Fish Are Getting Sick, All Different Symptoms. Help Please

Hey everyone,

I started my aquarium about four months ago, and everything has been going great until a few weeks ago. I have (had) two German blue rams, 15 Cardinal tetra's and 5 Otocinclus.

It all started with one of my tetra's getting white spot. I treated with Esha exit, but to no avail. He died after a week.

Then, one of my otocinclus started getting a white fuzzy patch on his side, and a wound that was getting deeper and deeper. I started medicating with Esha 2000, which is supposedly an antI fungal medicine, but again, to no avail. After a few days, the wound was about as deep as his spine, and I had put him down.

About two weeks ago my male blue ram started showing a white patch near his eye, and then his eyes started bulging out (I believe this is called pop-eye?). I feared the worst so started medicating again, but he was just getting worse until he was really lethargic and lost all his apetite and color. I found him dead this morning. And well, what do you know, another Otocinclus is showing a white patch on his tail.

All this time I kept up with my maintenance, doing a large water change every week and, when having a sick fish, tried to do a 20% water change every day. My heavily planted tank was fully cycled when I introduced my fish, and I've been testing my water regularly. It's been 0 ammonia, 0 nitite, <20 nitrate and Ph 7.2 continuously.

So the tetra seemed like a classic case of ich, the otos and blue ram I'm not so sure of. I'm really afraid the ram might have had some sort of Mycobacterium, which is really my worst fear because it's a zoonotic, meaning humans can catch it as well. I can't say for sure, but a lot of the symptoms were there. I have to say it has taken a lot of joy out of the hobby for me, because it's on my mind all the time when doing water changes etc. And now with another sick oto I just don't know what to do anymore. I included some pics of the affected fish and a full tank shot from when everything was going great.

Can anyone please tell me what the **** is going on? Provide some insights, experience or share some tips maybe?

All help would be greatly appreciated.

 

White patches are normally diagnosed as ich, but unfortunately, so can columnaris, fin rot, and so can some parasites.your whole tank is infected an should be treated. You have plants, and you also don't want to kill off your biological system. I recommend bacterial and paracites control simultaneously. A safe treatment for the bacteria is API ER Erythromycin and for parasites use PraziPro. Do not use General Cure. It has the same medication as PraziPro, but also contains salt that is not good for your plants.

Hey everyone,

I started my aquarium about four months ago, and everything has been going great until a few weeks ago. I have (had) two German blue rams, 15 Cardinal tetra's and 5 Otocinclus.

It all started with one of my tetra's getting white spot. I treated with Esha exit, but to no avail. He died after a week.

Then, one of my otocinclus started getting a white fuzzy patch on his side, and a wound that was getting deeper and deeper. I started medicating with Esha 2000, which is supposedly an antI fungal medicine, but again, to no avail. After a few days, the wound was about as deep as his spine, and I had put him down.

About two weeks ago my male blue ram started showing a white patch near his eye, and then his eyes started bulging out (I believe this is called pop-eye?). I feared the worst so started medicating again, but he was just getting worse until he was really lethargic and lost all his apetite and color. I found him dead this morning. And well, what do you know, another Otocinclus is showing a white patch on his tail.

All this time I kept up with my maintenance, doing a large water change every week and, when having a sick fish, tried to do a 20% water change every day. My heavily planted tank was fully cycled when I introduced my fish, and I've been testing my water regularly. It's been 0 ammonia, 0 nitite, <20 nitrate and Ph 7.2 continuously.

So the tetra seemed like a classic case of ich, the otos and blue ram I'm not so sure of. I'm really afraid the ram might have had some sort of Mycobacterium, which is really my worst fear because it's a zoonotic, meaning humans can catch it as well. I can't say for sure, but a lot of the symptoms were there. I have to say it has taken a lot of joy out of the hobby for me, because it's on my mind all the time when doing water changes etc. And now with another sick oto I just don't know what to do anymore. I included some pics of the affected fish and a full tank shot from when everything was going great.

Can anyone please tell me what the is going on? Provide some insights, experience or share some tips maybe?

All help would be greatly appreciated.

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White patches are normally diagnosed as ich, but unfortunately, so can columnaris, fin rot, and so can some parasites.your whole tank is infected an should be treated. You have plants, and you also don't want to kill off your biological system. I recommend bacterial and paracites control simultaneously. A safe treatment for the bacteria is API ER Erythromycin and for parasites use PraziPro. Do not use General Cure. It has the same medication as PraziPro, but also contains salt that is not good for your plants.

Thanks a lot for the reply. I'll do another large water change and start treating for columnaris then. Unfortunately I'm not stateside so I'll have to find some alternatives. I'll keep you updated.

 

I'm so sorry to hear about your fish. I had columnaris go through my tank and I lost a bunch of fish last year. I used this thread to help me know what to treat my fish with. One of our members made a thread that also includes different options on how to treat columnaris if you don't have access to different medications.

Columnaris Symptoms And Treatment

Hope this helps and best of luck to you and your fish!

 

I really liked the link you provided about columnaris...extremely informative.

I'm so sorry to hear about your fish. I had columnaris go through my tank and I lost a bunch of fish last year. I used this thread to help me know what to treat my fish with. One of our members made a thread that also includes different options on how to treat columnaris if you don't have access to different medications.

Columnaris Symptoms And Treatment

Hope this helps and best of luck to you and your fish!