betta-cat

Hi there, I am absolutely baffled. I have/had a tank of healthy platies, adults, juveniles, babies, so healthy that I was providing the local fish store with juveniles. All of sudden, they started to die. I've lost over 20 fish, including the babies. I have 3 adults and 2 juveniles left and they way they are behaving, they will go too. My 3 corycats have survived but I've moved them out into a clean, hospital tank.

Water: parametres all excellent, water changes regular

Hi there, I am absolutely baffled. I have/had a tank of healthy platies, adults, juveniles, babies, so healthy that I was providing the local fish store with juveniles for months. All of sudden, they started to die. I've lost over 20 fish, including the babies. I have 3 female adults and 2 juveniles left and they way they are behaving, they will go too. My 3 corycats have survived but I've moved them out into a clean, hospital tank and hope that I got to them in time. I've now added 5 juvenile guppies (my own babies) to this sick tank to see what happens to them, so far they are doing just fine.

I isolated the original fish that were acting odd but they died within a few hours in the hospital tank. I totally cleaned the hospital tank out, started it over, got it settled and then moved my cory cats into it. I had added 2 juvie guppies to it to make sure it was cycled and they are having the time of their life!

In the sick tank, one of the remaining females has just dropped a couple of brandnew babies, I spotted them this morning.

Own self: always wash hands and arms carefully before fiddling with tank, wash fingers before feeding between tanks.

Water: parametres all excellent, water changes regular, water checked weekly, no meds. all water is treated before adding; gravel partially vacuumed every few weeks (they usually enjoy this interaction)

Feeding: regular, unchanged food

New fish: healthy looking swords, died within a few days, no signs of disease, I was dumb enough not to isolate them but the tank they were from was healthy and they had them for at least a week before I got them; their tank was still okay; before anyone asks, I will never, never, never add fish before quarantining them first even though their tank seemed good; my platies symptoms were immediate

Symptoms: clamped fins, huddling on the bottom, hiding; no ick, no fungus, no bacterial signs, no parasite signs; came up for food; not all acted this way at the same time, its been about 3 weeks now since the tank started to die.

Treatment: immediate and careful water changes every two days, tried general treatments for a variety of things, did this over a couple of weeks, final treatment was for parasites

Only things different: used a pail that had been bought new and used only for water changes over 4-5 months, I used this pail for the first time to treat new water and add directly to the tank; town water was a bit cloudy (turned out to be sediments and also a larger amount of potassium permangenate added to the water system to treat the taste)


So folks, any ideas out there? The LFS has no idea and I have not come up across anything similar that would devastate a full and healthy tank. I'm starting to think that they have been poisoned or something along those lines, but by what? Could something have been lingering with the swordtails that affected the platies within a day?

Help? Thanks,
Lena

momo9700

How old was the tank that they were in?

sirdarksol

I merged the two threads that had identical titles. It will be easier for you to keep track of answers this way.

Now, on to the important stuff.
You say "water parameters are okay." What are they? The specifics of nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia, as well as pH and temp, are important.
When you wash your hands prior to feeding, are you sure to thoroughly rinse? Soap clings really well, and even a minute amount can kill fish.

Chances are, however, that the new fish were carrying a disease. Those particular fish may very well have been healthy for the week prior to when you bought them. The problem with LFS setups is that every one of those tanks shares a central water supply, meaning that, even though the swords looked healthy, the tetras four tanks over could have been dying of an infection that got passed among the tanks. The swords then get infected shortly before you buy them, and the stress of a new environment just hastens their deaths.

Without knowing what is causing the illness, I have no suggestions other than; do extra water changes to keep nitrate levels even lower, use vitachem and garlicguard if you can get your hands on them, and, if you're not already doing so, feed them something that doesn't have fish meal in it. Omega One is an excellent brand, though there are a few others. Cleaner water and better nutrition will help a sick fish overcome an infection.

COBettaCouple

Are they eating? They sound like they have internal parasites, it could account for this situation. What did you use to treat them with for parasites? How many doses of it?

betta-cat

Hi, somehow the other posts disappeared, about using bleach to clean and so on. I never even thought that I could use the dechlorinator I use to treat the water make sure the bleach is totally neutralized. That was brilliant! and eases my mind when I do the tank over again.

I had posted that I had retested all parameters. Ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrates are between 0 & 5 PPM. pH is 7.6. I've treated for parasites with parasite bowl buddies, all that I could find here in my town.

The fish still eat, then hide, then die. I've changed the food I give them, although its the same as I give the others.

I wash my hands/arms thoroughly between tanks, no chemicals.

I'm down to 3 adults and 1 juvenile. The guppies I put in are doing well. The 3 cory cats seem happy enough in their quarantine tank.

I'll wait until the inevitable happens, then strip the tank, soak each component in bleach solution, rinse, use the dechlor and start over from scratch. It broke my heart but I guess its a lesson learned. I'm still not sure what the lesson was, but if it is because I didn't quarantine ... that was a hard lesson learned the very, very hard way.

thanks for your help everyone!

COBettaCouple

Yea, we did lose some posts.. It does sound a lot like parasites and I'd treat with Jungle Antiparasite Food which contains metronidazole, praziquantel, and levamisole. You can find that at Petsmart usually.

If you can't find that, I'd try Parasite Clear or Clout tablets.

Fishies-for-me

Declor is great for neutralizing bleach...I can't remember how I learned that now but chlorine in bleach is the same as clorine in water....if you can still smell the bleach rinse/soak again in declored water.