Need Advice Urgently!

[lisa2701]

Hi everyone,

Well as some of you may know I have been dealing with fin rot over the last week. The little guy is quarantined and been getting treated with Myxazin. He hasn't responded and so today I have the husband away to buy some clove oil as he has gotten very poorly....

I have only had my main tank for a couple of weeks and I bought 5 endlers, and then a week later went back and bought 3 more, I think its the three latter fish that have brought the disease, ironically i have found one of the new guys in the filter and another of the new ones is the one I am going to put to sleep today !

SO, for the last week I have noticed the fish in my main tank iching again the sand but none of them has had any white spots... until today!! One fish has got what looks like a white powder on his tail, fin and along his back. He is very silvery and a large percentage of his fins are clear so perhaps this has made seeing the white marks difficult, but either way he now has this white substance on him. His fins look in tact and given the iching I am thinking its white spot?

Here's my problem...almost a week ago, before most of this was happening I ordered a betta, and his arrival is immanent. As in he will be with me this morning at some point!! My plan was to try him in the main tank beside the Endlers, but I am now thinking i don't want to put him anywhere near the main tank until I have dealt with whatever it is going on in there....BUT my 'spare' tank (6g) is being used as a hospital tank, obviously it'll be free in a couple of hours but how can I best disinfect the tank quickly? OR should I get my husband to run to pets at home for one of their cheap 'kiddie' tanks ( works out at 3g) as a temporary measure? I wouldn't have a filter though? I would have a heater.

Also, does it sound like white spot? And if so how do I treat it? I have Myxazin, melafix, aquairum salt, interpret Anit fungus and fin rot (bought for use of the fish in the hospital tank- didn't work), and Interpret Anti white spot treatment (came with the tank which was 2nd hand but cleaned well before use) in the cupboard at my disposal.

At this point my panic is over what to do with this betta when he arrives. Of course treating the white spot is a major priority and i will deal with it today, so any advice would be VERY much appreciated....

OH my tank details are:

12g (us) interpret fish box
Interpret PF1 filter
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
PH: 7.6
Temp: 24c

 

[Davo86]

Myxazin contains all of the the big three I.e. Formalin, malachite and acriflavine, so is the best choice for treating any common ailments such as fin rot, whitespot and velvet,
The latter of which could be what you are seeing and is often described as White dust.

You may have already done this but first thing I suggest when a disease is present is a hefty water change (upto 75%) and vigorous gravel clean, which will usually remove much of the bacteria/parasite that are causing the issue
Then presuming it is whitespot or velvet, temperature needs to be increased, slowly to around 30c, at the same time increase aeration. Lastly I would start of with another full course of Myxazin to combat those already infected.

 

[lisa2701]

Thank you for such a quick response.

Yes it looks more like white dust than white spots. I haven't done a huge water change just yet as I was waiting to hear back from someone here as to the best course of action. I will go and do that immediately. Do I treat the entire tank with the Myxazin? Will the endlers cope with the temp up to 30c?

As for the betta, I have my husband going to buy the 3g tank and as soon as my spare tank is free I will get that gutted and sterilised so at worst he'll only be in the 3g tank for a day at most.

What is the best way to sterilise a tank? Do I put the sand in boiling water to sterilise it? What about the filter? Sorry for all the questions, I am a complete beginner and clearly getting a crash course in disease. Not doing a very good job at this whole fish keeping thing so far

 

[Davo86]

If done over a long enough period the temperature hike should go ok, provided there is plenty of O2 being pumped in through either an airstone or powerhead,
Yes treat the whole tank, full course should run for about 6 days I think?

In the q tank I would remove the sand altogether as this Is just another place for bad bacteria / parasites to hide,
Generally they are kept very simple with no substrate and just the odd plant or ornament for the fish to hide in.
If the betta is onlygoing to be present for one day I would also personally remove the filter and simply run an airstone and heater,

The tank can then simply wiped down with 100% of the water replaced and dechlorinated. And the temp matched before the betta is added

 

[lisa2701]

Sorry a misunderstanding. The betta will only be in the 3g tank for one day with no filter, but the 6g tank I have (currently being used as a hospital tank will have to become his semi-permanent home until the main tank is fixed. The 6g tank (currenlty being used as hopital) has an inbuilt filter ( I had no idea about fish when i bought it, it wasn't even bought for fish).

Thanks for the advice. I will get it all set up, cleaned etc today so the betta only has to stay in the 3g tank for a few hours hopefully. Is it safe to run the filter or can the disease live in the filter?

The betta has ARRIVED!!! Hubby is on his way home with the 3g tank!!

 

[Essjay]

Supermarket basics range bleach, the stuff that only costs a few pence. These are usually just bleach, while the more expensive ones have perfume and detergent - but check the label.
I would throw away the sand and the filter media as they are cheap enough to replace, though you will have to do a fish-in cycle for the betta as you can't take any media from the other tank if it has whitespot in it. Then soak everything else in bleach diluted 1 part bleach and 9 parts water. Afterwards, rinse, rinse, rinse, then rinse again with water that's been well overdosed with dechlorinator - bleach is chlorine.

Once the betta is in the 5 gall, you will be doing a fish-in cycle, though with 5 galls the water changes won't be too bad. My dragonscale betta is in a 25 litre tank (6-ish galls) so I know what the tank is like for water changes! Read up on fish-in cycling in the beginner's resource centre. The basics are measure ammonia and nitrite and do a water change as often as necessary to keep them both below 0.25 at all times.


Myxazin doesn't mention treating whitespot. I would be inclined to get yet another med, one that treats whitespot. Dose the tank exactly as the medication says. When the spots disappear from the fish, the parasite isn't dead. Whitespot has a three stage lifecycle. The first is on the fish, but the med can't reach it there. The second is where the parasite falls off the fish and lies on the bottom in a sort of capsule (this is why Davo said to vacuum the bottom) but the med can't get to it now either. The third stage is where the capsule splits and the tiny parasites go looking for a fish to infect - now it can be killed. There must be some med in the tank until every last capsule has opened.


Edit - I forgot the betta will only be in the 5 gall temporarily! In that case, just keep an eye on the ammonia level a couple of times a day and do water changes as necessary. Some people keep bettas in unfiltered tanks permanently, doing daily water changes to keep ammonia down.

 

[Davo86]

Formalin and malachite along with Copper are the three main chemical treatments for whitespot (and other common parasites) the first two are present in Myxazin Which is why it is often recommended for treating whitespot on sensitive species that may not be able to handle the copper present in protozin.

 

[Essjay]

I didn't know that! Thanks for the info.

 

[lisa2701]

ok, so i'll treat the main tank using the myxazin.

I have set up the 3g tank, just waiting on the temp stabilising and then the betta can go in there until I get the 6g cleaned out and sterilised. Hopefully he can be in the 6g by tonight. Had to laugh at the wee 3g coming with the tiniest wee filter and a bag of gravel. Its no wonder parents buy these things for gold fish thinking they are doing good and got a good deal, tank, filter and gravel for £15!

 

[Nightstar99]

I have only had my main tank for a couple of weeks and I bought 5 endlers, and then a week later went back and bought 3 more

Is your tank fully cycled? You've had quite a lot of fish in there over a fairly short period. Ammonia and nitrite spikes can happen very quickly so if you arent testing for everything then it can creep up on you.

I used myaxazin in my main tank and it crashed it. I then had an ammonia spike and lost a couple of weaker fish before I realised what was going on.

Betta are used to living in rice paddies, so are somewhat ok with still water. They have an organ called a labyrinth which lets them breathe air, so he should be ok without a filter for a day. The ammonia would be building up though.

 

[lisa2701]

My tank was second hand so my filter was cycled when I got it, I tested it for almost a week using ammonia and it was processing everything perfect. My readings are all spot on. I only have 6 endlers in it (12g) do I'm not worried about stocking levels at all. I lost one in the filter and lost one to fin rot as explained so I am down to six.

I think what's happened is I've bought fish that were diseased unfortunately and didn't quarantine. its a valuable lesson to learn!

As for the betta he's currently in a small 3g tank with a small filter but I already have a 6gallon tank set up for him, I'm just waiting on the sand settling before I put him into it. Unfortunately the tank is not cycled and I obviously can't use filter media from my main tank so its a really rubbish situation to be in and not one I would have chosen but it's the hand I've been delt so I wi just have to deal with it. I have plenty of time each day to do water changes so I will just have to be religious about testing the water and doing daily water changes. I would be frightened to ask lfs's for filter media in case it introduced any more diseases.

 

[Nightstar99]

I found this video a while back about seeding new tanks quickly. It seems plausible.

http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E21dIdJLbs&feature=my_liked_videos&list=LL_QEapWoo0VdYSli789N7yQ

 

[lisa2701]

Thanks, I've actually seen that before, but unfortunately I don't have anything to seed it with .

Ok so an update - i done everything I was advised to.

I have bought a breeders net to put the little guy who is ill in as he's getting picked on.

 

[lisa2701]

Thought I'd just update: I lost the little guy over night, upon a closer inspection I don't see much wrong with it but I am going to continue to medicate the tank until the 5 days is up and we will take it from there. Thanks everyone.