Please Help Me Save My Tank Being Wiped Out!

[PalaminoProductions]

Ok Hi, I'm new to this forums, everyone on here seems really friendly and nice so I'd like to ask for help on what I consider something of a crisis in my fishtank - I have done research and observed my fish carefully to provide all the information I can:

I have a fairly large tropical freshwater tank, that has a large powerful filter and is cleaned reguarly around once every 2 months. With the occasional exception it has always been absaloutly fine in terms of being diesease free. I feed my fish the standard tropical freshwater flakefood (without overfeeding), and it is not overcrowded.

However now I have a major problem. The main fish I keep in my tank are Pearl Danios. I have around 20 and whom I purchased around half a year back. Since that time I dont think I've lost so much as 1. But i looked in the tank yesterday to see a very scrawny individual who is missing the lower part of his tail. He seemed to be sturggling to swim - he keeps sinking to the bottom. I considered culling him, but every time I moved near him with the net he dashed of madly with a lot of energy. Now I have a red back crab in the tank who has never troubled the fish but I decided that he might have had a nip at the fish and assumed if he was able to look after himself as well as he was able to evade the net he might re-grow it and pull through. Unfortuantly I have been neglecting my tank other than to feed it over the last month as I am currently taking A2 levels and so havent been paying nearly as much attention to it as I should (for which I feel very bad now). I checked back on the fish a few days later. Now he has a white flaky bit hanging of his side (a scale). It does not seem so much like a growth or parasite as it seems to actually be part of him. He still has trouble swimming although seems to have improoved ever so slightly in that he sinks to the bottom less - however he is still weak, struggling in the way he swims and missing his tail. His body shape also appears to have changed - his back is somewhat curved downwards (this could be jsut from the angle he floats at though).

Now when I saw him to my horror I also saw, two more members of his school (one signifigantly worse than the other) had several red sores on them around 5mm across. The centre of each sore is red. Judgng from one having it worse, it would defintly appear it is spreading, and from what I've done in terms of internet research these seem to be sores - They are not excessibly deep yet - in fact they actually seem raised on the fish rather than burrowing into their bodies (as I've heard some sores do to the extent of revealing internal organs).

I strongly dislike culling fish - especailly since I find there very few humane ways to do it. I used to put them on ice and then flsuh them (after freezing them to death in ice water whcih took seconds). However I once accidently discovered this rather puts them into shock rather than kills them and I would hate to flush live fish. Of course I'd rather find a way to save and not cull my fish, its somethign I try to avoid at all possible costs, although I am willing to do anythign to prevent this spreading.

So I know I need to give the tank a major water change and clean it and to use medicines. I would like to add I have some scaless fish (loaches) and shrimps and crabs in the tank so I need to be careful what mediciens I use. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, can you offer as much advice as possible in temrs of what medicines to use, antibiotics (although I am in the UK and they arent very avaialbe here) and absaloutly ANY other information you can provide whatsoever - e.g. what the diseases sound like, their charactaristics and treatment as well as your own experainces. I am extremally worried this could wipe out my whole school of fish and I'd be absaloutly devastated if it could. As well as racked with guilt for my neglect of my poor fish


You can reply to this thread, or (preferably) email me at [email protected]


PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!!

 

[WILDER]

Size of tank in gallons or litres.
How many fish and which type.
Water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.

Can you isolate the sick fish?

Sores can be caused by bad water quality, bacterial, parasites.
Is there any white eding to the sores.

Once fish struggle to swim when losing fins, they rarely make it due to getting exhausted.

Curved spine can be injury, has the crab caused it.
Also it can mean old age, injury, vitamin deficiency, internal parasites, fish tb, birth defect.

I would get your gravel vac out and do a good gravel vac, also remove ornaments, and water change.

Once you do a water change use some myxazin by waterlife, esha 2000, or internal bacteria med by interpet.

It would be ideal if you could remove the inverts.

When you have to destroy a fish this is the best method I have found.

Fill a bucket with cold water then add ice cubes till a thin sheet of ice forms.
If no ice cubes add a jug of water to the freezer, till a thin sheet of ice forms on top.

Place the fish in the freezing water, it shouldn't take long.
Make sure gills are not moving. Leave the fish awhile just to make sure it's passed away.

 

[PalaminoProductions]

I can't isolate the fish unfortunatly as I have no other tank to put it in. I went to the fish shop the other day, described my problem and they gave me a medicine called Myaxazin Fin Rot and Bacteria, amongst various dry and frozen foods (to vary my fishes diet) and recommended cleaning the tank. For me tank cleaning tends to be a mammonth task, so it might be one or two days until I get it done (the reasons for this is I literally have hundreds of shrimps in my tanks which must carefully be hand picked out of anythign I removed from the tank no matter how much I shake it in the water lol). Do you think I can start medicine treatment before the water changed?

There is a white centre in the sores if thats what you mean and but no white ending on teh outside.
I shall defintly take your advice on the gravel caving (fortunatly I now have the myxazin) I shall keep an eye out for the other meds you recomended. Unfortuatnly removing the inverts would be a near impossible taks as there are so many of them, they constantly breed and they are only around the size of a neon tetra at thier largest.

And thanks I shall use that method next time I have to cull a fish.

Thankyou very mcuh for the advice, I shall certainly take it and post back here in a few days to let you know how they are doing. Thanks again

 

[FishStrings]

Have a professional at a local aquarium store perform a master test on a water sample from your tank. Describe the sickness to them. Personally it sounds like you have some sort of bacterial or fungal rot going on in the tank. Get yourself a gravel cleaning tube to change the water while you clean the gravel to kill two birds with one stone in a sense. Having two emptying buckets instead of one will cut your cleaning time in half.

 

[WILDER]

Those that are red on the edges and white in the center are generally Columnaris. Both are gram negative bacteria. T

Do a good gravel vac and water change.
Then add myxazin by waterlife and pimafix.

Your fish have columnaris.

 

[PalaminoProductions]

So I have followed everyones instructions by cleanign out the tank, and currently the fish are on a 5 day treatment from Myaxazin. They have only had it for 2 days but all seems to be going well so far - all the fish with the sores APPEAR to be improoving.

They only fish I've had no change from is the one that was struggling to swim. Do you guys think I should destroy it? It has appeared to improove since the very first day around 10 days ago when I discovered its problem as it no longer rsts at the bottom of the tank and some of its tail has grown back. However it still hangs in the watter, as if its tail was weighing it down and seems to try to move as little as possible. I dont want it to suffer as it appears exhausted but if theres any chance of getting it better I would like to as well. So what do you guys think?

Is it exhausted and suffering and I should kill it?

It has a chance (please say what) and I should try and get it better.

It will pass away but its not suffering any more than say any other "old" animal and can be left to have nature run its course.