that I have heard MelaFix lowers oxygen levels. Does anyone have personal experience with this or has dealt with this problem?

I have what would currently be considered a lightly planted tank. Eventually it will be fully planted, but from what I understood even a lightly planted tank with filter surface agitation should produce enough oxygen in the water to support the fish and plants.

I lost another guppy today and may have been to hasty in judging the Danios. I noticed red around the gills and researched to discover this could be caused by Oxygen Deprevation. Since I have been treating with MelaFix/PimaFix and had heard of them lowering oxygen levels I reset my airstone (which was running, but not much) and turned it up full bore. All fish have become more active and appear healthier.

Previously the guppys were hiding in one top corner of the tank and the corys were just staying in there cave.

They all became more active after the danios were removed, but soon after became very inactive.

I'm trying to narrow this down and find the exact problem going on here. I know better than treating the symptons. You need to treat the cause and if I can't find the cause I can't treat it. It is very frustrating as I have now lost 10 guppys. It seems the danios, corys, otos, and pleco, are much more resilient than guppys.

Any help or ideas would be nice.

Thanks,
Larry

 

[Plan-B]

Larry, I am by no means an expert on anything fish but one thing you might want to conceder is a bad batch of guppies. I added 10 swords to my 90 and am now down to 1. All the other fish that are in the tank (angels, corys, tetras and a pleco) are fine. I went back to my LFS and found that most of the swords from the same batch that I didn’t bring home were also dead. I’m not sure but I think that some times livebearers are horribly cross breed and the result is weak, short-lived fish. If I’m wrong on this I hope some one will correct me.

As for melafix lowering your oxygen levels, I personally have never encountered this problem but that is defiantly not saying the problem does not exist. One thing I know will reduce oxygen is high heat levels. If your tank temp is not to low already maybe decreaseing it a few degrees will help.

 

[enchanted]

I did that yesterday also. I was running between 80 and 81. I lowered it down to 75 and it is staying within .5 of that.

I understand bad batches of guppys, but we are talking 3 from Walmart, 3 from Zamzows, 5 from one LFS, and 3 from another.

Out of those I have 4 left. 2 Males and 2 Females. One male has survived it all, even with a damaged tail fin that I didn't know was damaged. He is the primary reason I purchased the Melafix.

I could aquate some of the others to the Cycling, as I'm sure it caused a few deaths. All but one showed no external symptoms and that one was showing signs of fin rot which is why I am treating the whole tank with MelaFix/PimaFix. She had been around quite a while when I started treating and it was about 3/4 days after I started treating that she passed on.

Out of the last 3 that I purchased yesterday from an LFS I trust (I don't buy fish from the other LFS anymore after seeing dead fish in the tanks) I brought them home and watched them. They moved around for about 20/30 minutes then went straight to the "guppy" corner as I have started to call it, rarely leaving, and when leaving almost always staying at the top of the tank.

It was after losing one of these today that I researched the red gills and found oxygen deprevation as a possible cause. So I turned the Airstone up full after resituating it so it would allow better disolvement into the water.

After this all but one guppy is spend time in the middle/bottom of the tank and away from the corner. Even this one comes out of the corner quite a bit now.

 

[fishdudein]

Hi ddreams. I have never experienced any problems with Melafix as you have described them. One thing I have noticed is that in a saltwater tank with a protein skimmer, when you add Melafix the skimmer kind of goes overboard in producing foam. I mention this so that maybe someone else may make some kind of connection here, I'm not sure if it pertains to your problem or not.

 

[CFC]

Providing you stick to the correct dose melafix and pimafix then it should not affect oxygen levels in the tank, these are 100% natural remedies with the only ingreidients being water, teatree oil/almond leaves and a emulsifier to bind the two together. Plus with the small fish you are keeping it would have to lower the oxygen significantly before they would be affected. The red gills and lack of activity could be attributed to nitrite poisoning, nitrite affects the fishes red blood cells lowering their ability to carry oxygen resulting in the fish sufficating regardless of the O2 levels in the tank, prolonged exposure to nitrite can cause this affect to be permament. I suggest checking all the water parameters again with a good quaility liquid test kit.

Other cause's which could be looked at though are less likely IMO are gill flukes or velvet. Both these diseases attack the gill cavities of fish and can kill very quickly in tanks with heavy infestations. The symptoms of both are very similar to that of oxygen deprivation with the fish loosing colour, hanging at the surface, panting and lack of movement, fish with velvet will also show signs of scratching and may have what appears to be a light dusting of very small gold flecks.

 

[BlueIce]

High ammonia is probably the cause of your red gills...very common symptom.Have you checked the water?


As for lowering O2 levels and melafix..it does lower levels and added aeration is recommended

 

[enchanted]

For those mentioning Levels.

Day before yesterday 10/7 LFS and myself verified:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I added 3 guppys and had a small Nitrite spike yesterday during the day of:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .1 or so (below .25 but higher than 0)
Nitrate 0

By 10PM Last night it was back to:
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0

I had my LFS verify when everything dropped to zero because I thought my kit was wrong. Aquarium Pharmacutecils Liquid Master kit. But he verified them with a digital tester and my kit is accurate.

 

[jams.alaskan]

Is there a cloudy film at the top of the water at all? It sounds like you have surface movement with the filtration and the air stone but I thought that I would ask anyways... With melafix, I only noticed increased fish movement and comfort, in fact it always seemed to promote spawning behavior and displays. If you added the correct amount and are doing what is recomended then I wouldn't think that that was the cause.


ALASKA

 

[enchanted]

I use 5 Tsp each which is 1/2 tsp less than ordered.

I actually don't have a lot of surface movement because the water level in my tank rides level with the output of the filters causing them to pour directly into the water which lowers surface movement.

As for the film, no, just some froth at times which it actually spoke about as "Expected results" on the packaging.

 

[enchanted]

I did the light thing, so we will see what happens. 160W total on the tank now.