Mystery Tiger Barb Problem...help

[millym]

hi
we have 6 tiger barbs ( 3 greens) and up until tuesday they were doing their normal barb stuff......chasing eachother zooming around hoovering up any food put in the tank. on tues i noticed they were all parked in a shady area of the tank & ALL of them have the small startings of fungus on their tails & fins. ( i would swear none of them had this the day before) i did a water change on monday (usual weekly 25%) and apart from a bit of replanting nothing else new. they're still not their normal selves still parked in the same area & i just dont know whats going on. they also are not as interested in food as usual.

ive had the odd barb with minor fungus patch on tail/fins before & ive treated successfully with melafix. i just find it strange that all of them suddenly have this problem at exactly the same time. im always very careful when doing water changes to wash my hands before/after.( & rinse thoroughly) never use the bucket or equipment for anything else & its not kept near any toxic chemicals.
tanks been going over 4 yrs.
i checked water params as soon as i noticed something was wrong & all ok.
pH 7.8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
ammonia 0
temp 24c

any ideas what could have upset them?? if i didnt know any better id suspect there was something in the water that has stressed them.......but what. ( i dont entirely trust our water supplier here 'thames water' )NONE of our other fish are affected at all. i did another small water change yesterday. and rechecked the water params - nothing new.
i did have ain incident over 3 years ago when our tiger barbs reacted babdly to interpets fungus & finrot med & none of our other fish had a problem so i suspect they can be extra sensitive to certain things. but im not sure what to do. im not keen to add any meds to the tank apart from melafix at the moment.

thanks

 

[phlawed]

hi
we have 6 tiger barbs ( 3 greens) and up until tuesday they were doing their normal barb stuff......chasing eachother zooming around hoovering up any food put in the tank. on tues i noticed they were all parked in a shady area of the tank & ALL of them have the small startings of fungus on their tails & fins. ( i would swear none of them had this the day before) i did a water change on monday (usual weekly 25%) and apart from a bit of replanting nothing else new. they're still not their normal selves still parked in the same area & i just dont know whats going on. they also are not as interested in food as usual.

ive had the odd barb with minor fungus patch on tail/fins before & ive treated successfully with melafix. i just find it strange that all of them suddenly have this problem at exactly the same time. im always very careful when doing water changes to wash my hands before/after.( & rinse thoroughly) never use the bucket or equipment for anything else & its not kept near any toxic chemicals.
tanks been going over 4 yrs.
i checked water params as soon as i noticed something was wrong & all ok.
pH 7.8
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10
ammonia 0
temp 24c

any ideas what could have upset them?? if i didnt know any better id suspect there was something in the water that has stressed them.......but what. ( i dont entirely trust our water supplier here 'thames water' )NONE of our other fish are affected at all. i did another small water change yesterday. and rechecked the water params - nothing new.
i did have ain incident over 3 years ago when our tiger barbs reacted babdly to interpets fungus & finrot med & none of our other fish had a problem so i suspect they can be extra sensitive to certain things. but im not sure what to do. im not keen to add any meds to the tank apart from melafix at the moment.

thanks

go ahead and raise temp to 82-84F. You might try a med that is not melafix like a copper based med. CopperSafe is good or get Jungle med for ICH as this is what it sounds like. I went through same battle about 4 weeks ago. Most likely, they got it from you yo-yo's. remove the carbon from filter and treat tank for a week and do daily water changes. Might wanna try and get your nitrates up to about 20 or so. Hope this helps you out and good luck.

 

[millym]

thanks....i cant use copper based meds as we have shrimps in the tank. & i dont understand what you mean that theyve got it from my yoyos the yoyos have been in the tank for 3+years & dont appear to have any fungally problems. it definately NOT ich as ive seen & treated our tank for ich before & this definately looks like fungus.....cotton wool stuff on them.
but im doing small water changes daily,have no carbon in our filters & will raise the temp a bit. i think i'll keep on with the melafix till the 5 days are up & just keep an eye on them. im reluctant to isolate them as catching 6 barbs would be a nightmare & probably stress them even more.
thanks again

 

[millym]

barbs are back almost completely to their normal selves & fungus just about gone with melafix..i guess the mystery will stay a mystery.