Help! For the second time a same strange disease has wiped out only danios in my 34-gallon tank. I only have two left and I'm trying to put a stop to it. 
Both epidemics went through the same phases, and in both cases all but one danio got sick. It starts when a couple of danios die suddenly with no obvious symptoms. Then a one or two more become weak, stop eating, and die. The remaining danios linger with strange symptoms. In a couple of cases(including one remaining danio now), it starts with a weird white spot or two at the top of the head. At first we thought ich but it never affected the rest of the tank or spread to other parts of the body, and the spots also look bigger than most ich spots. The white spots fall off but a reddish lesion remains that never clears up. A couple of other reddish lesions may appear on the side of the fish. At first, the fish continues eating but slowly weakens and acts a little strange. Treatment in a hospital tank with an anti-fungal/anti-bacterial and anti-ich treatments have no effect. Some fish linger for weeks, others die pretty quickly. In this last case, the brave little guy mostly lay on his side at the top of the water, almost as if he was trying to get air from the surface??? Every now and then, he would dart all over, twirling, bumping into things, somersaulting. But he wouldn't give up the fight and we finally had to euthanize the poor thing. There is one danio that has survived both epidemics with no symptoms. Could he be a carrier?
Other fish in the 34-gallon tank include two platys, three corys, one dojo loach, and three rose colored tetras (not neon). They are completely unaffected by the mystery danio disease. We clean the tank regularly and water stats have been healthy and stable for months.
There is one newly sick danio left. He has two white spots on his head and is acting weird. If he dies, we'll be left with only the one seemingly healthy danio. At this point I'm thinking we'll never be able to put danios in this tank again just in case there's some disease lurking in the water. We have danios in another tank that are very healthy and happy and I would like to move them to the larger tank but I don't dare at this point.
Any advice you can give on saving the last little danio would be very welcome. I'm also interested in your thoughts on what type of diseases would single out only the danios, and whether we can ever hope to add more danios to the tank without risking a third epidemics (or, conversely, whether we can move the last danio in with the danios in the healthy tank).
Thank you for any advice you can give.
Both epidemics went through the same phases, and in both cases all but one danio got sick. It starts when a couple of danios die suddenly with no obvious symptoms. Then a one or two more become weak, stop eating, and die. The remaining danios linger with strange symptoms. In a couple of cases(including one remaining danio now), it starts with a weird white spot or two at the top of the head. At first we thought ich but it never affected the rest of the tank or spread to other parts of the body, and the spots also look bigger than most ich spots. The white spots fall off but a reddish lesion remains that never clears up. A couple of other reddish lesions may appear on the side of the fish. At first, the fish continues eating but slowly weakens and acts a little strange. Treatment in a hospital tank with an anti-fungal/anti-bacterial and anti-ich treatments have no effect. Some fish linger for weeks, others die pretty quickly. In this last case, the brave little guy mostly lay on his side at the top of the water, almost as if he was trying to get air from the surface??? Every now and then, he would dart all over, twirling, bumping into things, somersaulting. But he wouldn't give up the fight and we finally had to euthanize the poor thing. There is one danio that has survived both epidemics with no symptoms. Could he be a carrier?
Other fish in the 34-gallon tank include two platys, three corys, one dojo loach, and three rose colored tetras (not neon). They are completely unaffected by the mystery danio disease. We clean the tank regularly and water stats have been healthy and stable for months.
There is one newly sick danio left. He has two white spots on his head and is acting weird. If he dies, we'll be left with only the one seemingly healthy danio. At this point I'm thinking we'll never be able to put danios in this tank again just in case there's some disease lurking in the water. We have danios in another tank that are very healthy and happy and I would like to move them to the larger tank but I don't dare at this point.
Any advice you can give on saving the last little danio would be very welcome. I'm also interested in your thoughts on what type of diseases would single out only the danios, and whether we can ever hope to add more danios to the tank without risking a third epidemics (or, conversely, whether we can move the last danio in with the danios in the healthy tank).
Thank you for any advice you can give.
