felixfefe

Hello,
i have 6 zebra danios in my tank. I wrote about them earlier on this forum... One of them seems to be very sick... But i don't know what is wrong nor what i should do about it...
I have filmed him and if you please click on the link you will see what sort of behavior he's exibiting... Can anyone help with a diagnosis?

felixfefe

guess im on my own then

raptors_4

I have no idea what could be wrong with it, but am pretty sure it wouldn't be caused by the change in temp. danios can handle a lot. If the change was also because of the heater it was probably pretty gradual as well. All of my fish have survived a drop in temp. of about 5C when the power went out. Could into be from ammonia? Is the tank cycled?

rajs

i think he is sick...you should take him back to the pet store and ask them..it could be some kind of ich...also may be he was bitten by some other danio...

rajs

i would also check for internal parasite...bacterial infection ...

chickadee

redness in the body area internally is generally an indication of an infection and they are generally bacterial in nature. I would dose the whole tank at this point as they have all been exposed to the infection by now. I would get some Maracyn and follow the directions for dosing the tank and be sure to test the water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates to see if the levels are bothering your fish.

Is your tank cycled? How long has it been in operation?

I would raise the temperature to 27C while medicating and you have to remove the carbon from the filter while medicating or it will remove the medications from the water as fast as you add them.

Rose

tan.b

felixfefe: let us know how your poorly danio is doing...is he getting any better?

tan.b

i dont blame you. its a hard decision to make, but i guess its better one dies (which he probably would've eventually anyway) than the whole tank die. i've heard they just go to hibernation then die in the freezer, but there is a very topical debate on how to euthanise a fish. some do it your way, some practically behead them, some use clove oil, i'm sure there are lots, and i wont get caught up in that debate!! it gets rather heated and i dont like any confrontation or bad feeling! :P luckily i've not had to make that decision yet. mine just died quickly themselves! the circle of life continues with your babies! hope they do well! keep us posted......and dont feel bad...you did what you had to do.
Tan

felixfefe

Thanks mate...
Ive discovered today that ANOTHER is ill... He's got horriblr red, sort of bloodyness around on of his eyes... i've got to go a research it... It looks, though as if exposure to the disease has occured.. I kind of feel as if it's just a matter of time before they all go now...

tan.b

Oh no. hope you find out whats wrong so you can maybe save some of them from the same fate. wish i could help, but i'm just learning myself! lets hope someone out there can help soon. i was thinking of getting some danios as i thought they were virtually indestructible! maybe they're just as sensitive as the rest?! keep us posted. good luck.

felixfefe

Thanks for the support man, it's kinda tough really... The one that got ill today started floating around around upside down and then wen t to the bottom a few hours ago... And then something unnexpected happened... One of the ghost shrimp made the discovery of a recently (i hope) dead danio and started dragging it away to its underwater layer of consumption... The other danios came down and watched in horror (as was i) as the shrimp began eating the poor little guy... Needles to say, i got the dead zebra out of there , but the rest of the fish were traumatised and for a while just sat on the bottom of the tank looking freaked out... Anyway, now the light is off and theyre all swimming around happily again... for how long, i don't know...
I think that Zebra Danios really are very hardy fish... Unfortunately, i believe that i got a bad bunch from the pet store, and that they were harbouring dormant diseases... The weaker one's have succumbed to death as a result of a mixture of the dormant bacteria and the fact that i thought the tank was cycled, but it really wasn't... And i'm stil waiting for my test kit to arrive, so i still don't know what's going on really. Two fish in 24 hours, and i'm just waiting for the next one to come down with some strange undiagnosable illness... The weird thing is that the two that died didn't display similar symtoms at all.
Oh well, i'll try and stay positive and look forward to having a healthy and colourful tank!!!

tan.b

thats awful! your poor danios watching a tank mate get gobbled up! lets hope there'll be no more deaths.
your experience sounds similar to mine. i bought guppies as i'd heard they were meant to be pretty hardy. i thought my tank was cycled as all my readings were zero, but then 2 died a few days apart. although the readings were zero throughout, my tank cant have cycled cos nitrate was zero. still is....i really dont understand why my tank isnt cycling. i test daily and its same...zero's, but i'm doing 16% water changes every other day anyway to make sure i get rid of all the diseases (and any toxic ammonia etc in case i have a dodgy test kit!!), and i think the combination of an aquarium that was far from perfect and the traumatic catching in lfs and drive home was just too much for them so that made them suseptible to disease (either had it at the lfs or at least a carrier of it and just needed a stress trigger to set it off). hopefully my remaining 3 will be ok. they have the war wounds of the disease, but they're eating again and swimming about like loony's chasing each other. just have no scales and have dents on them! all the same, i wont back to that pet shop for fish! to get ich and some other disease (possibly columnaris) within a couple of weeks of purchase, the lfs must be partly to blame?
one day we'll have beautiful tanks full of healthy fish!! its all a learning experience. at least next time disease strikes we'll know what to look for and what to expect! any eggs yet? - you said you thought they were pregga's? next month you may have more fish than you know what to do with!! - typical eh!

shollia

Are you doing daily water changes? Not sure if you mentioned that here. While your tank is cycling (and it most probably still is) you should be doing daily water changes to ensure that your fish aren't too stressed from the build-up of ammonia and nitrites whenever you start getting those.
How much.. well since you don't know your water readings yet... I think people would probably suggest doing 50% water changes... & make sure to add dechlorinator to the replacement water

I'm so sorry to hear about your little guy though. Gosh.. I don't know what I would do if that had happened to me. Heck, I feel bad b/c I have to get rid of these non-aquatic PLANTS...

tan.b

orrrrrrr, thats a shame! i was getting excited about the new babies!!!!!!!!

felixfefe

Tell me about it!! It's all about death and disease today, i'm afraid!

tan.b

well it can only get better then eh?

you've gone from 6 to 4, i've gone 5 to 3. 2 fatalities each. lets hope numbers start increasing now instead of decreasing. (i wont get babies tho.....mine are all boys!!). will get some girls and boys when i get danios tho and see what happens!

Terry

Hi. I've seen the same thing with some zebras that I've had in the past. In fact I have 2 of them in similar condition now, but maybe not for the same reason. 2 of mine have become increasing skinny, with sunken bellies, and don't really eat anymore. I just back into this hobby after years away from it, and I think it may be what's referred to as "wasting disease". You can search on it and get different answers as to what the cause is - bacterial or parasites usually. I've treated the tank with the zebras in it with some Jungle Parasite cure, but haven't seen any change. I've never seen a fish recover from this stuff. Then again it may be some other affliction that your fish have. Unfortunately the best thing to do may be to destroy the affected fish, or if you have a quarantine tank you can move them into that for treatment that's another option. Good luck. There are times I wish I never got back into the aquarium hobby - I hate having fish die & not know the reason why. At least with diseases like ich it's often easy to diagnose & cure - that's not the case with a lot of these sicknesses that fish get. Maybe somebody else has something to try.

Terry