Upon further examination I can see that there is a distinct pattern around the eyes of the piranha, bio-symmetrical, almost like a rorschach of missing flesh. I have changed and tested the water several times and the other piranha shows no signs/symptoms.
(I realize they probably would do better in a bigger tank with several more piranha and would be willing to donate them to whomever had the perfect set up, but since they were gifted to me four years ago... we've done the best we could with them. We even looked into donating them to the zoo, but came up short) ]]>
I was wondering if anyone could give any advice as to what I can do to help my guppies get better?
I have a 5 gallon tank, that has a heater that maintains it at 78 F. I don't currently use any test kits, because my guppies hadn't had any problems until recently. I've had the tank set up since January 2009, though I have had to move it twice (from and back to college). I have several guppies (mainly because they don't stop breeding) and two shrimp (currently in a separate bowl). They have two fake plant decorations and two object decorations (one has a bubble maker in it), and the bottom of the tank has gravel rocks. I clean the tank about every 2 weeks, unless it's looking particularly scummy.
Recently, I noticed one of my female guppies had several white spots all over her body, looks like ich to me, but she doesn't stay still long enough for me to really get a good look. For the past week, I've been using the Lifeguard All-in-one treatment by Jungle, with my ghost shrimp in a bowl so they don't get hurt from it. It doesn't seem to be making any difference with my guppy.
So, I was wondering if someone could give me any more information as to what I should do? I would like to have my tank a healthy as possible before I leave them for a week for Thanksgiving.
Thanks!
PS: It also appears to be spreading, but it's not as bad on the other fish as it is one the original. ]]>
Should I quarantine the one fish that may have it, or try and medicate the entire tank?
And yes, I will be reading the long thread on camallanus worms that was posted by Allie.
Edit: Actually, now that I looked even closer when getting ready to remove the mollys, I noticed the rasboras are looking very fat. Nothing is sticking out of them, but they used to be slender and streamlined and now they are just huge!
All the pet stores are closed so I can't go on a hunt for the Jungle Labs medicine yet. Should I even bother throwing the parasite clear into the tank? Or wait until I find the other medicine? ]]>
Should i continue to medicate them? or stop immediately? ]]>
Hi, I'm new to aquarium keeping and one of my golden danios isn't doing too great.
I've had this tank setup for around 3 months and they've been doing just fine until yesterday. My tank is small, only around 3.2 gallons (US), and I've been doing around 30% water changes every couple of weeks, siphoning the gravel and cleaning all decorations inside the tank. Tankmates include 3 zebra danios and 3 golden danios. Under instruction from my local aquarium workers, I haven't heated my tank, so the temperature is quite cool. I feed my fish flake food for tropical fish, again as suggested by my local aquarium. I use a submerged filter, but I'm not too sure of the fine details about how it works. I haven't tested the water for pH, ammonia, nitrate or nitrite levels as I don't yet have the equipment to do so (but I'm going to get it ASAP!)
My golden danio has been very inactive, sitting at the bottom of the tank in a small corner. He breathes heavily and his dorsal fin seems to be much smaller than it used to be. I'm not sure if he is sick or if another fish has had a go at him and left him that way, and I'm not sure what to do. I haven't put him into a quarantine tank yet as I'm not sure if the stress from changing tanks will just make things worse.
Please help!!
Thanks. ]]>
well i noticed about 4-5 days ago my oldest female betta (i have had her for approx 7 months and she seemed quite big when i got her) she has started to get a cloudy eye. only one and it now seems to be getting worse.
i have checked for velvet and cant see any sign of it. the other fish including female betta's in the tank are all ok. no sign of disease, water parameters all ok, 30-40% water changed weekly. planted 200litre.
varied diet of frozen/live bloodworm, daphnie, brine shrimp and flakes. regular small feeds,
she is eating, swimming, but tends to stay down one end of the tank now (i think she might feel safe)
do they tend to go blind, or might there be another cause?
sorry about the unfocused pic
The fish been in a hospital tank for 2 weeks now with no improvement. The fish is active and eating fine but the 'hole' seems to be getting slightly larger. The fish does not have any other symptoms as of yet - color good as well.
I have tried salt baths, methylene blue baths, 10 days of Kanamycin, and am now on day 3 of trying a Maracyn 1/2 combo. So far there has been no improvement!
I'm guessing either Iridovirus or possibly Myco? I have doubts because of the lack of other symptoms.
Anyone ever see anything like this and have any luck treating? Thanks!
Water Params: 0 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 5-10 Nitrate in all tanks. 25-40% PWC's at least weekly.
My friend had a juli-cory cat and it has been fine for months. Well, yesterday it apparently began to act strange, and today it was just laying on its side, evidently dying. She asked me to come look at it, and it appeared to be internally hemorrhaging near the liver/heart. There was no blood exiting the body, but the bleeding was clearly visible within the body.
What could have caused this? There were no changes in water parameters, nothing fell over, no changes with the filter... could it have simply been a lurking disease? ]]>
i saw my raphael catfish...who is usually hiding in some coral i have in the tank..
floating upisde down...as if dead...i actually was convinced he was dead so i went to take him out...but he moved when i put the net in to get him out...he swam and went to hide beneath the filter....
what could be wrong with him???
all the other fish in the tank are fine (4 gobies, 2 cichlids) ]]>
Any ideas? ]]>
About a week ago she had dropsy, or was just hyper bloated including her scales. The Maracyn & Maracyn 2 solved that in a day, or something did. 2 days ago the whiteness turned into fleshy bumps that turned white. By the next day, with temp increasing (now at 86.5-ish), Coppersafe, Maracyn and Maracyn 2, 1t Aq. salt/gal, it started looking like it did before, smooth still white, but worse.
Her gills don't look bright red to me, but they look like they take up more of her head. Her guts don't look healthy, either. Dark. They have been since her, uh, swelling went down and I could see it.
I think her behavior is OK, but it's a two-minute video, so you be the judge.
Physically she looks like crap to me. She eats just fine. Seems actually hungrier than usual.
2 25% water changes per day, medication mathed out and in the water changes. Cu @ 2.0 She's got a sponge filter in her 1.25 gal hospital jar.
I'm not necessarily looking for advice on what to do, I'd just like to identify whatever it is she's got, but I'll take input on both subjects.
Add: I want to be humane. If clove oil or a whack on the head would be best for her, I wouldn't be surprised.
Thanks so much for taking the time. ]]>
She just stopped swimming and when I woke up she was done.
Then two days ago my platy who just gave birth died.
Then My swordtail
Then my red wag platy.
Am I doing something wrong?
I mean 4/7 fish dying within three days is not good.
I'm going to go get my water tested at a LFS..
But until then how do I temporarily fix it? ]]>
I didn't notice it last night when I fed them all, but today, when I got home from work I noticed that his bad eye has some kind of raised bump on it, that is brown with a white tip.
=/ I don't know what it is, I can't find anything as to what it might be, I figure its some kind of infection, I snapped two photos so you can see what it looks like:
Hope these photos are good enough, this is the eye thats missing its cap, he's still lively and has his usual good appetite, but it worries me.
What should I do? and what is it??!!
Ammonia: 0
pH: 7.4
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
Temp: 83 F
Thanks.
By the way, I haven't changed the tank or added anything to it in 3 weeks. ]]>
I realize that I made a mistake by treating my whole tank instead of having a hospital tank. My thought was that at least 2-3 of the 5 had obvious signs so I wanted them all treated not realizing at the time that the purpose of the hospital tank is so the antibiotic doesn't kill my bio. filter. Also, I don't have a second filter, heater, etc for the back up tank.
Here is my question.
I know that ammonia and nitrite is rising and I should do another water change but the instructions for the Maracyn II say not to do a water change until after day 5 (it also says that it should harm the established bacteria in my tank). Do I do the water change anyway or wait it out until after the Maracyn? Also, I'm beginning to wonder now if my tank had ever completely finished cycling. Luckily the fish seem to all be doing well. The signs of tail rot don't appear to be worsening and everyone is active and eating. How long does it take for their tails to heal?
Thanks again for advise. ]]>
the only living fish are 2 cherry barbs, the pleco, and a cory.
i did water testing and the ammonia was at 0 (finally), ph-6.8, nitrate- ~11 ,nitrite-0
i have no idea why they are dead. i though all i had was ich. the dead fish did not have any weird marks on them or colors.
should i continue treating the ich? what should i do with the other living fish? thanks. ]]>
no matter what i feed them, both angels gobble up anything they are given and both eat about the same amount. one angel is getting quite big, but i cant get the other to gain some weight.
should i be worried? ]]>
After fishless cycling, I introduced my first couple of fish into my 77 gallon planted tank: 2 red lizards (L10-a). They settled in fine. No ammonia or nitrite readings, and low (<5ppm) nitrate after 3 days, so I introcuded three new occupants: 3 Mikrogeophagus ramirezi. They were still pretty young (the shop didn't have any full-grown ones), so I'm not too sure about their sex. They were doing ok for the first 2 days, being shy but not overly so.
On day 3, I suddenly couldn't see any of them any more.
I figured they had gone ultra-shy on me (there's a lot of hiding places in the tank), so I decided to add some more fish to draw them out a bit. Note that ammonia and nitrite were still 0 at this time, with continued low nitrate readings. I bought two dwarf gouramis (two males - the shop didn't stock any females, sadly) and 4 Corydoras julii.
One of the two dwarf gouramis was very active from the start, busily exploring every nook and cranny. Lo and behold, it wasn't too long until I saw the first ram. It did, however, not look good. I couldn't see any external signs of disease (no blotches, fin rot, fungus, patches or anything), but he/she was clearly suffering: very laboured breathing, hardly swimming at all, and often toppling over sideways.
The following morning, the fish was dead. That afternoon, I saw a second ram. Same symptoms. Died that evening. I never saw the third one.
I rushed to the fish shop and bought Myxazin, as I suspected a bacterial infection.
While all this was happening, the active dwarf gourami, the corydoras, and the red lizards all seemed to be perfectly healthy. The big red guy was eating everything he could get his mouth on.. but he was also being a bit of a bully (right from the start) and attacking the other (slightly smaller and far more subdued) dwarf gourami, who spent most of his time hiding in the plants.
On the day after the two rams died, the poor hiding gourami started developing some of the same symptoms. No external signs, and the colouration remained beautiful, but he was having trouble keeping his balance and kept dropping.
The following morning (today) he too was dead. I looked at his body closely, and everything looked fine. No blemishes whatsoever. Just death.
I'm on the third day of dosing Myxazin, and all the other fish look healthy without any symptoms at all, behavioural or otherwise. Water chemistry is fine (NH3 0, NO2- 0, NO3- 5, pH 7).
Before I introduce any new fish, I would like to know: what's been killing my pets?
Thanks,
Pedro ]]>
well after a nice summer, our wonderful kitty cat, "thomas" got fleas. "and yes, he was treated all summer with preventive spot on treatment, so we dont know what happened" we went the normal route of flea bath and collar along with his normal spot on treatment, but it didnt work. we have them in the house now and need to bomb, because we dont want those little fleas multipllying and having an epedemic. I plan to do this tomorrow...
so what i am thinking about to protect my 4 tanks is this.....(moving them is not an option, they are too big)
1. disconnect airpumps.
2.put garbage bags over top of tanks and tape down on to glass part of tank. this will cover the hood and a HOB filters i have.
what i dont know is
1. should i leave the filters running?
2. should i do water changes today or tomorrow after we bomb?
3. my 60 gallon cichlid tank i am going to have to spilt garabage bags to put over the tank...think duck tape to seal the spilt will be good?
anyone with experiece with this please help or anyone with ideas please share.
I want to keep my babies healthy and not harm them. we just have no choice at this point and have to bomb because, they will get worse and then we cant have that....; ) .
Please help,,,,,,,,and thank you!!!! ]]>
I'm currently treating my tank for Ich because white dots have appeared on my clown loaches. And I've seen some of my other fishes throwing their body against some leaves and rocks.
I've posted some photos of what it looks like. Please help. Thank you
http://img682.imageshack.us/i/picture004t.jpg/
http://img690.imageshack.us/i/picture006r.jpg/
http://img269.imageshack.us/i/picture008wh.jpg/
http://img690.imageshack.us/i/picture005g.jpg/ ]]>
Its been awhile since I've posted but I need your help and input into this situation.
I will preface this by saying that I know the following details are many of the WRONG things to do. I'm aware of what I did wrong, but I didn't think the outcome would be so bad. Please don't come down on me too hard about this. I think I've learned my lesson! So here goes:
My husband and I are trying to get our house cleaned up to put on the market. I had a 10 gallon QT set up in an upstairs room that we took down as the realtor was coming this weekend. There were 3 one-year old zebra danios doing really well in there that were born in my 55 gallon (main tank) last summer.
I moved them to the 55 which contained ONLY 2 ottos, 4 serpaes, and 2 cherry barbs. As you can guess, the poor baby danios were immediately being chased and nibbled by the serpaes. They killed one that night and the other two were hiding (and freaking out) in the corner of the tank.
I went to Petco (sorry!) the following afternoon, as I figured my best bet was to restock the schools so all the fish would feel more comfortable and stop fighting/ chasing the babies.
I got 4 danios (all they had), 4 serpaes (fancy ones), and 4 cherry barbs. Everybody *looked* healthy and I had taken down the QT, soooo I acclimated them to the 55 and put them in. Now I know that is a lot of fish to add at once, but once again, I felt like it was one of my few options to help the baby danios.
The next morning I looked in the tank - 2 dead - ok fine- it sometimes happens when you bring home new fish - but then there was the ICK! EVERYWHERE! Every single fish had it, even the ones that I had already!
I upped the temp in the tank to 84, it was at 80, did a 30% water change and within a day the ick fell off. Then it started... within 3 days I lost the other two baby danios plus 1 of the new ones, ALL of the barbs (6), and ALL of the fancy serpaes (new ones) plus 2 of my own (6). Now I'm down to 3 danios and 2 serpaes... and, of course, the 2 ottos.. which strangely have remained untouched this entire time, either by the random deaths or the ick.
The fish that were getting sick would be "twitching" or "hiccuping" and then seemed to just go completely limp after awhile. They would still breathe and move occaisionally, but it was as if they were paralyzed and they would just get pushed around the tank by the currents. No other apparent causes of death.
Sorry to say I don't have a reading on my tank for any Nitrates, Amm, Nitrite, etc. I lent my test kit to a friend and just got it back today, so I'll check it when I get home from work. I wonder though that if the chemistry was bad, wouldn't I have lost the ottos immediately?
I know this all sounds so stupid... but any thoughts on what happened?
Please help! I'm willing to take the helpful comments with the scolding I deserve... :;dk ]]>
What is the best medication?
Should I treat the whole tank or quarantine them to treat?
Thanks so much! ]]>
I removed him from the main tank as soon as i noticed the protrusion. At first he would be completely still, then swim around for a while, then be completely still. But he seemed to have a problem staying right side up. Every time he was still, his stomach turned up. He is now almost completely paralyzed, I actually thought he was dead, but hes now moving his side fins a bit. What is wrong with him? And should I worry about my other fish?
I noticed this little white worm about 1-2 cm long in my tank last week, i killed it but have just come home to find hundreds of them on the walls of my tank but they are much smaller, i guess babies. does any1 know what they are?
this is in my breeding tank, it didnt get cleaned very well coz i had babies everywhere, but i have cleaned it more now that i collected the babies together. All i have put in there is flakes, frozen baby brine shrimp and frozen brine shrimp.
Please help!!!!! ]]>
I feel horrible for all those poor fish and I've read a ton and tried to do everything right this time but now I fear the 2 new fish I've added may be sick. I currently have 1 male betta, 3 guppys (they get along great with the betta), and 2 platys. The 2 platys are the new fish I got from a different LPS. One of the platys appears to have a white spot on the tail and both platys seem to keep their fins contracted. I'm not sure whats normal. Also the lighter platy (without the spot) seems to have redness and swelling on the gills. I included a picture of my betta just to be sure he looks ok as I'm deeply in love with him. Sorry the pics are blurry but its the best I could get! I would appreciate any advise or assessments you could offer :)
My tank is a community tank composed primarily of tetras, 3 angels, 1 dwarf pleco, and 4 cories. Altogether I had 28 fish in my tank and everyone was happy. I check my little friends daily and since I have purchased them from my local fish store (not petco, petsmart or any chain store) they have grown, become more active, and to my surprise developed colors I have never seen or expected. They look completely healthy. Upon close examination there is no damage to indicate bacteria, parasites or nipping. I am at a complaete loss as to what is going on.
I talked to my fish guy and the only thing he could come up with and I think is the culprit is ammonia spikes and here is why I think it could be this. Since my aquarium utilizes a wet/dry system I am forced to use an overflow box. This box has slits in it (for those who dont know, the slits allow water and debris to pass through and filter through the system). The downside is the slits in the overflow box are big enough to allow fish to slip through if they get too close and decide to see what's on "the dark side". When I first got my system set up during the transition from my hang on back emperor 280 filter to my new wet/dry system I would always monitor the overflow box as I would always find a tetra who "got too curious" and got sucked into the box where he/she would be swimming for their life. I would check this daily and have gotten quite quick at shutting they system down, saving the little guys/gals and returning them unharmed to the main tank. After weeks had passed occurences of "fish in box" decreased to the point where I assumed they learned their lesson. So I stopped checking so often...bad idea! lRecently, my wife noticed an Angel dead in my tank getting "tasted" by my dwarf pleco ( I thought these guys only ate algae?). I removed him and noticed my population looked smaller so I checked my overflow box. NOOOOOOO!!!! I noticed two dead bodies stuck to my prefilter and another tetra swimming for his life again. The only thing I can think is a fish died, an ammonia spike occured, killed another fish, causing a chain reaction that has begun to kill my little guys. What do I do????? Sorry for the long post but I wanted to be as thorough as possible while making this an interesting read. What do you all think? Oh boy.....:confused:??? ]]>
Regards: ]]>
In my aquarium right now I have the following fish
1 Angelfish
1 Black swordtail
1 Blue gourami
5 Rosy barbs
4 Black Tetras
4 Dwarf rainbow fish
3 assorted cories
1 bristlenosed pleco.
I have two Marine Land filters running and the temp has been between 78 and 82. I have tested and the only area that has been showing up is nitrates but I believe it is low under 40 ppm. I read on fishlore that most people do a 50 percent water change then add medicine.What is the best way to treat my fish so they can get better? ]]>
Thanks ]]>
i brought two angels from the petstore i didnt relise but the must have had bugs on the water( look like yellow bugs with heaps of legs smaller than 1mm) they have bread out of control flotting ontop of the water surface and hopping around they also sit on the side of the tank out the water(light enough that if you try to submerge them they wont). the babies look like dust particals floting ontop of the water....
i need an easier way of getting rid of them so far i have been scooping them out with a cup but on account of them being so small i always miss some which isnt helping...
does anyone know what they are, i have also seen some wee white worms which may be related.
the bugs so far have not been hurting or cause determental effects to the fish but they are a bit yuck and i dont want them to spread to another tank.
please can anyone help, does anyone know what they are or how to kill them.
i did kill a few with a lighter but didnt want to do that too much just incase it effects the water.
help please, any ideas??? ]]>
Lily and Oto are now spot-free, and Lily seems to have returned to her normal coloration. She is still chasing her reflection, but I don't believe that was the major cause of her stress, as she is doing it now without the stripes. Actually, she shower her own reflection vertical bars last night O_O I think I may have the most narcissistic (or angry) girlie betta in the world!
I will keep up the treatment for at least one more week, if not two. Gotta be sure of it :)
I would also like to take this chance to advocate natural methods of treatment verses medicating straight away. I did not use a single drop of medicine with this illness, and the fish are recovering. Simply using higher temps and pristine water conditions seems to do the trick! ]]>
My questions deal with the planted tank. How should I treat it? With the carpeting plants and root plants, you cant really gravel vac very much. Ive been inching the heat up bit by bit over the hours - up to 80 or 81 now.
Will medication impact the plants? What about my shrimp? Are there medecations that are shrimp safe?
Ich Log
11/1/2009 - Noticed a few white specks on a fish or two, and then found several of the neons (newest fish) with many specks. Thats what I get for not quarantining. Raised the temperature a bit to at least 80, took photos of suspect fish.
11/2/2009 - I have decided to do heat and salt. I know the salt will have some negative effects, but so will the heat. Even if the salt and heat kill off leaves, the plant will probably come back. I have raised the temp some more, its about 81-82 right now. I did a good 30% water change and added aquarium salt at the half the dosage on the box (I did 1 tbls per 10 gallons).
I also got a narrow pipe gravel vac and got everywhere I could. There was significant waste in the tank, so hopefully I got some of the spores. No confirmed fish deaths so far, but I am only able to count 6 of the 7 neons, but I dont see a corpse anywhere. The rainbows, SAE, and Platy couple have no signs of the disease. All other fish have spots ranging from 1-2 to around a dozen. I added an airstone as well. I lost a plant overnight to the heat, I guess hygrophila doesnt like it hot!
11/3/2009 - As of this morning all fish are accounted for. Throughout yesterday and yesterday night I brought up the temperature to around 84. Everyone is coping, and as of yet I have not seen any effects of salt on the plants. Still seeing cysts.
Did another 20% water change with gravel vac last night. Added another tablespoon of salt after the change. Temp fluctuates around 84 degrees depending on room temp. There are fewer visible cysts, but they are still there. Soaked food in Garlic Guard. All fish accounted for.
11/4/2009 - Did another 15-20% water change and vaccuum. Temp around 84 still. All fish are doing well and accounted for. They got fed some garlic guard soaked flakes today. Still seeing some cysts on a few fish. Added another two tablespoons of aquarium salt during the water change.
11/5/2009 - more of the same, water change, salt, heat. All fish accounted for. Fish initially showing cysts arent much anymore, but they are still there on the pleco and pristella tetras.
11/6/2009 - I couldnt get the water warmer than 84, so I added another heater and brought it up to 86 degrees. I didnt add as much of the salt this time, as I am just trying to prevent it from reporucing and surviving with the heat.
11/8/2009 - Didnt do a water change today. I am not seeing anymore spots as best I can tell. Will keep the water at this temp for several more days.
11/9/2009 - No water change today either. I am definately not seeing any spots on any fish.
11/12/2009 - Well, the fish did better than me over the last few days. I was sick over the weekend. Day before yesterday was exciting because the city cut our power off to work on some cables. Without giving any advance notice they were going to have it off for 8 hours! I put blankets around the tank to insulate it and keep my temps up, and I went out and bought a 26 Ah 12v battery, and an inverter. I used this to run the filters, air pump, and heater while the power was out. It must take a lot of energy to heat water as the air pump and two filters only uses about 15 watts of power combined, and the heater uses 100 watts. Im keeping the temp up a day or two longer before starting to bring it down.
11/16/2009 - Temps are back around 78-79 now. All fish are accounted for. No sign of the disease for 5 days now. Plants have resumed their growth after I tuned the CO2 back on. Looks like high heat for a good 14 days will do it! ]]>
I've offered to bring him here for two weeks, so I can set him up in a heated, filtered quarantine tank, but I'm not sure if she'll let me.
If she doesn't let me bring him here, what ich medications are safe for bettas in bowls? I've never used ich medication. I always raise the temp and vacuum the substrate.
EDIT: He's coming here with me for two weeks. Will he be okay in a 20 high? Or should I get a breeder net for him. I'll be using garlic juice to up his immune system, stress coat, and the heater. ]]>
What do you think is the best medication to treat fungus for an Oto?
Pictures (sorry for the quality--I only have my cell phone to take pictures):
ps: mods, feel free to merge my threads. I'm sorry, I have to go out soon and thought this title was better, but it won't let me change the other title to it on the earlier thread. ]]>
What do you think is the best medication to treat fungus for an Oto?
Pictures (sorry for the quality--I only have my cell phone to take pictures):
]]>I'm already turning up the heater.
if i do have ich i am going to add some aquarium salt. how much do i add? and for how long do i keep adding it?
is Quick Cure safe for all my fish?
will the high temperatures kill any fish that i have?
thanks. ]]>
OK Here we go! A history of my tank first.
I've had my tank for about 3months. I had it running for 3days before I put fish in it. It's a 75litre tank, I don't know how to describe the filter... I looked on the case but really it doesn't say anything to identify it well. I keep the temperature at 27C and change the water (35-50% depending) every 2 weeks, and rinse the filter, decorations, glass, vacuum gravel etc at the same time. I get the water tested (free) at the pet store the day after my cleaning spree. Oh and I use a tiny bit of salt. At the pet store they haven't given me the stats (so not sure what they're at right now), but I've only once had to use PH Down.
I originally started out with 7 mollies, and 12 tetras. I had 5males, 2 females (terrible ratio I know, but they never explained that!!) So after about 2 weeks of Rose's(male mollie) rampaging and new tank stuff I had 6tetras, 5 mollies (I actually witnessed Rose bludgeoning one mollie and it dying. Very sad) they started getting sick.
One morning, I woke up, came out to feed and Abs (a white female mollie) was dead. Floating on top on her side with a like... white froth hanging around her. This was pretty much the start. I never noticed her being sick at all, but the strange white stuff floating around her (like a 7cm diameter circle around a 3cm? long fish) made me worry.
Then I noticed Poo(male speckled mollie) had white fluff on his left cheek. I did a water change and left them. Note: Never saw any rubbing. Checked the next day, it looked slightly longer so I went and bought some Malachite Green which was recommended. Treated once, then again 3 days later. All the tetra's along with my smallest mollie died with the first dose even tho I did a half dosage as recommended. Then left it for a week and re-treated. It didn't really change much in that time. So I quarantined and went back and got told to try "Aquablue". This didn't work at all and it started getting worse faster. Spread over his whole upper body with a thin white covering with his left cheek (around gill area and whole side of face) being very "fluffy". The white turned gray and looked a little slimy where it was thickest, instead of fluffy. He also lost a lot of weight, though he was very happy acting and ate fine. I tried something called "Fungus Cure" from another store, which seems to be almost the same as the Malachite green. Still getting worse and it started to grow over one eye. So I actually took him to the store today (yay fishie roadtrip). Probably a little stressful, but it's a 1min trip and truly he seemed fine. I got told to use Primafix. 2hours later, he was dead. RIP Poo. When I fished him out, I scraped away the gray stuff. His scales were underneath all nice and healthy looking. So I have no clue what was wrong with this fish!!! He was sick but happy for about a month. If it was a fungus, then why didn't any of the treatments have an effect?!
So now I'm down to 3 mollies, no tetra. Two males (Rose and Doctor), 1female (Gwen Stefani). The female is unbelievably fat (definitely pregnant) and is likely to birth any day now (she has her birthing net). But the two males are both sick now! They have small white spots over their eye/s. Seems to be right in the middle, and definitely covering the eye. So now what do I do?! I only noticed these spots today too.
I've also noticed a strange patch on Rose(largest male). It's been there for about a month and has not changed at all in that time, so I haven't worried but it seems to have gotten slightly bigger over the past few days. It's a circle on his head which seems to be lighter. Hes a bright orange with blue and green stripes across his fins and now has an almost totally white circle on his left temple. Looks kind of like dull scales, but seems to go into his head. Is this something to be worried about too? Rose is 3x the size of the mollies you see in stores too.
OK! There we go. Thats 4 different disease questions.
White floaties around dead fish.
White to gray fluff (fungal?)
White eye spots (I did read about eyespots somewhere but it had no treatment listed)
Dull scale patch.
Posted pics of the 3 mollies remaining. Not very good quality tho. I'm all worried about them :(. Haven't been their usual perky selves. Just not racing around as much and maybe slightly off their food.
Thank you for reading my LONG post!
Any suggestions much appreciated.
<3 Rach
This is going to sound terrible, but I am a tropical fish person and never really liked the goldfish. (I tried to find someone else to take them with no luck) My 13 yr old convinced me about 2 months ago to let her take over caring for the goldfish. I tried to keep an eye on her and them, but somehow in the craziness of life, the tank didn't get cleaned as often as it should, and a couple of days ago, both of the fish died within 1 day of each other. I assumed it was because of high ammonia or nitrate levels, but I'm really not sure. (I know it's terrible that I didn't pay more attention).
So, I just took all the decorations out with the intention of cleaning the tank and putting something else in. When I lifted up a decoration I saw a big gross red worm. It quickly dissapeared...
I've been scouring the net for hours trying to figure out what it was with no luck. It did look exactly like this worm: http://www.aquaboards.com/viewtopic.php?id=6567&p=1
So now my question is, what should I do with the tank, filter, etc. to be able to use it again? Clean the tank and filter casing and tubes, and decorations with bleach and rinse really well, or throw out everything but the tank and clean the tank thoroughly with bleach? (Once its sanitized, I can start over and seed the tank with extra filter media from another tank to get the cycle going)
I honestly have no idea if the mysterious worm had anything to do with the fish dying, but I certainly don't want to take any chances.
I apologize for not having more details about the worm, but it just grossed me out way too much to do any further investigating. :eek: I'm just getting rid of all the water and gravel with gloves on and hoping not to see it again.
Thanks! ]]>