ThinIce
Fish Fanatic
Sorry for the long post - I'm hoping however someone will go "Ah ha!"
Grateful for any advice. A couple of week ago I lost my Betta who was about a year and a half in age. He swelled up, eventually lost the ability to swim and pine coned just before death (sounds like dropsy but this didn't occur to me before hand in time to treat). I bought some new duplicate equipment (powered syphon) so as not to tranfer the infection should there be one to my main tank. I haven't lost anymore fish in the Betta's tank. I presumed that mainly the Betta was just old and thus susceptible.
Last weekend one of my rams in the main tank started acting oddly, resting on the sand as if it was painful to swim and swimming in an odd way - head up not moving fins too much as if this hurt. I noted the fish dropping some stringy white poo whilst trying to closely observe it, one of the fins on its side also looked rather tatty, but a proper inspection was impossible as my rams never stop flapping these fins!
I decided to dose the tank with Interpret no 7 Anti Slime and Velvet because several fish had been flicking against objects / the sand and I presumed some sort of parasite whether internal of external. After I had done this I also noticed my plec crapping the same white poo and a female barb hanging closer to the surface than would normally. Thinking back the plec had been a tad lethargic over the previous week.
During the week the Ram moved about less and less, the plec however was more active and was observed eating and crapping poo of the normal colour as of mid week. It looked especially alert reacting to us in its normal way by raising the fin on its back in greeting / warning / whatever.
Today, the Ram lost all ability to swim (i.e it flapped its fins but could not "take off" from the leaf on which is had been resting) and eventually died a little while ago (its body did not pinecone). The plec has been lying on its back (yeah its back) on the sand at the back of the tank for at least part of the day - but has now managed to right itself and stick to the glass with its mouth a small distance from where it was lying, its body is now still partly resting on the sand. The barb remains hanging at the back of the tank - will occasionally shoal with the others and isn't really interested in food. The Ram attempted to chase food right up to yesterday.
I've not been a fish keeper for much more than a year and a half. But having read the description, this does not sound like dropsy. I guess a swim bladder problem would account for the other behaviour, but from what I've read that doesn't happen in multiple fish at once except by chance and does not explain the symptoms of the barb. The dead ram does have tatty fins in places, so that could be an infection that spread into the fish (from what I've read) but again - that wouldn't be catching would it?
Before I did the meds last week I tested the water, Ammonia was 0 as was Nitrite, Nitrate was a little high at 40, so I did a water change. I'm going to do another water change tomorrow and am thinking of stepping this up in order to try and remove anything that is water bourne in the tank.
I have got a spare 10gal tank, but it isn't setup and its seems pointless stressing the plec and barb by moving them - plus the infection has had plenty of time to spread to the other fish so I would have thought to clear whatever it is I'd have to treat the entire main tank.
Problem being I haven't got the faintest Idea what to treat with - and I don't want to try another med as just a guess cause I know this isn't good for the fish either. The Plec is the other half (and my own) favourite fish and I don't want to lose the rest of the tank so any advice is greatly appreciated.
Grateful for any advice. A couple of week ago I lost my Betta who was about a year and a half in age. He swelled up, eventually lost the ability to swim and pine coned just before death (sounds like dropsy but this didn't occur to me before hand in time to treat). I bought some new duplicate equipment (powered syphon) so as not to tranfer the infection should there be one to my main tank. I haven't lost anymore fish in the Betta's tank. I presumed that mainly the Betta was just old and thus susceptible.
Last weekend one of my rams in the main tank started acting oddly, resting on the sand as if it was painful to swim and swimming in an odd way - head up not moving fins too much as if this hurt. I noted the fish dropping some stringy white poo whilst trying to closely observe it, one of the fins on its side also looked rather tatty, but a proper inspection was impossible as my rams never stop flapping these fins!
I decided to dose the tank with Interpret no 7 Anti Slime and Velvet because several fish had been flicking against objects / the sand and I presumed some sort of parasite whether internal of external. After I had done this I also noticed my plec crapping the same white poo and a female barb hanging closer to the surface than would normally. Thinking back the plec had been a tad lethargic over the previous week.
During the week the Ram moved about less and less, the plec however was more active and was observed eating and crapping poo of the normal colour as of mid week. It looked especially alert reacting to us in its normal way by raising the fin on its back in greeting / warning / whatever.
Today, the Ram lost all ability to swim (i.e it flapped its fins but could not "take off" from the leaf on which is had been resting) and eventually died a little while ago (its body did not pinecone). The plec has been lying on its back (yeah its back) on the sand at the back of the tank for at least part of the day - but has now managed to right itself and stick to the glass with its mouth a small distance from where it was lying, its body is now still partly resting on the sand. The barb remains hanging at the back of the tank - will occasionally shoal with the others and isn't really interested in food. The Ram attempted to chase food right up to yesterday.
I've not been a fish keeper for much more than a year and a half. But having read the description, this does not sound like dropsy. I guess a swim bladder problem would account for the other behaviour, but from what I've read that doesn't happen in multiple fish at once except by chance and does not explain the symptoms of the barb. The dead ram does have tatty fins in places, so that could be an infection that spread into the fish (from what I've read) but again - that wouldn't be catching would it?
Before I did the meds last week I tested the water, Ammonia was 0 as was Nitrite, Nitrate was a little high at 40, so I did a water change. I'm going to do another water change tomorrow and am thinking of stepping this up in order to try and remove anything that is water bourne in the tank.
I have got a spare 10gal tank, but it isn't setup and its seems pointless stressing the plec and barb by moving them - plus the infection has had plenty of time to spread to the other fish so I would have thought to clear whatever it is I'd have to treat the entire main tank.
Problem being I haven't got the faintest Idea what to treat with - and I don't want to try another med as just a guess cause I know this isn't good for the fish either. The Plec is the other half (and my own) favourite fish and I don't want to lose the rest of the tank so any advice is greatly appreciated.
I will add however that I've always found the Nitrate test on the API master kit utterly useless, it is impossible to tell between any of the colour bars above twenty (imo) and I've wondered at its accuracy in the past (its produced odd results before). I'll pick up another test kit this afternoon from another manufacturer. Any recommendations? However zero should be yellow, which it clearly is not. I'll hold off the water changes I was going to do today until then. If this isn't a false reading, should the water company be contacted or is a certain amount of Nitrate within "acceptable" limits?
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