Fish Death Need Advice

[gordo33]

Default Disease Questionnaire - please complete


Please complete this questionnaire if your fish are sick (copy and paste). The more details you can provide, the better we are able to diagnose and help you treat your sick fish.

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
5 discus died . 2 days prior to leaving for a 3 day vacation I noticed white spots on the body and fins of 2 fish. These two were purchased one year ago with 3 other fish. I also had a fish that was 4-5 years old and a week prior moved 5 fish from quarantine that were purchased from a sponsor on this site. All but the older fish were from the same sponsor.
4 out of the 5 fish purchased last year have died.
When I returned home from vacation the older fish and 2 others were dead. I pulled 2 fish that had bodies covered with white spots and put them into another tank. They died over night.

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

Fish were eating less and hiding
Top two pictures were fish removed to another tank and died over night.
IMG_1846.jpgIMG_1845.jpg

This one of the recently purchased fish
IMG_1859.jpg

This fish is only survivor from last years purchase.
IMG_1860.jpg
3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
No treatment yet
Sponsor recommended erythromycin and aquarium salt for 5 days with daily WC
I have been doing daily WC at 50% since returning home Monday evening.


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
125 gal. With 20 gal sump
6 discus ranging 4.0 to 6 inches
2 corys

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50 % every other day

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
BB tank set up 2 years

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.

Yes aged 24 hrs.

8. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp ___83-85__

- ph ___7.6__

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading ____0

- nitrate reading __20-40. Tap water is 5-10__

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water __x__

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
5 new fish added 3-4 weeks ago

10. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.

FDBW mostly
Frozen blood worms

11. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

[jmf3460]

This was a very quick killer, I suspect columnaris due to the number of deaths and how quickly it happened. I noticed you had recently added fish, did you quarantine that discus before adding it to the main tank with your year old fish?

[gordo33]

Yes I followed the quarantine recommended by the supplier

[jmf3460]

do you have access to a microsope? I would begin a treatment of quick cure (formalin + malachite green) on the fish you have left immediately.

[gordo33]

No access to a microscope. So you don't agree with what was recommended to me . Aquarium salt and erythromycin for 5 days with daily WC.
Can you tell me why you recommending quick cure?

[jmf3460]

ethromycin is really only used for treating blue green algae (cyanobacteria), I've never seen it used as a treatment for fish illness so I do not agree with ethromycin at all. Aquarium salt always helps, and a salt bath might help your fish a lot, expecially if this is fungus based.

Quick cure is a very broad and very effective medication used to kill fungus, and parasitic infections. it also fights protozoan parasites. I do not think your fish have a bacterial infection because of the time frame being so quick. Bacteria need time to grow so its usually a longer death.

[gordo33]

Ok thanks for your assistance

[jmf3460]

I am here to help Gordo, I am by no means an expert but I have been effective with helping people diagnose disease in the past.

If you start a quick cure regimen, you may want to add an airstone for extra oxygen

[gordo33]

I am here to help Gordo, I am by no means an expert but I have been effective with helping people diagnose disease in the past.

If you start a quick cure regimen, you may want to add an airstone for extra oxygen

I started the treatment as recommended last night. Yesterday morning the fish were hiding and not coming out for food. When I returned home from work they were moving around the tank and took food from me at two different feedings. The blue Turk body appears to have improved as well just from the daily WC.
This morning all were active and coming out for food except for the Albino pigeon(the one with red raised scales behind its fins).
No visible signs of disease on the 4 other fish.
My question is should I complete the full medicine treatment since the two remaining affected fish were improving prior to starting treatment. And the 4 not outwardly affected cont to look and act healthy.
My reason for questioning is if the medicine is not needed does dosing meds have an adverse affect on the tank

[jmf3460]

what medication are you referring to, the quick cure? If so I would continue treating for at least 7 days. If you think a full dose (which is one drop per gallon per my bottle) is too much for them at one time you can do half doses in the morning and half doses in the evening, ive done this effectively lots of times on really fragile dither fish in the past. For example I treat dithers in a 10 gal, so ill do 5 drops in the morning before work, a water change after work, and 5 drops after the water change, then repeat the next day.

I am so glad your fish look better.