I'm getting phlusterated

[engiskhan]

some of you may remember that about 3 weeks ago my leopards spawned so I put in a tank divider and not long after, the jewel of my tank, my male leopard, quickly became ill and died.

the female leopard paired up with a mandarin passion and spawned once. I moved them into a 29 gallon tank and put the sponge filter from the 55 in there too.

ammonia, nitrite are both at 0, temp is 86, ph is bit below 7 and I'm changing out 50% daily with r/o water reconstituted with kent r/o right and discus essentials.

the female leopard is very dark and has her fins clamped. what's disturbing to me is that her gills look a little swollen like the male's did before he suddenly died. No other fish seems to have what she has, but I have to say that the other fish haven't been themselves in awhile either. they all eat, but they don't attack the food like they used to. they are much more timid. One night when I got up in the middle of the night, the two in the 29 went berzerk and were hitting the lid, and the sides of the tank. what the heck am I doing wrong?

[Jeff]

Are you cleaning out the filters well? You may have just startled the ones in the 29.

[engiskhan]

I have a lustar V in the 29 and just put a new one in the 55. The one in the 55 has a hob filter and a little sponge. When I clean them out, should I actually squeeze the filter? The sponge in the 29 is the only filtration I have. Oh, one thing I forgot to mention is that I have these tiny worms floating in the water. they look a little thinner than threads and must be about a quarter inch in length. The leopard's gills look swollen and she's breathing hard, but there is no sign of irritation like flashing or scraping.

I think the worms may have been inside of the lustar V I had in the 55. the way I'd clean that filter out once a week is to siphon directly from the sponge. lots of crud would come out. when I moved that filter into the 29, there was alot of junk in the inside tube.

[Jeff]

Yes pound the hell out of those filters. They may be actually getting poisioned from them. Call me if you want.

[Carol_Roberts]

You don't want any solids in the filters at all. I rinse mine in dechlorinated water until they run clear. It doesn't do any good to add clean water if the filters are full of mulm. The worms aree a sign of water quality problems Clean the filters, do a water change, try formalin or quick cure

[engiskhan]

thanks for the tip guys. I squeezed the lustar V in the 29 and it took two 5 gallon buckets of fresh water to rinse it out. the water in both buckets looked like sewage. It smelled pretty bad too. I'll try quick cure or formalin tomorrow. I can't believe the amount of solids inside of the sponge in the aeration tube. I don't see how that stuff can get in there.

Oh, one more question: cleaning the filters like this won't disturb the bio filter?

[RyanH]

It will disturb the bacteria some but you are still far better off thoroughly rinsing it from time to time as apposed to letting it collect waste like that. (Make sure you are rinsing in warm, dechlorinated water or your bacteria will be history.)

I am also really sold on prefilters. They are really easy to remove and squeeze out and you won't have to clean your filter media as often. I use FilterMax III's and I love them but lots of people will just cut a piece of fine sponge media to fit on the intake tube.

hth

[Goldfish_in_a_bowl]

DITTO
but I want to use Caps on the "Pound the Hell out of them!" okay Jeff? :funny: ;D

Prefilters a Must!
Water changes wont' do a whole lot of good if the clean water goes through Muck in a Yacky filter.

Oh Call...Jeff, I heard he thinks best around 3:00 AM tho! LOL

Hope things go better.
Let us know.
Karen :gorgeous:

[April]

now that their clean..and if you have two filters..clean at separate times. if your filter gets too full of stuff..your ph could start to dive if soft water..and you could get a crash. hope they look better. sounds like too high a bioload to me .
when your ph starts to slide..they do get skittish. first sign of ph getting too low.

[Jeff]

:P :-*

[engiskhan]

the leopard now seems to be doing better. she's still breathing rapidly, but her fins aren't so clamped and her color's a bit better. Maybe I'll do the peroxide thing too so she can breathe easier.

I remember that before, I would siphon directly off of the sponge and would see a cloud coming through the tube. I would try not to siphon too much so I wouldn't upset the bio in the filter. Lesson learned, another one.

[Carol_Roberts]

I doubt you are low on oxygen. Your filters should be moving the water enough

[jaydoc]

thread worms can be a sign of rotting food in the filter. If you aren't over feeding, it may just be the need for better cleaning and a prefilter as mentioned by others. I had the same problem with a wet/dry not long ago dispite religious 50-60% daily water changes and tank cleaning 2X weekly. Turned out my filter was hiding a secret! different prefilter setup and careful attention to food types and quantity have it all cleared up ;D