One fish, two fish, black fish, black fish

I have a pair of S/S that had a batch of fry in November. The male couldn't handle the parental responsibilities so he was removed after a week of free-swimming. Then a week later I removed the female as the fry were doing well and eating. I had filled another 30g tank with tap water from my holding tank and put the male & female in there. They both got very dark that day. I was concerned there was something wrong with the water so I moved them to another tank for a day with no improvement. They were jet black, couldn't see the pattern. They started getting that hazy gray plate-like pattern as well. This is typical of my luck so I wasn't surprised, in the past I've had pairs spawn successfully one time and then stop or die. I had a bunch of advice on what to do with these guys as well as what the cause was. I figure I did the equivalent of a 100% water change and the water was off somehow. It doesn't make sense since I used the same water that I was using to do 50% water changes on the tanks that the pair came from, but they were black and looked like death was coming. So I turned up the heat to 92ºF, added 10oz of salt and waited. They were still eating a bit and reasonably alert so I fed them. I didn't change any water, just removed the crap, basically ignored them. It was too hard to look at the fish. After about a week their color came back overnight and they were alert. I set up another tank, let the water sit for a day and moved the pair to it. Now they're active, hungry and pecking at the cone. I'm calling it a success so far but that will be fulfilled when/if they breed again.

Dave

p.s. sorry, no pictures of them when they were black and ugly. I didn't want to even look at them, let alone take photographs. It seemed like bad luck to snap a few, didn't want to jinx them.

Ya know Dave I feel for ya.

Had the same trouble starting last Sunday night....

Had just done a 50% w/c only difference my fry were still with the parents. Of the 50% I replaced all but 1/8 with RO water (as I normally do) and the remaining I used aged tap. Within 10 minutes Dad was bangin against the sides of the tank and then straight to the bottom he laid. Mom showed great concern by charging and pecking at him only to end up floating near the top when it finally hit her too. Was on chat with Ryan at the time and we both were stunned because the tap would have only raised the ph a bit.... I knew the tap was well aged because the other 2 tanks were fine as normal..... With Ryans direction I turned the lights off, and kept an eye on them. By the time I went to bed they were a bit dark and listless but for the most part seemed to be OK....

The next morning they appeared to be a bit better so I fed them (kids too) and went off to work as usual. When I returned Mom and Dad both looked near death with what seemed to be white patches all over their very dark, no patterned bodies. In complete panic I called Cary but he was unavailable. So I immediately pulled the fry (thanks for the help Weezy) and did a 50% w/c replacing with straight RO but this time adding 1TBS salt per 5 gal. Mom and Dad started to show immediate improvement. Then Cary called back and basically told me that the fry had eatin them completely raw and the water (parameter) change was too much for them to handle. Which taught me a great lesson....... No matter how well the fry are eating on their own, Mom and Dad are still regenerating their slimecoats. The minute there is no food in the tank for them to eat (because I was at work) they will find the food source they are most familiar with.... End result Mom and Dad very sick....... Hard lesson learned indeed.....

All in all I am very thankful I had Simply available to me... If it wasn't for Ryan (Sunday night) Weezy and then Doctor Cary (Monday night) I would have completely lost it......

BTW Cary Ryan and Weezy feel free to add to this story... Knowing me I probably forgot something.....

[daninthesand]

Dave.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the fish. Doesn't it really piss you off when for no apparent reason these things happen? But there seems to be a similarity in these two stories leading to some kind of depleton of slime cover that may help account for these signs. Just a guess on my part.

I'm glad to hear it seems to have worked out for you. The power of SALT! It never ceases to amaze me how this simple treatment can work wonders. Not for everyting of course, but for some things its like a magic bullet.

Great job, Dave. And thanks for sharing.

PS. Success of the cure is not always necessarily that the fish breed . In my mind at least a discus is beautiful in its ability to survive these pitfalls. Breeding is a nice bonus but not always a must in my book. JMO

[RandalB]

I had the same problem with two Juvenile Blue Turquoise over the holiday. I was a fool and skipped two w/c's (Too much going on) I looked in last night and saw one turq was dark and hanging in the corner and the other was dark. Out they came and into the hospital. Temp to 90 degrees, salt went in. This morning, one dead and one not doing well.

Lession to be learned: DON'T SKIP THE WATER CHANGES!

I learned mine,
RandalB

[Carol_Roberts]

That's dying awful fast for only missing two water changes Randall. They hang on in pet stores for weeks in dirty water. Was tank too small or not enough oxygen? I'd watch everybody real close in case there is a something ready to break out at the least provocation. Heaven knows we've all missed a couple of water changes during the holidays.

Than you DaveC and Julz for posting. I will be extra careful now when removing parents from fry to new tank!

Carol

[Jason]

good job RYAN!!

[April]

sorry to hear...randal. but doesnt seem like missing a water change or two would do it. something else mustve happend. unless there was a high bioload all of a sudden from throwing them extra food..while you were away.
i....being i was gone alot from the shop on christmas eve and my bs was low on hatching that day..added a few flakes and some cyclop-eeze to my fry...lost 10. i went at night did a change...all was fine..came in the morning and they were all scattered and some hanging and dark and some dead. i added maroxy and brought the worst ones home . they are all now eating and begging and light again. good stuff to have on hand for 2 to 3 week old fry. but shows a tiny bit of extra bioload and bang,...and it looked like gill flukes..bt was definitely a bit of uneaten food.
guess im not allowed to have a holiday.
oh...and i asked cary about the cyclop-eeze..and i should ve listened. as he said it pollutes the water too easy. back to bbs.

[RandalB]

Actually, I think it was the stress of being moved that killed the one. I've been on the phone to Cary Strong and He agrees. It seems that the fish were carrying something that the stress of the forgotten W/C's brought out. When I saw the fish dark, I went ahead and stressed them more which killed the one and by this time probably the other. The whole point was, I had them on a regimen of 75% 2xdaily W/C's when that changed, They got sick. When I took action the one died probably due to complications not necessarily from the infection. The other fish in that tank are fine, just the two got sick.

My problem was that I did not maintain water consistency and the fish suffered.

Again, Lesson learned.

RandalB

Damn sorry to hear Randal (really )....

Is so hard when you end up loosing one....some.... any!! But I can't express enough how much I personally have learned from posts like these. Thanks for sharing your mishap and thanks to you Dave for starting this thread. I would have never got the guts to respond with mine.......

I may loose my male afterall. His eyes looked real buggy when I got home from work tonight... Tis the season...?

I am bummin.... :'(