sandaz

Just an update, as of today my tank is loach-less. Three died overnight as the last 3 is nowhere to be seen. Shame, was my favourite fish. Guppy with clamped fins also didn't make it through the night. Swordtail fins show very little signs of fin rot that showed in the picture the other day, but the edges of my glass cat is now looking like that. Have dosed the tank with the second ode of Furan tonight. Have read an article on using a 3% solution of Magnesium sulphate to soak the food in to help with intestinal parasites. Am going to start trying that too after the Furan as we've got lots of long stringy fecies coming from some of the fish. My large bristelnose had a string about 30cm long last night, and I see a few more lying around the tank which I will syphon out tonight. On the other hand, my female swordtail looks like she'll have her fry in the next few days. Interestingly enough, apart from one harlequin tetra and the tiger pleco, all the fish left in the tank were there originally when I bought it. Some of the originals have died off too, but by far the fish from the original setup have survived better than the others.

Did water tests again tonight and all seems good for now. Will keep an eye on readings though and add some Seachem Stability once finish with course of furan

Haven't got an air stone but do have airpump running full tilt. Would that be same as air stone?

Forgot to add, the open wound on the gourami head has healed up completely, and the white spot on the harlequin tetra tail is gone too. And this could just be wishful thinking but I reckon the swordtail tail fin looks better too. :bounce: Noticed this before I started the Furan-2 so can't be attributed to that yet. Either some of the meds are working or their immunity is strong enough to fight some of the stuff off. Anyone's guess!

I have started treating with Furan-2 this morning and have given my guppy with clamped fins a meth blue bath. He seemed to perk up straight after and even swam a bit (he was lying on his side before I gave him the bath). He still looks very poorly though. Have fished out a couple more dead loaches. I will see what I can do in terms of getting other meds, but for now the Furan-2 is all I have and must count for something. Also just wanted to say thank you to everyone offering their help and advise! Really much appreciated!

My local vet is also my daughter's best friend's father and I had a good chat with him this morning. He said all he knows about fish is the 4 lectures he had at Uni. And he is not aware of anyone in the area who'll have knowledge on fish. :-(

Have done some tests yesterday and today and no fluctuations during the day.

Sorry for the rant! Just needed to get that off my chest.

Read the article thanks! Quite a lot to take in. So not so sure what my path for treatment is from here. Should I continue with the planned Furan-2 or should I do something else? Given that the last harlequin tetra has a white spot on its tail, should I help it go to sleep to prevent spreading? And should I give the swordtail a methylene bath or just apply it straight? And if I was to give the bath, can it just be in a clean ice cream container? Should I just leave the loaches be? My biggest problem symptom wise has been with the fish stopping to eat and just sitting. Apart from a neon that I euthanased none of the other dead fish had any open sores. The sores is a new thing. The gourami white spot on his head is almost completely healed up. I kind of just need someone with knowledge to tell me what to do. I'm over wondering around in the dark. And I won't blame if it doesn't work or more fish die. I want to be able to sit and watch my tank and enjoy it, as opposed to anxiously sitting there watching who's eating and who's not, who's displaying strange behaviour and who's not, who looks to be next in the RIP list...

Rummy nose darker than the others. I'm unable to get a picture of the white growth on it's eye as they swim too fast The suspected fin rot on my sword tail. Guppy fin is almost completely opaque Loaches just sitting on the bottom

Of the fish that looks unwell? Sorry just want to make sure I give you the right stuff you might be looking for

I last cleaned it out a month ago. Do 30% water changes weekly (well that was before everything started going wrong and it's now all over the place)

I've been battling something in my tank for the last month. Have a fish die every day or two with various symptoms. History of it all can be found here viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63068 So originally started thinking my nitrate was off the chart but turned out to be a faulty test. Though nitrate levels were increased (20ppm) it wasn't as bad as thought. About a month ago I bought some new fish. I've pretty much worked out it was when the problems started. Stupid me didn't have quarantine tank, something I now hugely regret but corrected that today. The patterns are pretty similar with each fish dying. They stop eating, become lethargic and is then found at the bottom belly up. My glass cats turned opaque before dying. A couple of my dwarf leaches had really swollen abdomens. Currently a few show signs of fin rot and I now have a gourami with hole in the head disease. One of the rummy noses have gone dark grey in colour and have a white growth by his eye. And my another(harlequin tetra) has a white spot on his tail fin. So far I have treated the tank with Wunder tonic and am just finishing a course of prazi. Am planning a course of Furan-2 after this to address the fin rot going on at the moment. So I have read quite a few threads about applying meth blue directly on the fish. Is this something I should try for fin rot? Any advise would be greatly appreciated. I'm hoping to solve the problem before it wipes out my whole tank. So far I have lost: 3 x pictus catfish 7 x rummy noses 14 x neon tetras 4 x guppies 6 x harlequin tetras 4 x minnows 6 x dwarf loaches 1 x dwarf gourami 2 x discus 5 x glass cats Note that not all were in the tank at the beginning. Some were bought as replacements when others died. BTW All my water levels are good with Nitrite and Ammonia at zero and Nitrate at 5ppm

Just another quick update. Lost another dwarf coach overnight and another not eating and sitting still on the bottom of the tank. Not looking promising. A couple of fish have started with fin rot by the looks of it. Also noticed one of crummy noses significantly darker than the others and have a white growth on his eye lid(if fish has something like this). Gave last dose of prazi today, can't say I've noticed any fish improve during the weekof treatment. So probably not flukes or worms. Quick question: should I put carbon for day before starting with Furan-2? Or will a large water change do it?

I'm not sure how old the Excel is but is still has that smell so should be ok. I've still got a fish dying every day. Just about all my harlequin tetra gone now. They seem to have a slime coating on them when I remove them. Minnows all gone now too. Some of the larger fish have had hole in the head (t-bars and now dwarf gourami) but it seems to heal itself. The t-bars have healed up completely and the gourami's hole looks smaller this morning too. They have never had any other symptoms as they still eating, bossy and moving around. The hole never got red or black, staying whitish until healed. Have one more dosage of Prazi and then I'm going to move onto Furan-2 with a 60% water change inbetween. No not adding any more salt for a while, and the death of rummy noses seems to have stopped since then. Are tempted to add salt in conjuction with treatments but have decided to just do one thing at a time.

Not any more. I turned thos off a couple of weeks ago. Also the tank has a lid so it wouldn't have been able to just go into tank

Thanks I've been wondering whether maybe my Prime is not working properly. Checked tonight and there is no expiry date on it. How long does the stuff last as I got handed it when I bought the tank.?

The carnage continues. Lost 5 fish over the weekend and my second discus today. The glass cats had turned opaque and from what I can find on Google that points towards bacterial infections. Still at a loss as to what is causing this. Have started a treatment of Praziquantel today. Maybe it will make a difference, maybe not. Worth a try. Water test shows nitrates have stabilised at 5ppm. Ammonia and Nitrite still zero.

Just a quick update: Am on day 6 of the treatment with Wunder tonic, the wound on the tetra seems to look a little bit better, but other than that no change. I continue to lose a fish every day or two at the moment, rummy noses and neon tetras mainly, but guppy this morning. Noticed his fins had been nipped last night (since the avo) so wondering if he died of shock or something as he just drifted along the top last time I saw him alive. I have not taken water readings since starting the treatment as I don't know if it will affect the readings, but last one I took nitrate was sitting at 5ppm. Have added no salt for the last 2 water changes. In the mean time the molly has had ~30 babies that are now happily swimming in the maternity ward.

I know plecos are a problem with discus, is it the same for golden algae eater? The red tail shard seems to give them a chase around from time to time but the two of them don;t seem to mind each other. Yes I stir the sand around when I clean it out each week. Have heard that it can have some toxic bubbles if you don't. I've been watching them and I think the t-bar is probably more of the culprit. Will probably sell him and see how I go after that. I have 2, should I get rid of both or only the more dominant one?

Discus have dissapeared. Did 50% water change and cleaned everything out but he is nowhere to be seen. And found another rummy nose dead. Danio seems to have lost all it's "skin" across his back, and neon tetra has fins nipped, a white spot on him and fins seems to be very white at the end. Found another guppy that had its entire tail missing. Another glass cat with white spots (but doesn't look like ick) like the other picture posted. Think it's either the dwarf gourami, t-bar cichlid or red tail shark doing the damage. Sad state of affairs really...so have dosed with Tonic to see if anything fungul to get rid of. I don't know what else to do.

You've got me thinking. Nitrates were up above 20 originally. And every time I've lost a fish it's been after a water change (within a couple of days anyway). At each water change I add a tablespoon of tonic salt for every 10% water I'm changing. With this in mind I've read up on the types of fish that's been dying and from what I can see none of them like salts. Now the pictus have been in a tank with salt for over a year, but what if the higher levels of nitrate weakened them and then they were unable to deal with salt in water as well so died. What's the chance my problem is actually the salt I'm adding being incompatible with some of fish I bought? Apart from pictus all the fish fish that have died was added since I bought the tank. All the rest is still alive. Sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory :-)

If I can absolutely. Hopefully it never gets to this.

Are there specific plants that are better than others for option 2? I've also heard that some plants are better at keeping helping to keep BBA at bay (I know it's not the plant but the nutrients etc)

It's not that I disagree re nitrates. Just doing everything I can to get it down and keep it down as it's the only thing inside my control at the moment :-)