everything is going wrong, about to throw in the towel...

[nancyx25]

well I guess the worst is over...
the blue diamond died the next morning of my last post.
the tank went barebottom with less decorations and boy am I happy i did that! it is incredible the amount of crap I vacuum out now.
I went on to do a metro treatment. after just 2 days of it, the red melon started eating again and had normal color feces but her behavior wasnt 100%. the 2 blue turquoise, one male one female, showed no improvement.
after about 5 days in treatment, i remembered i had a 55 gallon in the basement waiting to be resealed, so I did just that, cleaned it out and set it up with a cycled sponge filter. good! now I have a hospital tank and can continue on treating the 2 sick fish instead of the entire tank.
so the 2 sick fish and the red melon went into the hospital tank. figured the red melon could only benefit from the full treatment. I did a 14 day metro treatment with the last 6 days with added kanamycin. the male blue turquoise did get his appetite back and I was so relieved. after about 10 days on metro his poop also got back to normal but the female just kept degrading. unfortunately, she ended up passing near the end of treatment. I think she was just to weak for this big treatment. she had not taken anything to eat for almost 3 weeks.

so the red melon and blue turquoise are still in the 55 gallon. the red melon is perfect. doing very well. the blue guy has a good appetite but is still dark in color and very thin. I have been going crazy on trying to find different foods for him to gain weight and that he would love to eat. he is a bit picky right now...I have stopped giving my home recipe since this all happened and am trying to source out beef heart but was thinking on trying beefheart pellets int he meantime. If anyone has any info on that I am all ears!, the good the bad...for now I give them freeze dried australian black worms, frozen brine shrimp, tetra color pellets, some blood worms and flake food just to see what they will eat. the blue guy nibbles on everything but really doesnt pig out on anything as if nothing is to his liling. he went nuts at the black worms at first as I had never given them that but he is past it now!

so in conclusion, I lost 3 beautiful fish but gained so much knowledge. I have also had many MANY conversations with my city to have all the info I can in regards with my municipal water, but that's a hole other subject!

thanks so much to everyone here, I could not have made it without you, you helped out in many more ways than you know!

[Paul Sabucchi]

Glad to hear that one way or the other you are coming out of a distressing situation. What are your plans for all your current fish?

[nancyx25]

well my 120 now has less fish. the 3 that passed away and the 2 that are in hospital tank. that witht the fact that the tank is now barebottom, that I do not feed my homemade recipe anymore until I can find beefheart, I also feed a lot less and do bigger water changes now, I think I am going in a much safer direction! the remaining fish are doing extremely good. I have 3 red maps that are getting HUGE by the minute! the big boss man is geting close to 7 inches!
As for the 2 fish in HT, I am waiting for the blue turquoise to gain a of weight back and return to his regular color before I put him back in the comunity tank. The red melon with him is in pefect shape but I prefer not to leave the blue guy alone...I feel he would take more to recover alone and be more stressed but maybe I am doing this wrong ?...
In all my years of having fish I have NEVER had to medicate. Don't know if I am just lucky but never encountered any ick, or any disease. I sometimes have a small fish die without notice and that always stesses me out but have never been faced with an entire tank showing disease or fungus ar anything like that, so this was all new to me!

[nancyx25]

OHHHHH MY GOODNESSSS!!!! I just realized something...Brewmaster15, as in Al, as in, THE Al featured in a Joey Mullen video as you give a seminar on keeping discus? I have watched that video too many times to count, took notes, rewatched again, and again!! lollll I love that video, so full of info and very helpful, and here you helped me yet again with my issue. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! thank you thank you!

[Pices]

Speaking of Al, when I had a similar picky eater, he recommended live brine and they all ate it up. I get it every few weeks now and they gorge themselves. I have a tiny net, I scoop them up, give it a little rinse and they love them.
Patty

[nancyx25]

Speaking of Al, when I had a similar picky eater, he recommended live brine and they all ate it up. I get it every few weeks now and they gorge themselves. I have a tiny net, I scoop them up, give it a little rinse and they love them.
Patty

that's a good idea. will look into a hatchery set up. i like this better than worms I must say! I was also thinking about cherry shrimp, started another post on that in the food section. would really love to have some live stuff to feed them with.

[brewmaster15]

OHHHHH MY GOODNESSSS!!!! I just realized something...Brewmaster15, as in Al, as in, THE Al featured in a Joey Mullen video as you give a seminar on keeping discus? I have watched that video too many times to count, took notes, rewatched again, and again!! lollll I love that video, so full of info and very helpful, and here you helped me yet again with my issue. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! thank you thank you!

(embarassed : Als Blushing ) You are welcome Nancy.Im glad that you enjoyed the talk and got some information from it.
al