Sorry, this is a long one... I have a 35 gallon tank that I recently had to tear down and move to a new house at the beginning of May. It’s occupants are a pair of German blue rams, 2 small angelfish, 4 peppered cories, a female betta, 1 small rubber lip pleco, and 2 dwarf gouramis. It had previously been established for about 4 months and everything had been going fine. When the day came to move them, I put the fish in a 5 gallon bucket with water from their tank, a heater, and an air stone. I put the filter media in another bucket of tank water to hopefully save the cycle. I was anticipating a quick move, but as it turned out everything that could go wrong, did. Basically the fish ended up staying in the bucket for 2 days, but I did large twice daily water changes with Prime. I kept the heater and air stone going. By the time I was able to set the tank back up, I assumed the filter media had died, so I thoroughly rinsed the sponges and bio rings in dechlorinated water and expected to have to recycle the tank. I put everyone back in their tank and they were so stressed they had lost most of their color. Within an hour or two they were mostly back to normal color and were eating and looking good. I tested the water daily, but never got an ammonia spike and nitrites remained at 0 as well. Nitrates were around 40, so I continued with my partial water changes and daily testing, but the numbers stayed normal. Two weeks went by uneventfully, everyone was doing great until suddenly one day last week I started seeing a whitish fuzzy haze on my female German blue ram’s head/face. I immediately increased tank temp from 81 up to 85/86 and began treating for ich after doing a huge water change. I also started a course of General Cure the next day. By that night the ram was dead. Then I found my female betta dead up inside one of the decor pieces later that night. 2 days ago one of my peppered cories started having trouble staying on the bottom of the tank. I found him at the surface wedged between a plant and the glass. Then he went back down to the bottom and was doing fine until this morning when I found him at the surface again. He’s definitely trying to die, as he’s upside down at the surface. I separated him into a breeder box on the side of the tank so he wouldn’t get picked on. I don’t expect him to make it through the night. As if all that isn’t bad enough, I started seeing my little rubber lip pleco making more appearances the past couple days. He’s usually chilling under his driftwood all day and as soon as I turn the lights off at night he comes out and cleans all the algae. This morning I noticed he’s covered in white granule type specks and he didn’t clean the front glass like usual. What is going on?! I don’t know what else to do.
I have to agree with the posters above...it looks like "Ich" to me.. Question...it's obvious that you have a good grasp on what to do, and you care for the fish. What did you use to treat the Ich before, aside from the temp increase? When you were treating your tank, did you remove any carbon/resin filtration? I'm sorry about the fish lost..hopefully we can turn this around..
I used API liquid Super Ich Cure. I don’t have any carbon in my filters, just sponges and bio max. They are due for another ich treatment tonight. Is there a better one I should be using? I also alternated treatment days with the General Cure. I’m now out of both, so will have to stop and get more on my way home from work
I’ve used the kordon ich products with good results. Mainly look for an ich product that doesn’t contain salt. Make sure it’s safe for your pleco. Keep us posted? Please?
Well, the Cory died and another one is beginning to look iffy. Mr. Suckyface is still not hiding and not eating. He’s puffing pretty hard too. I did another large water change last night and dosed API super ich cure again. I’ll see how things look when I get home tonight
Thank you. It’s so discouraging. Now all of the remaining 3 Cory cats are not acting right. I just hope the meds aren’t affecting them badly. I’ll need to retreat again tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted...
Sorry for your losses! I'm certainly not an expert of any kind but was wondering if it's possible that you're dealing with Columnaris? I recently experienced similar symptoms in my tank and it turned out to be the issue.
It likes warm, clean, oxygen rich water. - lower tank temp to 75° (if you can) - limit time you have tank lights on as much as possible (to limit stress) If you want to go the meds route, kanaplex and furan 2 seem to be really popular choices. You have to treat with something that will knock out gram - bacteria. I was treating for possible internal parasites when my columnaris broke out, and since mixing meds in the tank is a no no and I have ghost shrimp that can't handle some meds- I treated with salt baths 1x a day and 25% water changes every couple of days. For the salt bath I used 4 tsp aquarium salt to one gallon of treated water in a bucket for 30 minutes. You have to watch your fish carefully- if they turn belly up during the salt bath then you have to remove them to clean water immediately. Some fish don't react to salt baths well. This knocked it out in my tank. Once I started the salt baths, no more deaths.
Just a note here. With most catfish including plecos, you want to be very careful with meds. Like malachite green should be used at half dose and even then the fish could have severe adverse reactions. Salt, especially at recommended dosages, can kill your catfish instead of help them.
So, the pleco died last night. The remaining fish appear ok, even the other 3 cories. I treated for ich again last night after doing another water change. What do I do now? Wait til someone else looks sick or keep treating? When do I put carbon in my filters to remove the meds?
I’m sorry. When you did your water change, did you vacuum the gravel really good? Are you using the liquid api ick cure? Did you use it at half strength? My heart is breaking for your losses.
I went back and listened again. It was the liquid. Unfortunately it’s harmful to scaleless fish like catfish. What fish do you have left? If any corys are alive put the carbon in and do your water change getting the surface of the sand pretty good. (I’m old school so always think gravel). Let’s see if we can help you save the others.
Yes, I tried to vacuum as best I could without sucking up too much sand. I still have 3 cories, 2 angels, 1 blue ram, 2 dwarf gouramies, 2 platys, and 2 Siamese algae eaters. I see no signs of ich on anyone else. A couple days ago I thought the remaining 3 cories were acting strange, but seem fine now. The SAE’s are flashing though. The only other ich med I could find, but have not used yet is Kordon rapid cure. It specifically says not to use with scaleless fish, so I haven’t. I plan to leave the heat turned up for a couple weeks
