Poorly Fish

[2excitedkids]

We recently lost a dwarf neon rainbow fish who was bloated...?why.She was put in a quarantine tank and stayed bloated and died.

Now another DNRF is bloated and has reddening of bits of his body,no ulcers,no spots, no pine coning,normal poo but not as active AND one our 6 red line torpedos is looking emaciated- he has looekd thinner for while but now definatley VERY thin.He is stil eating though not swimming as strongly.He was always the little one of the 6 .

We have had no new additions..see profile for fish
260 l
Amm,nitrite 0, nitrate 15-20 (is high in our tap water)

Can I assume that we have some sort of bacterial infection creeping around our tank. If so should I treat .We have inetrpet no9 antibact and myxazin.
Do I have to half dose as we have 2 corydoras and 2 plecs (1 snowball,one pitbull).Will it kill our 3 shrimp.(I would rather lose my shrimp than all my fish..though will try and catch them if necessary!)

 

[Colin_T]

When fish bloat up it is usually a sign of an internal problem, and generally an internal bacterial infection. There isn't much you can do for the fish once it has happened as the infection usually destroys an organ thus causing the bloating. Quite often the fish go off their food and do a long stringy poo and then die a day or two later.

You can try medicating the tank but it may or may not work. If you have catfish in the tank then follow the directions on the pack. Some will suggest using at half strength for catfish/scaleless fish.

Whether or not the two medications you listed will kill the shrimp I do not know as I’ve never tried them in shrimp tanks. I would probably move the shrimp out before treating.

To work out the volume of water in the tank
measure Length x Width x Height in cm
divide by 1000
equals volume in litres

When measuring the height, measure from the top of the gravel to the top of the water level. If you have big rocks or driftwood in the tank, remove them before measuring the height.

Before you treat the tank do a 50% water change and complete gravel clean. This will reduce the gunk in the tank and allow the medication to work more effectively. It will also lower the pathogen count in the water and mean there are less nasties around to infect the fish.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating otherwise it will absorb the medication out of the water.

 

[2excitedkids]

We have just done our weekly water change. Neither of the medication bottles mention reducing dose for scaleless fish.
Does anyone know which is better..interpet no9 or myxazin?

I thought fish keeping was supposed to be fun,relaxing and therapeutic??!!

 

[2excitedkids]

Treated the tank with interpet no 9 in the end,
Both still with us this am though neither look very happy ,particularly the dnrf...hanging around at the top of the tank still poor thing.

 

[2excitedkids]

seriously depressed now,one of our original fish an albino cory has died...seemed very well...probably killed him with the antibacterial.The packet didn't say to reduce dose by half for scaleless fish.

I feel like between the devil and the deep sea- do nothing and watch them die or continue medicating (second dose day4) and potentially kill otherwise healthy fish.

sigh.

 

[2excitedkids]

Another one bites the dust- the poorly denisons barb just died. Due second dose of antibacterial tonight. Hope this doesn't kill our only remaining corydora. The dwarf neon rainbow fish still has red patches all over and is a little bloated...wondering whether should euthanise him.

Amm and nitrite still 0.

Question is are we doing something wrong or just unlucky??

 

[Colin_T]

you probably just got unlucky and bought a bad batch of rainbows. If healthy looking fish are dieing you should reduce the amount of medication going into the tank. Just treat at a slightly lower dose rate, say 90% instead of 100% dose rate.