Rummy Nose Tetras Dying - ammonia in tank

Technologyhatesme
  • #1
About a month ago I bought eight rummy nose from a pet store, along with corys and snails. The store was clean and the fish looked healthy. The store just got the rummy nose the morning I bought them. The corys are fine and happy weeks later, but not the tetras.

When I brought them home and accumulated them to the tank, I noticed one tetra had a white tail and couldn't swim well. I thought maybe it was hurt in shipping, and when it died a few hours later it didn't bother me that much. The next day, another tetra no longer could swim right. It's tail would float up, taking the tetra with it. The tail and back soon turned white, and death followed a hour later. For the next five days the same thing happened to the other tetras, and they died. They also had ich, which I was treating for with ich x. It didn't save them.

None of my other fish, (German rams, corys, a betta, pleco) showed any signs of illness and were active. So I ordered rummy nose from liveaquaria along with a few other fish. The new rummy nose looked considerable better than the ones from the pet store. From the first day they were active and eating. So were the honey gourami I ordered.
Its been three weeks now, and the tetras are growing and active. They have ich now, which I assumed came from the other tetras even though I have been treating for that for almost 10 days and they still have it.

But today, I noticed one of the tetras starting to show symptoms like the first batch. The tail is turning white, and its back floats upward. The school of nine were not that interested in eating this morning, and have been hanging out in a thick bunch of plants in the tank, instead of constantly swimming and exploring like they normally do. I know that tetra will be dead in a few hours, and I am afraid the others will follow.

When I put the first batch of tetras in the 29 gallon tank, ammonia was at 0, nitrite 0, and nitrates 5. The tank had been cycled for a month with 3 german rams and a betta living in it before I even considered getting other fish.

The water isn't perfect right now though, because I treated with e.m erythromycin when I had the first tetras hoping it might save them. All it did was kill off my good bacteria. (when I ordered more fish from liveaquaria, my tank had not been showing readings of cycling again, and by the time it did, it was too late and the fish were out for delivery) And right after, my water turned cloudy because my filter was not working well. (grinding nose, slow flow, and it started to smell really bad despite many cleanings in a bucket of tank water) The filter stopped working, and I had to buy a new filter, which set back the tank even more. Now I have a fluvial canister filter, and the water is crystal clear. I kept a sponge from the old filter in the tank in case there was any good bacteria left.

Ammonia stays around .25-.50 since the tank is cycling again, and I am doing 30% water changes every day. Nitrite is at 0, and Nitrates at 5. All the fish seem fine. They are active and eating, and their colors are bright. And the tank is heavily planted, and I even have pothos growing out of the tank. The plants are growing so fast I have to trim them.

I don't know what to do for the tetras. General cure and erythromycin didn't help the last ones. And their ich doesn't seem that bad. A few have maybe half a dozen spots on them. The temp is at 81F to speed up the parasite's life cycle, and I use ich x every 12 hours.

Right now all I can do it take out the ones showing signs and put them in a small quarantine tank.

Other people seem to have this issue with rummy nose also, but don't know what it really is.

Help! Rummy Nose Tetras Dying with no explination
 
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Tyler Fishman
  • #2
Not surprised, wild caught 100% of the time, it's a gamble with these sensative fish, usually 1 out of every 5 fish survive when purchased from what I have noticed, white tail is a fungus thing, I personally would not purchase these fish from the same place, where did you buy these, LFS or LPS? Don't worry this pretty much happens to everyone, I know it happend to me, don't let this discourage you although, they are very pretty and unique fish
 
Dila415
  • #3
I know my rummy nose are very sensitive to high ammonia I agree with poster above mine about wild caught fish and sensitivity
 
Technologyhatesme
  • Thread Starter
  • #4
Not surprised, wild caught 100% of the time, it's a gamble with these sensative fish, usually 1 out of every 5 fish survive when purchased from what I have noticed, white tail is a fungus thing, I personally would not purchase these fish from the same place, where did you buy these, LFS or LPS? Don't worry this pretty much happens to everyone, I know it happend to me, don't let this discourage you although, they are very pretty and unique fish

What you say makes sense. But what is bothering me is the first batch was from a pet store that has a few clean fish tanks. They even have healthy looking arowna and discus despite have so little space.

The first tetras were definitely wild caught because they didn't understand flake food.

The second batch I ordered from liveaquaria and I paid more to get tank raised. They ate flake food the first day and saw a person as a food source and never hid.

If it is fungas, is it contagious? If these die I will probably get cardinals, but I don't want those to get sick either, and they aren't cheap with shipping cost and getting yank raised. And I can't buy anything since the tank is in a minI cycle, so it will probably be January when I order, and the cold months aren't good for shipping fish.
Cherry barbs are my only alternative aside for tetras for schooling fish since I have German rams and they need warmer temps. I love danios but 79°-80° would just cook them.
 
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Tyler Fishman
  • #5
Don't get fish if your suspious, I know its hard to not get them, your tank in a minI cycle doesn't help these extremely sensative fish either, wait a month or two, monitor your tank and keep your fish healthy and happy, once your tank is stable you can add the fish you desire, patience is key
 
Technologyhatesme
  • Thread Starter
  • #6
That's what I said I was going to do. It will probably be in January when the thank is stable, and my worry is the temperatures outside will hurt the fish in shipping even with heat packs. The fish are shipped literally across the U.S to get from the west coast to the east coast where I live.

Now I have to figure how to find the rummy nose that died last night in the jungle that is my tank...

The irony is the honey gouromI are listed as hard to care for and my two (male and female) are thriving and brightly colored and eating and playing, while the tetras which are listed as easy are dropping like flies.
 
Tyler Fishman
  • #7
I would not worry about shipping, make sure you purchase from reputable websites, I purchased coral from ebay, and they had a pretty long trip, and they came out fine, Its stressful on the animal although, but it's not that big of a deal
 
Dila415
  • #8
Can we get a tank parameters reading? I'm want to see something
 
Discusluv
  • #9
Rummy-nose are difficult to acclimate to the aquarium and need to be introduced into an established tank ( 3 months). They cannot have any trace of ammonia or nitrite, and nitrates should be kept under 20ppm.
Ive had a group in my discus tank for several years and this tank doesn't ever get over 10 ppm of nitrate. I do 2 x 50% water changes a week on this tank.
The illness that they had surely didn't help matters much.

Is the dosage of the Ich medication supposed to be administered every 12 hours? That seems excessive--- what does it say on the back of the bottle? What is the active ingredient of medication?
 
Dila415
  • #10
Rummy-nose are difficult to acclimate to the aquarium and need to be introduced into an established tank ( 3 months). They cannot have any trace of ammonia or nitrite, and nitrates should be kept under 20ppm.
Ive had a group in my discus tank for several years and this tank doesn't ever get over 10 ppm of nitrate. I do 2 x 50% water changes a week on this tank.
The illness that they had surely didn't help matters much.

Is the dosage of the Ich medication supposed to be administered every 12 hours? That seems excessive--- what does it say on the back of the bottle? What is the active ingredient of medication?

Agreed my boyfriend put an algae wafer in my tank while I was at school (he thought he was helping by buying them) sent my ammonia levels up my rummy nose showed stress first that how I seem something wrong with my tank did a water test sure enough my ammonia was hella high
They are fine now but those are one of my favorite fish in my tank
 

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