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wow... these look incredible... trying to look beyond TB

Magnum Man

Magnum Man

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so, with me giving up on rainbow fish, maybe Killi's ??? assume not in the same TB history tank... but these could certainly fulfill the color urge... um... maybe with a little more economical variety


so... as far as the past history of the tank, should I rip that out & start over, with a new tank in that location, empty it out, strong detergent and sanitize, refill fill new substrate... what's a guy to do:oops:
 
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I'm a fatalist. Once TB is in, in it's in forever. And you have probably accidentally transferred it into other tanks, via nets, water hoses, etc.

I have kept blue gularis, and even bred them, though not as well as many other hobbyists. They take serious research, and are the kind of fish I don't think you'd like. You crowd your tanks and build communities, and that fish is not for community tanks. I'm happy with that, because my norm is lightly stocked single species tanks. If gularis were a little longer lived (18 months to 2 years) and more available, there'd be serious unemployment in the world of pet store bettas.

They pay attention to their world and recognize their people.

Blue gularis will eat what fits in their wide mouths, but the main knock on them is their need for cooler water. Not too cool, as in Fahrenheit, 70-74 is good. Kept warmer, they age rapidly and live a year. They also don't like each other, and can be very aggressive together in small tanks.

Interestingly, I have never seen signs of TB in my killies. I don't know if they have defences or if it's the tank set ups, but visible TB seems rare, and when I have kept them in tanks with other fish and seen Ich, it's not on them. Sometimes when I get too many scrapping males, I have to put one in a QT tank, and when new fish come in, they seem extremely resistant. But Oodinium spp (velvet) slays them.
 
If you've had fish TB in there, yeah, it's one time when I'd do a full tear down sanitise, throw anything porous, chuck substrate and probably wood, (safely) bleach solution clean tank and any saveable equipment like heaters/filters/nets/buckets. Bleach solution not left too long on the silicone since it could degrade it/make it brittle, but 10-15 mins then rinsed should be fine. Can then rinse thoroughly, items that had been bleach soaked or cleaned can be soaked/wiped down with a triple dose declorinator, before final rinse and allowed to thoroughly air dry.

That's what I did with equipment while battling camallanus worms anyhow, since it had been such a nightmare, and I was determined not to reinfect any of the tanks via shared equipment, and since worm eggs can be transferred so easily via the water, shared equipment etc.

However, I'm not an expert, and do know @Seisage happens to have a really good and detailed aquatic veterinary textbook that might prove useful, if she doesn't mind my tagging her and doesn't mind looking it up.
 
I got the impression from a post from I think @Colin_T ... talking about it, in another thread, that TB cells have a waxy coating and are resistant to most sanitizers...

which is why I listed a strong detergent, prior to sanitizing...
 
Could be! Sorry man, it's a lot of work! But you'll likely feel less anxious about setting the tank bank up after going through all that.
 
I've got a dozen Pothos plants in the tank, I guess that means tossing those all out and starting over??? & they are all planted in Ceramic Bio Media, so that goes too... would guess the plastic hang on pots would be reusable... there are also 6-8 large, shaped with holes in them, porous lava rock pieces... those all go to the garbage???
 
Killifish do best in single species tanks so they can breed and not get bullied by other fish, or in the case of some killis (mainly big panchax species) eat the other fish.

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TB tanks can be cleaned.
Boiling water and cooking things in the oven at 100C will kill anything on it including TB. This is good for gravel, rocks and wood.
Plastic items can be soaked in bleach for 24 hours, then rinsed and re-used.
Live plants can be bleached but don't always survive. Most people buy new plants.
The tank itself is the hard part and soaking with bleach for 15 minutes then rinsing and drying usually does the job. Some people use swimming pool chlorine (granules) and add it to the aquarium for a few hours. It seems to be less damaging to the silicon but still does the job.
After bleaching/ chlorine you rinse the tank with fresh water, then wash/ soak the tank with 60%+ alcohol for at least a few minutes, preferably longer. This is usually done by soaking paper towels in alcohol and laying them on the base and sides of the tank. You also need to clean the top and outside of the tank, and disinfect the stand. Vinegar might also work after bleaching and has the added benefit of neutralising the high pH associated with bleach, as well as being cheaper than alcohol.

*NB* Don't use bleach/ chlorine on metal because it causes it to rust.
*NB* Don't leave bleach/ chlorine in contact with silicon for too long because it causes the silicon to break down.

The Mycobacteria do have a waxy coating over them that protects them from most chemicals and medications. The bleach/ chlorine dissolves the waxy coating and makes the bacteria vulnerable to normal things that kill bacteria. The bleach will also kill the bacteria if it gets left in contact for long enough to dissolve the wax and then come in contact with the actual bacterial cells.

Washing the tank with alcohol after bleaching will normally kill off any remaining bacteria that haven't been dissolved by the chlorine.

Just wondering if oxygen bleach would work instead of chlorine bleach.

Washing the tank with soapy water before bleaching can help. The cleaner the tank is before bleaching, the faster the bleach works and the less bleach that gets wasted dissolving algae and other gunk on the glass.
 
Magnum Man said:
I've got a dozen Pothos plants in the tank, I guess that means tossing those all out and starting over??? & they are all planted in Ceramic Bio Media, so that goes too... would guess the plastic hang on pots would be reusable... there are also 6-8 large, shaped with holes in them, porous lava rock pieces... those all go to the garbage???
Click to expand...
Take cuttings from the plants that are above water and don't get tank water on them and grow new plants. You can usually bleach terrestrial plants and they tolerate that much better than aquatic plants.

The clay hydroponic balls/ lava rock can be boiled or baked in the oven and the plastic baskets can be bleached.
 
I had best intentions of separate tank tools... so far, I've got specific tank dedicated nets, but I can't seem to keep the separate thing going, with the syphon hoses, & even my fill hose has a stainless hook shaped end, that clips on the tanks... but goes a couple inches into each tank...

@GaryE ... said... The thing is, if there has been transfer already, you work like a madman and for what?

the thing is, this bacteria is in nature ( I get the water volume comparison ) but cells are everywhere now... are random cells the risk, or are concentrations of cells required to make fish succumb???
 
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so, back on to the pretty fish... keeping Killi's are more like keeping bettas, than keeping tetras
 
The killies are stunning! I will absolutely be trying some at some point, when I have a suitable tank and find some I love!

But if you want larger groups, but still some lovely colour, have you looked at pseudomugil?
 
I would assume the dwarf Rainbows have the same issues as the regulars, as they are from the same location???
 
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