The pleco has since died and I assume the other is going to be gone very soon. I haven’t had any luck identifying this but it seems to affect every fish in the tank besides the tetra which I’m not surprised cause those guys are known to be extremely hardy. Honestly expecting this entire tank to perish but I would like to know how to prevent this in this future. Any ideas on what this is?
What in the world is killing all my fish
- Thread starter KLG1234
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- help identification illness
If I’m being honest I haven’t had time to check water conditions. We fill it with tap water which is from our well. 60 gal tropical community tank with a fluval exterior filter. We treated for ich first suspecting that may be the cause but it didn’t work. Sorry I don’t have much other info
Retired Viking
Fish Connoisseur
How long has your tank been running? Did you cycle the tank (Nitrogen Cycle) ? Looking at your other post your tank has run for at least 5 months. Do you do weekly water changes and by how much %
Last edited:
Retired Viking
Fish Connoisseur
It sounds like it could be ammonia or some type of poisoning since it is affecting all the fish. I would do a 75% water change and vacuum the gravel. Have you had your well water tested? If so do you have those results?
Can we have the parameters? if not do 75% daily water change.
Excess mucous caused by poor water quality or an external protozoan infection like Costia, Chilodonella or Trichodina.
The red marks on the goldfish/ koi is either bacterial or external protozoan. Considering the excess mucous, I'm going with protozoan.
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Test the tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post results in numbers, here.
Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use it.
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Add some salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
The red marks on the goldfish/ koi is either bacterial or external protozoan. Considering the excess mucous, I'm going with protozoan.
-------------------
Test the tank water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post results in numbers, here.
Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash filter media in a bucket of tank water and re-use it.
-------------------
Add some salt.
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.
If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.
Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.
The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate will affect some plants. The lower dose rate will not affect plants.
After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.
If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.
-------------------
If there's no improvement after a couple of days of salt, post more picture. Show the entire fish.Similar threads
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