Butters

well, currently, he is laying on his side barley breathing...THIS SUCKS!!!!
:
well, he's gunna die by tonight so... I was wondering if i should let my shrimp eat him or just flush him...or bury him.. i read somewhere that ghost shrimp will do that

sirdarksol

That's up to you.
Leaving the fish in the tank will cause a nitrogen spike as it decomposes, but, in my opinion, allowing the shrimp to keep him in the life cycle is an excellent tribute. You'd just need to do lots of water changes to keep nitrate levels down.
I bury my fish under plants (that reminds me that I need to bury this winter's losses).
Flushing a dead fish just doesn't seem right to me, but that's a personal thing (though I will argue 'til the end with someone who flushes a live fish).

Barbrella

That's really too bad.

Do not put anything in the tank without sterilizing it, and everything in it.

If the tank is glass, mix 1 part bleach/9 parts water and soak everything. If the tank is acrylic, use 1 part water/19 parts water. If you have live plants, you can dip them in the 1:19 solution for about 30 seconds.

Then rinse and rinse until there's no bleach smell at all.

Please do NOT flush a fish with a suspected contagious disease.

Butters

thanks barbrella, i think thats a job that ill do tommorow since today was my last day of school. I got 7 ghost shrimp in there too, what should i do with those guys?

sirdarksol

Make sure you use unscented bleach, and after sterilizing everything, fill the tank with water and overdose it with dechlorinator. This will get rid of the bleach. Then empty and rinse.

Potassium Permagnate (I think that's the stuff) makes a better plant dip than bleach, which can kill some plants, even in weak amounts.

The best thing you can do, however, is let the aquarium sit for a couple of weeks without fish. Unlike bacteria, most viruses can't live outside of a host. A stretch of time without anything to infect will kill them off. The one problem with this is that it is still a bit of a gamble, making the presumption that the shrimp can't be infected by the virus (it's a pretty good guess, as their DNA is entirely different from a fish's, but there are a few viruses that can hop between such large gaps).

Edit: Another possibility to do with the shrimp is to set up a small species specific tank, then proceed with the sterilization of the DG's old tank.

Barbrella

Thanks. I forgot that part!

Butters

I'll probably just let it sit for a while becuase that sounds like the easiest way to do it. But it depends on when i want new fish, which is soon...

sirdarksol

Okay, I did some research on the virus. I would keep the shrimp isolated for at least 4 weeks. Iridovirae typically infect insects and other inverts. This is likely "Lympho-something", a member of the Iridovirae family that infects fish. I'm not sure about this, though, so I don't know how likely it is that the shrimp could be infected. Three weeks seems to be the upper limit of mortality in insects. If none of the shrimp die in those four weeks, that would be a decent indicator that they aren't infected (provided they can't be carriers, which I don't know for sure)

Butters

well, i put the dwarf gourami in a seperate tank to die... so im gunna wait a while before i get fish, im just gunna see how it goes with the shrimp. they are only 26 cents at wal-mart so, i wouldnt be that hard to replace them.

Butters

well, i woke up today and found him dead so... I gotta go bury him today sometime and clean the tanks. Now i have the task of picking out new fish! yipee!

TFA101

well, sorry to hear about the loss of Confusious. May he rest in peace.


Would you consider neon tetras?

Alessa

sorry about the loss of confucious... I remember when I lost my first gourami I had no Idea about the virus and I blamed my cycling... I was so, so sad... RIP.

right now i still have one DG and he is doing fine... hope things stay that way.

TFA101

What is the cause of that infection, cuz Im planning on getting a dwarf gourami for my soon-to-come 50 gallon

sirdarksol

A virus that leaves the fish looking healthy until a week or so before its death. I urge you to not purchase any dwarf gourami until they get this issue in Singapore cleared up.

Only if you can find someone who breeds their own DGs, and does not have any recently purchased DGs, can you be reasonably sure your fish won't be infected with iridovirus. Otherwise, there's something like a 22% chance that any fish you get will have it and will die, not to mention potentially infect the tank itself.

Blub

The two species are natural enemies... Oops.

I think you should get something shrimp safe for that tank. Gouramis tend to snack on them... So, why not try 6 Neons? Or, 4 male Guppys?

Shawnie

[quote=HatchetHaven;376386]The two species are natural enemies... Oops.

[quote]

I do know this...EVERYONE ....agian, its not the norm but its the exception to the rule

sirdarksol

It may get frustrating, but remember that, with the nature of this forum, if you are keeping a setup like this, anyone who hasn't seen your explanation is going to point out that it shouldn't be done. In my opinion, they aren't doing their job as community members if they don't. It's the same as if someone comes on here with an overstocked tank or dwarf puffers kept in community tanks. People will point out what, in the communal experience, is being done wrong. It's what we're here for.
The same thing happened to me during the period that my goldfish was in my community tank (I adopted the tank and fish together).

Hatchet just likely missed your explanation. With the number of members we have, it's bound to happen periodically.

Barbrella

My second Blue Dwarf, that I got 2 days after the first (who died in 5 days), before I knew about this disease, just died yesterday. I'd had him almost two weeks.

Up until last night he was looking great and eating with good appetite. Then last night he refused food, started the twitching, and was dead this morning.

I really don't suggest buying any DGs unless you can get them from a local breeder. We don't want to keep giving money to people selling diseased fish.