Parasite Question

[NooBZz]

Hello, and nice to meet you all.

For the past 4 months, all has been well in the tank, no loss in fish, and they were even growing in size. Basicly they were healthy.

The problem is that now we have spotted on a few occasions a tiny clear tadpole like looking creature swimming around in the tank. At first we thought maybe it was a baby fish, but then thats simple not possible cause its more of a worm looking thing, not fish looking and its extremly small and hard to see.

Plus now the fish are not growing anymore and two of them have shrank in size with one of them dead now.. We did noticed on the dead one that he had red spiky looking hairs coming out of his butt.. The other shrinking fish is refusing to eat, just like the one that died..

We did manage to remove one of the little tadpole looknig thing out and flush it..

Does anyone have any idea as to whats going on in our tank, and what are the little tadpole looking things swimming around that we seen. ::Note: we have only seen two of them::

Thanks
NooBZz

 

[wetwetwet]

First up Hi and Welcome NooBZz,

Not heard of of them but it could be that the 'tadpole' thing and the deaths are unrelated. I'll see what I can find though.

Can you also give us some more info - ammonia,nitrIte, nitrAte etc., size of tank, occupants and maintenance regiem(sp)

 

[StiX]

We really need to know what fish u have in the tank and the water parameters (ammonia nitrIte nitAte etc) before we can halp you.

 

[NooBZz]

Hello wetwetwet, sorry I forgot to add the normal info you need.

Its a 25 gallon tank

It host 7 tropical fish " fresh water"

2 - colored tetras
1 - black ghost knife
1 - corral catfish
1 - bottom feeding catfish looking thing, LOL
1 - jap alge eater
1 - Angle fish "use to be 2 angle fish, but thats the one that died"

Fish are feed 3 times a day. We feed them "TetraColor Tropical Flakes" and every other day they are feed frozen blood worms, or frozen brineshrimp" We switch it up every other time to give um a treat.

Here are the normal tank conditions. ::Tank has been running for 1 year::

Tempeture is kept at 80 degrees at all times, 25% water change every 2 weeks, 3 at the most. Filter change is EVERY 2 weeks. A little more carbon is added to the filter to help with cloudy water. Graval is vacummed once a month..

Water that goes into the tank is half tap water and half bought drinking water.. We have to do this because our city tap water's ph is over 9.0 and using that water alone makes it next to impossible for us to get the ph below 7.8 and our fish die. Bought drinking water has a ph of 7.0 right out the bottle, but if its used alone for some reason, the fish always shrink and die.. Thru trial and error, we found that by mixing the tap water and the bought water, the fish grow and are healthy..

ammonia = test show 0mg/l "ideal"

nitrite = <0.3mg/l

ph = 7.0 "we use PH6.5" to keep it under 8.0

I hope this helps

 

[wetwetwet]

Right , sorry I haven't got too much time just now - going home,

but a couple of things, where do you live that your tap water is that bad?
Instead of bottle water(which I guess gets very expensive when doing water changes! ) have you checked if your lfs does RO water - or maybe consider getting a unit yourself? - mix with tap water.

I'd be interested to see what your nitrAte readings are aswell, with the high nitrIte reading there could be a problem with overfeeding. Personally my community only get fed once.

When you say filter 'change' what exactly do you mean or do? You could be removing too much of the usefull bacterial colony?

O one more thing hows bigs the knife?

maybe back later

 

[Gibbo]

If it turns out the worm is indeed to blame it could be Camallanus, a type of nematode worm that feeds on the hosts blood inside the gut. Aparrently in the aquarium this Parasite can multiply for several generations without need if a host. In heavily infected fish the worm does protrude from the anus! Keep the tank clean by hoovering up faeces daily and if you have any more fatalities remove them promptly to stop cannibalism, the worm can be spread through faeces (where eggs are deposited) and through ingestion of dead tissue.

It would be very useful if you could try and identify your fish, some may have been wild caught and could have harbored the parasite or had shared a tank with infected fish. Talk to your local fish store if you believe this worm to be the problem. I am unsure of treatment but keep up good tank husbandry and see if any more fish become susceptable.

A note on your water perameters - If your water is very hard consider keeping fish more suited to these conditions eg. Tanganyican Shell Dweller Cichlids. These are very small fish and tou could have a couple of pairs in a two footer no problem. This would take the strain out of battling to get the conditions right all the time, which may not prove to be stable in the long term. If you feel more like a challenge later invest in a Reverse Osmosis (RO) unit. This will soften the water considerably, removing most elements and metals leaving 'raw' RO water. This in turn can have 'trace elements' added to it to bring it up to the required perameters. Never use raw RO water though, this will kill your fish. Again, speak to your lfs and do a lot of research before making any commitments.

 

[cryosi]

i agree with gibbo i use RO water for a 2ft zebra and tiger tank, always have the lfs add minerals for me so the fish are ok! never ever use straight RO water..........