Hello all
Something seems to have gotten into my tank. I had quarantined some clown loaches and dwarf chain loaches, but I guess not long enough before moved them into my main tank. White spots began to show up on some of the clown loaches, and some of the tetras. This is a heavily planted tank, which also contains invertebrates, so I cranked the temperature up to 88. This was about 2 weeks ago. The ich never got any worse, and did not spread to any other fish, and the spots slowly disappeared over a week or so.
However, a few of my cardinals had developed white spots on where their tail tapers down, just before it meets the tail fins. There were two spots, looking much like a colon ( on their tails. The fish were otherwise behaving normally, but I pulled them anyways for observation. I also treated the hospital tank with Seachem Aquazole in case they had any ich left. These fish are still in the hospital tank, the spots aren't gone, but greatly diminished.
About 1 week ago I was at the LFS, and they had a beautiful Apistogramma cacatuoides, so I picked him up. I thought, since I have the tank up in temp, I may as well throw him into the big tank - probably a big, big, mistake.
Things were fine for the first day or two. I had another (male) Apisto in the tank, but they didn't seem to have any problems other than the usual saber rattling. Then I noticed that one of my male Blue Rams wasn't looking too well, his colour, which wasn't the best tom begin with, was very dark, and I noticed that he had a whitish growth on his head. I pulled him and put him into the hospital tank, he died the next day.
The next day, my other Apistogramma (not the new one), wasn't looking well. I had seen him in the morning, he looked OK, but then we couldn't find him throughout most of the day. He appeared about mid-afternoon, but wasn't looking well, clamped fins, rapid breathing, etc. Nothing else externally wrong. We went to pull him, but he disappeared again, found him about 1 hour later, dead. Also that day, we noticed one of our green and gold cories was out and about in the middle of the day (very unusual), and breathing rather rapidly. We decided at this point to medicate the whole tank, and dosed it with Maracyn and Maracyn 2. The cory was dead the next day.
Over the next 2 days, we lost several cardinals. Yesterday, I started dropping the temperature in case the heat was allowing bacteria to multiply like gangbusters. Temp is about 84.
This morning, one of the dwarf chain loaches was laying on the bottom, breathing heavily, with one eye clouded over and perhaps a bit swollen. I pulled him and put him into the hospital tank and medicated it with Maracyn and Maracyn 2 as well as Aquazole. Also, one of my SAE's is resting on the bottom, fins clamped, and a reddish spot on his back, along with some damaged scales:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.lasko/sae.html
I posted this on another forum earlier in the day, the SAE has since died...
OK, so this is what is in the tank, and how it is doing
3 SAE's
5 Dwarf chain loaches, they are all behaving fine
2 Green and Gold Corys, OK
3 False Juli (sp?) Corys, OK
11 Cardinal/Neons, they look OK, colour is good, no external spots
3 Clown Loaches, OK, and I watch them closely, as they are frequently the first to show problems
2 Pearl Gouramis, OK
2 Sturisoma festivum, OK
10 Rummy-nose Tetras, OK
6 Black Neon Tetras, OK
3 Silver-tip tetras, OK
1 pair Blue Rams, male OK, female perhaps breathing a little heavy this morning
1 male Apistogramma cacatuoides, OK
8 (or so - hard to count) Otocinclus, OK
4 Bamboo shrimp, OK
unknown # of Amano shrimp, all look OK, some have gotten quite large, over 2"
This is a 90 gallon tank, very heavily planted. PH is 6.8, KH 3, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are all zero. I have been keeping Nitrates around 5 or 10, but I have held off dosing the ferts over the past 2 days as I am expecting an Ammonia spike. The tank is getting CO2 from a diy setup, 4 bottles, one changed per week. I also supplement with Excel. Water changes once a week, about 30%, sometimes a little more. Treat the water with Seachem Prime, 2 light teaspoons per water change. Filtration is two Aquaclear 300's, plus a powerhead with the quickfilter that cycles on for 10-15 minutes per hour during the day.
Whew, sorry about the long-winded post, but I'm worried I've perhaps picked the wrong treatment.
Any suggestions or advice very welcome, I'm kind of at the end of my rope.
Thanks,
Brian
Oh yes, and BTW, I've learned my lesson about adding new fish. From now on, I'm doing a two stage quarantine. A week or so in the 2.5G hospital tank, then another week in the 10G quarantine tank before _anything_ gets near the main tank. I'm also going to be more aggressive in pulling fish that don't appear to be behaving normally. As soon as I thing something's up, out they come, if only for closer observation than anything else...
Something seems to have gotten into my tank. I had quarantined some clown loaches and dwarf chain loaches, but I guess not long enough before moved them into my main tank. White spots began to show up on some of the clown loaches, and some of the tetras. This is a heavily planted tank, which also contains invertebrates, so I cranked the temperature up to 88. This was about 2 weeks ago. The ich never got any worse, and did not spread to any other fish, and the spots slowly disappeared over a week or so.
However, a few of my cardinals had developed white spots on where their tail tapers down, just before it meets the tail fins. There were two spots, looking much like a colon ( on their tails. The fish were otherwise behaving normally, but I pulled them anyways for observation. I also treated the hospital tank with Seachem Aquazole in case they had any ich left. These fish are still in the hospital tank, the spots aren't gone, but greatly diminished.
About 1 week ago I was at the LFS, and they had a beautiful Apistogramma cacatuoides, so I picked him up. I thought, since I have the tank up in temp, I may as well throw him into the big tank - probably a big, big, mistake.
Things were fine for the first day or two. I had another (male) Apisto in the tank, but they didn't seem to have any problems other than the usual saber rattling. Then I noticed that one of my male Blue Rams wasn't looking too well, his colour, which wasn't the best tom begin with, was very dark, and I noticed that he had a whitish growth on his head. I pulled him and put him into the hospital tank, he died the next day.
The next day, my other Apistogramma (not the new one), wasn't looking well. I had seen him in the morning, he looked OK, but then we couldn't find him throughout most of the day. He appeared about mid-afternoon, but wasn't looking well, clamped fins, rapid breathing, etc. Nothing else externally wrong. We went to pull him, but he disappeared again, found him about 1 hour later, dead. Also that day, we noticed one of our green and gold cories was out and about in the middle of the day (very unusual), and breathing rather rapidly. We decided at this point to medicate the whole tank, and dosed it with Maracyn and Maracyn 2. The cory was dead the next day.
Over the next 2 days, we lost several cardinals. Yesterday, I started dropping the temperature in case the heat was allowing bacteria to multiply like gangbusters. Temp is about 84.
This morning, one of the dwarf chain loaches was laying on the bottom, breathing heavily, with one eye clouded over and perhaps a bit swollen. I pulled him and put him into the hospital tank and medicated it with Maracyn and Maracyn 2 as well as Aquazole. Also, one of my SAE's is resting on the bottom, fins clamped, and a reddish spot on his back, along with some damaged scales:
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.lasko/sae.html
I posted this on another forum earlier in the day, the SAE has since died...
OK, so this is what is in the tank, and how it is doing
3 SAE's
5 Dwarf chain loaches, they are all behaving fine
2 Green and Gold Corys, OK
3 False Juli (sp?) Corys, OK
11 Cardinal/Neons, they look OK, colour is good, no external spots
3 Clown Loaches, OK, and I watch them closely, as they are frequently the first to show problems
2 Pearl Gouramis, OK
2 Sturisoma festivum, OK
10 Rummy-nose Tetras, OK
6 Black Neon Tetras, OK
3 Silver-tip tetras, OK
1 pair Blue Rams, male OK, female perhaps breathing a little heavy this morning
1 male Apistogramma cacatuoides, OK
8 (or so - hard to count) Otocinclus, OK
4 Bamboo shrimp, OK
unknown # of Amano shrimp, all look OK, some have gotten quite large, over 2"
This is a 90 gallon tank, very heavily planted. PH is 6.8, KH 3, Ammonia, Nitrites and Nitrates are all zero. I have been keeping Nitrates around 5 or 10, but I have held off dosing the ferts over the past 2 days as I am expecting an Ammonia spike. The tank is getting CO2 from a diy setup, 4 bottles, one changed per week. I also supplement with Excel. Water changes once a week, about 30%, sometimes a little more. Treat the water with Seachem Prime, 2 light teaspoons per water change. Filtration is two Aquaclear 300's, plus a powerhead with the quickfilter that cycles on for 10-15 minutes per hour during the day.
Whew, sorry about the long-winded post, but I'm worried I've perhaps picked the wrong treatment.
Any suggestions or advice very welcome, I'm kind of at the end of my rope.
Thanks,
Brian
Oh yes, and BTW, I've learned my lesson about adding new fish. From now on, I'm doing a two stage quarantine. A week or so in the 2.5G hospital tank, then another week in the 10G quarantine tank before _anything_ gets near the main tank. I'm also going to be more aggressive in pulling fish that don't appear to be behaving normally. As soon as I thing something's up, out they come, if only for closer observation than anything else...
