Aquarium Epidemic

[Gold Hope Stable]

Well for the past week or so, all my fish in my tank, besides one sucker fish (a Plecostomus), have been sick. There was algea and waste everywhere and their fins were growing shorter and mold grew on them, they were also covered in small white bumps. Finally today all but the one sucker fish died. I was treating the tank with algea destroyer and something to help keep the fish from too much stress. I think it was fin rot but I'm not sure, they were always laying on the bottom of the tank since the illness struck, giving me many false alarms to when they were dead. The total loss was 3 Black Skirted Hifin Tertas, 4 Fancy Guppies (3 males, 1 female), 1 Female Betta, and the Plecostomus. One small Pleco is surviving so far. I moved the Pleco to a smaller 4 gallon tank and have added a little bleach to the tank after removing the decorations and is bleaching them in a wash tub. Im letting them sit over night and replacing all water tomorrow.

Any ideas to what it was? Or what I should do next time?

[EDZ]

Shouldn't be using bleach in an aquarium, should you? I always just clean mine out by filling with scalding hot water and letting them sit over night.

[American]

Yeah, you really shouldn't bleach your tanks as EDZ said.
Did you add any new fish recently?

[Gold Hope Stable]

Oh well too late now for the bleach. I read it on the internet somewhere.

[EDZ]

Fish are notoriously fickle and fragile. But it's that bleach thing that gives me serious doubts about using that tank for fish now. I'm not trying to be difficult or anything, but when I first got into fish I was told not to use anything 'household' to clean out the tanks, just to do the scalding hot water technique. Regular cleaners and such leave residues that can linger for quite a while in the sealant leading to an unfit environment.

[Jinxx]

You can use bleach to clean an empty aquarium and it's decorations just make sure to rinse very well then let it all sit in the sun for a day.

Your fish most likely became sick because they were stressed (water parimeters were bad. ie high ammonia or nitrites) or you added new fish that were harboring something.

Could have been a number of things. How big was the tank compared to the total number of fish, was the tank cycled before you added the fish, the temp, the combination of fish, you need to do partial water changes at least once a week (taking water from the bottom of the tank). Your comment on waste/debris all over tells me you most likely haven't. Adding new fish without quarantining them (all new fish should be quarantined for about 21 days, you should never add a newly purchased fish directly to you tank).

Adding aquarium salt (the kind for freshwater tanks) can be done too. It helps (all my newly purchased fish go into a quarantine tank that has salt added to the water).

[Gold Hope Stable]

It was a regular 20 gallon tank. It's been in use for at least 6 months. The temp is kept at 72 degrees constantly and i have never had any problems with temp.




What do you guys think the disease was so i can get meds for it, for any future outbreaks?


Im going to get my parents to get stuff to cycle it before any fish are bought for it. I rinsed everything with warm and cold water at least 5 times after bleaching everything. I just need to wash the filters now. Im going to help start it with removing something from the tanks that has been going for years and put it in the tank.

[Cecelia]

I'm sorry for your loss.I can't be of much help if it's about fish but I can try.
What did you rinse the tank out with after you cleaned it?
And if you are wondering what the disease was maybe you could get a vet's office to do a necropsy. Just a thought... again I'm sorry.

[Jinxx]

Sounds like Ich (Ichthyophthirius) to me. You can google Fish Ich or Ichthyophtirius to read about it and treatments.

I keep my tropicals tank (containing angels, guppies, betta, tetras and the like at between 76-78.)

Plecos shouldn't have a salted tank (just a fyi since I mentioned salt in the tank).

[Gold Hope Stable]

[White Frost]

I agree with Jinx it could be Ich my friends fish got it and they had to get a special treatment for it. I am not sure about anything else seeing I just got a new tank my self and am still learning.

[Gold Hope Stable]

We got the tank restarted and its going good. Thats for the help

[Jinxx]

I'm glad to hear you have it up and running. Have you cycled the tank using one of the products on the market for it or are you doing it by adding fish gradually to the tank?

[Gold Hope Stable]

We started with two goldfish. I wanted to cycle the tanks with products, but my parents said it was to expensive. We are gonna leaave it at that for a couple more weeks before adding anything else.