JJWooble Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Hey all I've been on a fish keeping facebook group talking about this, but thought I would bring it here as well. Background/Useful info: Tank= AR510 Aqua One Established for about 6 months, no prior troubles with fish Tank parameters before symptoms showed: pH= 6.5, ammo= 0, nitrite= 0, nitrate=~7, temp= 24 degrees celcius Tank parameters on day I noticed symptoms: pH= 6.5, ammo= 0, nitrite= 0, nitrate= 5, temp= 24 degrees celcius I do a 25% water change weekly and monitor my water condition weekly also. Stocking before disease hit= 4 sterbai corydoras, 2 peppered corydoras, 9 neon tetras, 3 zebra danios (got them from a friend when her tank broke over a year ago), 2 adult guppies, 10 3 month old guppies Stocking now= 4 sterbai corydoras, 2 adult guppies, 9 3 month old guppies Most recently added fish= ~10th September, got the 6 corydoras from an animates. Quarantined for a week and a half, then added to tank. Symptoms= white cottony fungus in patches over fish, very inactive, some fish appear to have sores/red bloody patches on them, difficulty/rapid breathing, quickly die once showing symptoms More detailed info/timeline: 3 days ago, my fish started showing symptoms that something was wrong-- they were all far less active, not eating, and a lot of my neon tetras had a 'cotton wool' type of fungus looking stuff sparsely patched all over their body and some had some degree of fin rot. I suspected ich but there was no behaviour associated with ich-- they were not scratching themselves/rubbing themselves against things. I separated those affected into my cycled hospital tank along with some of the zebra danios who were showing similar symptoms. I posted on the facebook group as to what to do and many suggestions were made. Two of the neon tetras in particular were looking like they were seriously struggling-- they were on the bottom of the tank with barely any gill movement, had large amounts of the cotton wool on them-- so I put those two down. I made sure the water was clean, then left them for the night. The next morning I noticed one of the peppered corydoras in the main tank-- he had patchy growths of the same cotton wool fungus type thing, fin rot, and looked like he had 'sores'/was bleeding all over his body. I have a high oxygen concentration in the tank, but he was up at the surface, breathing air regularly, and his gills were moving much faster than normal-- 'panting' almost. Others of the corys had patches of the cotton wool type stuff too. Guppies were hanging near the surface/hiding at the surface and the Corys were inactive which was highly unusual for them. There was also 1 dead baby guppy. I then checked the hospital tank. There was 2-3 dead neon tetras, and the cotton wool symptom had progressed on all other fish in the hospital tank. Persons on the facebook group and my research indicated that I should return those in the hospital tank to the main tank, and treat all of them for a bacterial infection, most likely Columnaris. I did a water change in the main tank, shifted the hospital tank fish back to the main tank, lowered the water level so I didn't have to use too much of the medication and so the cory who was struggling to breathe could get to the surface faster, and dosed the tank with the appropriate amount of Furan 2. I also removed all of my driftwood/rocks/plants and replaced with plastic caves/ornaments and silk plants as they are easier to move and clean. Over the course of the day, I lost both peppered corydoras, 2 zebra danios, and all but one of the neon tetras. This morning, I found the last neon tetra dead and the last zebra danio dead also. I dosed the tank again with Furan 2 as per instructions on the package. One of my female guppies had dropped her fry overnight but I decided not to separate them. The other fish uncharacteristically are not eating the newly dropped fry. They are acting much the same as yesterday-- corys hiding together under an ornament, guppies at the surface together in a corner. One of the female guppies is now at the bottom of the tank, seeming to have difficulty swimming. Some of the other guppies have what appears to be clamped fins. Whatever this is, I suspect it was brought in with the Corydoras as I haven't had a fish death before this for months. I rang the Animates to warn them of the potential for their fish being sick, and they have said that they have not seen any fish showing these symptoms in their tanks, but thanked me for the information. They gave me a $20 voucher and that is where I am leaving that line of enquiry at this stage as I don't think its helpful to my fish to go any further with it, and they were very polite. This tank has separate equipment to the others and I am taking as many precautions as I can to assure that it doesn't get introduced to my other tanks. Any observations or suggestions are welcome. I will post photos of what the fish showing symptoms looked like tonight when I have a little bit more time. I'm fairly freaked at the scale of fish death in such a short time span-- I have never experienced anything like this before with my fish. If my fish survive I will not add any new fish for at least a month to ensure that whatever this is is gone and will quarantine all new fish from now on for 6 weeks as opposed to 1-2 weeks like I used to. I feel that quarantine could have prevented many of the fish deaths I have experienced. I am hoping that these guys will improve with treatment. 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Adrienne Posted October 9, 2014 Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Columnaris is opportunistic. The bagging and shifting of the fish may have been enough to cause the onset of it. Two sifts e.g. from the shop to the QT, then the QT to your tank may have been enough to start it off. I do hope you get it sorted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJWooble Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Oh dear, poor cories that does make sense as to why they may not be seeing it at the shop. Thankyou, I hope so too. Update-- lost 5 guppies since I posted this. All remaining have cotton wool fungus stuff round their mouths. The babies in particular are struggling. Cories seem to have lost more of their fins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJWooble Posted October 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2014 Lost two more cories overnight. going to take water sample in tomorrow and hopefully get a refund for the fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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