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Aquarium disaster, please help :(!

3K views 17 replies 3 participants last post by  Norbert93 
#1 ·
Hy everyone! I've decided to post my own thread since I don't even know what to search for among the existent threads, cause I have no idea what is going on in my tank anymore :( .

First of all I am a beginner, I set up my tank in august this year, it is a 52 l tank, with a few plants (1 moss ball, another type of moss, a few Anacharis Elodea and Cryptocoryne Willisii or Becketti, I am not sure which), a piece of wood, a plastic decoration, filter and a heater.
The water temperature is 24,5-25 celsius, and the water parameters are:
NO3= 15 ppm
NO2= 0ppm
NH4= <0.05 ppm
pH=7.2
GH= >7( >125 ppm)
KH= 6 ( 107 ppm)
Cl2= 0 ppm

And here is my tanks story: So I set up my tank in august this year, and I let it cycle for 2 weeks, using fish food as ammonia source, and I monitored the water parameters, and also did a water change once a week. After the first two weeks the cycle was over, so I added my first two fish a black molly and a Sterbai's cory. I was careful not rise too fast the bioload, so I builded up my stocking slowly, while always monitoring the water parameters. At the end of september I've added my last fishes, ending up with: 5 Corys (2 Albino, 1 Sterbai's and 1 Panda) , 1 female Black Molly, 1 young, male Albino Ancistrus, and 6 Rasbora Espei.

At the beginning I measured the water parameters daily and I did 2-3 (30%) water changes/week, because I was scared of an ammonia or nitrite spike, cause I've added the 6 Rasboras last, and I feared that would rise the bioload too much, but I had no problems. After a week or two, I went for a week without water change, but I kept measuring the parameters daily, and did a 35-40% water change on the seventh day, on the next week I did the same thing, and since there were no ammonia or nitrite spikes, and the nitrates did not reach a dangerous level, I went on with only one 35-40% water change/week, and I also measured the parameters once a week before the water change, but sometimes I also checked it during the week and it was all right every time. No pH fluctuations, no ammonia or nitrite spikes.
When I do a water change I also vacuum the gravel, and I clean the sponges from the filter in the tank water that I just took out. I use tap water to which I add a water conditioner named Clorocid, and I let it stay for minimum 24h.
I feed my fish once a day, making sure not to overfeed them, and variate their food daily, between: granules, flakes, dried daphnia, and sometimes I give a boiled pea to my Ancistrus, of which the Black Molly also likes to eat.
The problems started with my Black Molly somewhere at the end of october, on his body, on one of his side, near his tail fin appeared a white spot, it was small, and it wasn't fuzzy looking, so I believe it wasn't fungus, since it was only one spot, I am sure it wasn't white spot disease too. I started too look it up on the internet and I found out that Black Mollys like brackish water and I thought that is her problem, but since I had corys too which, I understand, are sensible to salt I could not add too much salt to the water. I gradually raised up the salt concentration to 0.1 %, with the water changes. After a few days the white spot just disappeared. But if I stopped adding salt it came back on another spot. One they I saw that she had 2 white spots already, one near her tail fin, and the other on her had behind her eye.
I added salt again and the white spot from her side disappeared but the one on her had did not. A couple of days later another spot (bump) appeared on her side, but this one started to grow too. I raised the salt concentration to 0.2% gradually, and it started to disappear but It left a hole on her side, which healed up over time. This time the white spot on her head was still there.
During this time all of my other fish were good, very active, colorful (except the albinos ), until one day I found my cory panda dead when I got home from work. It was active as usually the day before, and didn't show sings of illness at that morning neither.
A week later my Sterbai's cory started to look sick, he got a bit skinnier I think, than lost his color, and before he died he swam weird, and had a bit of a curved body.
I checked the parameters, and they were OK, but still, after their deaths I did a water change 2x /week.
After the second cory died more then a week later I saw that my two albino corys and my black molly started to have fin rot. At this point I set up a hospital tank and started treating them with Ektol bac Plus 250 from JBL. The two corys got better, and first the molly too, but later her body just curved a bit, since the treatment was over I put back the two corys to the main tank, and left molly in the hospital tank.
Before adding back the two corys, one of my Rasboras jumped out of the tank, I found him dead on the floor when I got home. I thought that he got scared of something, and I read on a forum that they are jumpy. But unfortunately 3-4 days later I saw that one of my remaining Rasboras started to have fin rot too. The next day all of them had clamped fins. At this point I've decided to treat my main tank, but I did not want to kill my beneficial bacteria, so I searched for a treatment that does not kill them, so I ended up adding Sera omnipur to the tank. Before starting the treatment I decided to but back in the black molly too and I also bought 2 more Rasbora's to have a school of 7. I decided to do this cause I thought that if I already have to treat the whole tank I should add the new fish and get rid of an eventual disease they could carry, and also to try another treatment with the black molly.
I've added the treatment 2 days ago and it has been a disaster since then , because one of the new Rasboras jumped out of the tank, my molly now has clamped fins, her body is curved, and still has fin rot. A couple of hours after I added the treatment the Rasbora that started to develop fin rot at his dorsal fin just turned upside down and swam like that around the tank and he could not get back in the right position, so I decided to do a salt dip to see if he recovers, I kept him there for 30 min, and It seemed like it is helping him since he got back in the right position, but he was still weak. After I put him back in the tank he died in a couple of minutes.
Right now 3 of my Rasboras have their tail fin missing, and this happend today, in the morning they till had them and I kept checking on them and saw that it starts to disappear, like it's dissolved in the water. It is very weird :O :O :O :((. One of them tarted an hour ago to swim weird started to lose balance , so as soon as I finish posting this I will go ahead and euthanize him.
I forgot to mention that when I started the treatment I also added an airstone to have better aeration.

Do you guys have any idea what is happening, and why things got worst when I started the treatment? The parameters I gave you are current I just checked them before starting to write this post. I am sorry for this long post, but I wanted to give you all the information I have so that you can help me.
 
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#2 ·
Pictures

Here are some pictures too, it might help you identify the disease. And I also made a little video.
 

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#3 ·
Sorry to hear this. First off check to make sure that none of the meds you're using, including the salt, interact. I assume you're using aquarium salt? Sounds like a bacterial infection. Either there's an overwhelming amount of it in the tank or something else is stressing out the fish enough to drop their immune system. It's also worth checking to make sure that there are no recalls/issues with anything in the tank; substrate, meds, water conditioner, tap water, foods. Don't add anymore fish. When you do, use the hospital tank to quarantine for a least a few weeks. As far as maintenance goes, it's normally not a good idea to gravel vac, ater change, and clean filter the same day. Don't mess with the tank unless you need to. I only do water changes when I notice my nitrates go up, about every 4- 6 weeks and I only change 30% at a time. Every tank is different though. Keep us updated!
 
#4 ·
Hello. Thank you for your reply.
Well I used uniodized sea salt, because I read in multiple places that people use it, and they said that aquarium salt is just a ripoff. As a chemist I agree since the only difference is that they might add some vitamins too, but that just makes it harder to calculate how much you should add of it to reach a desired concentration. I did check my substrate, the water conditioner, the meds, but found no recalls or problems. I don't know about my tap water though, I can't be sure it's not affected.
What I observed is that when the light are on the fins of my fish deteriorate faster. Yesterday it was like it literally dissolved in the water form an hour to another, and later when the lights went out there was no further damage on my remaining 4 Rasboras fins, though till today one of my albino cory started to have fin rot too as you can see on the picture.
Someone told me it could be velvet, but I see no rust like spots on any of my fish. Today I left the light off to see if it makes a difference, and no one died. Is it a coincidence, or can it really be velvet?
 
#6 · (Edited)
Thank you for the link. I can not really decide what this is 😞. I believe the fin rot is just a secondary infection, and something else might causing this, maybe a parasite cause yesterday I saw one of my fish scratching to the leafe of a plant and another to the side of the aquarium, but it is not something they constantly do, at least not while I am watching them. First I thought it is columnaris, that is why I treated the molly and the two albino cories in the quarantine tank with ektol bac plus. Then when someone told me that it might be velvet it also got me thinking because I observed that when the lights are off things get better, but maybe you are right and it is just because this way I reduced the stress in the aquarium. From what I read based on these symptoms it can be neon tetra disease too. I don't know 😞 there are too many diseases there which have these symptoms, and I can see nothing specific on the fish like white dots, a white fuzzy growth which would be specific symptoms of white spot disease or fungus. And if it would be a case of fin rot I think that the sera omnipur should cure it but since I added it things just got worst.

This is why I hoped someone with experience might be able to help me out with a diagnosis.
 
#7 ·
It doesn't seem to fit any one disease, but I've seen similar spots (like the molly picture) when too much tank water was changed/ pH altered and the fish became stressed. Unfortunately, many diseases naturally live in our tanks so when a fish's immune system becomes compromised, several diseases can take hold. It doesn't look like velvet or fungus related. A general antibiotic may work well, however it will probably knock out the beneficial bacteria.
 
#8 ·
The molly has no white spots now, what you can see on the picture is just some reflection it is my bad. When she had the white spot the pH was stable I always measured it. And sometimes I checked it even before and also after the water change.
Here are some updates: so i kept the lights off for two days now and all of my remaining fish are alive. I have 4 rasbira espeis left, two of them miss their tail fin but they are schooling and colorful, the other two show no symptoms. They all eat and have no clamped fins anymore. The ancistrus is ok, no symptoms. Thr molly looks like she is getting better she also does not clamo her dorsal fin anymore and her body shape started to get back to normal. One of my albino corys has fin rot on his dorsal and tail fin, and on the other today when I got home from work I observed some dark spots, can this be some parasite? The spots are dark brown, can it be velvet? Or some other parasite? I will attach some picures. The spots are on his body on both side and on one of her fins.
 

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#10 ·
Well something seems to be working, keep on the same course for now. No there are meds specific to each kind of parasite. The salt might help/raising the temp. Corys are really sensitive. Could be 1. reaction to med 2. could be the disease on it's way out 3. could be something not present in the others 4. due to the sensitive nature of this type, it may be harder for them to recover. Some flashing against rocks/decor is normal, especially with a sand substrate. There are youtube videos on what not normal flashing behavior is like. The dark spots COULD be velvet, early to say for sure. Do you know if the fish store medicated/quarantined the fish?
 
#12 ·
UPDATE: Yesterday I obbserved something again. These dark brown spots on my cory disappeared completely in one day while the lights were out. Yesterday when I came home from work I turned the lights on for around 2 hours while I fed the fish and in order to my plants get some light, I don't know how much will they survive without the lights 😞. After an hour and a half I checked on the fish and as a surprise my cory had brown spots on his body and pelvic fins. I turned the light off and checked on him this morning and the spots were almost gone only a few were there. What is this :eek:? Can somebody help me please? Beside this all of my fish behave normally now, they are colorful again, but their fins where it got damaged by the fin rot looks still the same. At least it does not got worse.

Thank you in advance.
 
#14 ·
Thank you very much for your help.
I will remove the plants then and treat them separately. Also, I will make a 50% water change tomorrow, put back the carbon, let the filter run for 24 h this way, in order to remove any toxic substance left from the treatment with the Sera Omnipur. After 24 h I will remove the carbon and maybe I will do a smaller water change again, then I will add another round of Omnipur, since it says it is effective against velvet too, and I will leave the lights off during the whole treatment. I hope it will work.
 
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