:-(

[yargnits]

my fish are dying . i dont know why. ive been keeping fish for 20 years and rays successfully for 10+ years and im really stuck. ive recently downgraded so i have two large tanks and a small pup / hospital tank.
ive had problems with the tank in question before but i thought it was all good especially since ive seen breeding attempts a few weeks ago. however soon after that things seem to have become worse again ( the pregnant ray is mentioned in the other thread regarding problems with the tank) .

so . ive basically got dead fish swimming. the scally fish (arowana , gar , bala shark ) show the problems more visibly but the scaleless fish ie the rays dont seem to show as much but im sure are affected as they are lifeless. very still and hardly breathing.

ive turned off the power heads and heaters in case there is an electrical leak to the water that isnt obvious or something else ( temp and o2 should still be good ) so just have an old eheim filter and a fx5 running .

i have been transfering water from the good tank to the dead tank every other day and topped up the good tank with hma water ( with new filters) . ive cleaned filters turned off excess utilities like heaters powerheads and things so just the filters running atm.

any other suggestions that might help? ive spent 20 years searching , keeping , raising and finally successfully breeding rays but now im at a loss as to why im having problems especially since its the low feed small ray tank. all the rays are well under 12" and dont eat much. last 12 months have been a b*tch .

any suggestions are considered.

 

[yargnits]

This is the aro :-(

 

[BIG-G]

Have you ran the full battery of tests on your water? Ammonia. And nitrites especially.
Any thing possibly happening to your source water? Are you on municipal water or a well?
These are basics. You say you've been keeping fish for years so I'm assuming you've probably already checked these things but just making sure.
Have you put a volt meter to the tank to be sure your not have any stray electricity? Even if you've disconnected the heater and power head the pumps or filters could be the culprit?

 

[Dieselhybrid]

I don't have answers but I can say I relate to your struggles. I lost a female weeks ago and 2 newborn pups shortly after. I'm going down the checklist of potential culprits or causes.
Don't give up. Keep looking for clues. Water, disease, tankmates, etc.

Much support and positivity. I remember your posts from years ago when I was new here.

The eyes on that aro could be infection but could be burns from nitrite or ammonia. My big aro got some cloudy eye during transport from an ammonia spike.

I'm assuming you've tested your tanks and water source?

 

[CANAMONSTER]

It is actually the hardest to keep fish as long as you have so don't feel to bad

Test your Redox levels. Read something very interesting about this.

 

[UnstoppableJayD]

Looks like a bacterial infection

 

[jim barry]

Blimey mate that does not look good. really feel for you mate, it's heart breaking when you have issues that can't be resolved. I have no idea what the issue could be. You are an experienced keeper and I am sure you have covered most of the simple stuff.
Have you considered fluke solve for the rays? May not help but wouldn't hurt either.
Really hope you get to the bottom of the issue mate, best of luck. Keep us posted buddy.

 

[MariaS]

yargnits ... I am sorry..that looks terrible...

Is it just the eyes on the Arowana or the scales as well? I cant make out properly from the picture..

 

[Dieselhybrid]

I'm going to take a swing here. Offer an opinion. I would try a nitrofurazone, methylene blue, Sulfathiazole Sodium combination therapy. You need the big guns, multispectrum, the nuclear option in my opinion. I don't know whether that's gram positive, negative, fungal, parasitic or demonic in nature. But we need to fix this. Sulfur is somewhat hard on rays, but so is whatever is going on in your system. I have a friend who recently used this on his large system to treat some sick PB's and his rays tolerated it fine.

I generally start with pure nitrofurazone as it is much easier on the biological filter and fish, but the option listed above is often used in the hobby as a multispectrum treatment. It will be rough on your biological filtration over time. So if you can preserve some media and maybe rotate it between systems that could help. Frequent water changes and subsequent redosing to keep waste down but treatment levels up. I would generally recommend a quarantine but I know your systems are large and fish numerous. I know you're on the other side of the pond but I buy this combination here in the USA, it's called green but doesn't contain malachite:

http://store.nationalfishpharm.com/NFP-products-Nitrofuracin-Green-59584.Item.html

I think a similar combination may possibly be bundled in a marketed product in the UK. Or you could source all 3 I hope. Perhaps I remember hearing methylene blue is restricted in EU? If it is you could substitute in Kanamycin. I've heard of minocycline being used with this combo but I've never personally tried.

Good luck!

 

[yargnits]

Have you ran the full battery of tests on your water? Ammonia. And nitrites especially.
Any thing possibly happening to your source water? Are you on municipal water or a well?
These are basics. You say you've been keeping fish for years so I'm assuming you've probably already checked these things but just making sure.
Have you put a volt meter to the tank to be sure your not have any stray electricity? Even if you've disconnected the heater and power head the pumps or filters could be the culprit?

my test kids are all way too old to be useful but the other signs like gasping for air or amonia burn are not present on the rays as i would have expected. my vault meter is also so old it doesnt work anymore so i might have to try get a new cheap one

I don't have answers but I can say I relate to your struggles. I lost a female weeks ago and 2 newborn pups shortly after. I'm going down the checklist of potential culprits or causes.
Don't give up. Keep looking for clues. Water, disease, tankmates, etc.

Much support and positivity. I remember your posts from years ago when I was new here.

The eyes on that aro could be infection but could be burns from nitrite or ammonia. My big aro got some cloudy eye during transport from an ammonia spike.

I'm assuming you've tested your tanks and water source?

sorry to hear of your troubles too. i dont spend as much time on the internet as i used to for various reasons so i dont visit the site as much. i hope things are looking better for you though. ive replaced my hma filters just in case but its unlikley that as the other tank and fish are fine,

Looks like a bacterial infection

i dont like dosing the tank with anything other than salt as i dont think it usually fixes the cause of the problem and instead adds more problems with filters etc . i probably should have moved the arro sooner but i was equally worried that moving him could fatal.

Blimey mate that does not look good. really feel for you mate, it's heart breaking when you have issues that can't be resolved. I have no idea what the issue could be. You are an experienced keeper and I am sure you have covered most of the simple stuff.
Have you considered fluke solve for the rays? May not help but wouldn't hurt either.
Really hope you get to the bottom of the issue mate, best of luck. Keep us posted buddy.

as above i dont like dosing the tank hoping for the best thanks for the support though.

yargnits ... I am sorry..that looks terrible...

Is it just the eyes on the Arowana or the scales as well? I cant make out properly from the picture..

its the whole aro still alive but looks like a week old dead fish at the moment . its hard to tell with the colour on the fish but you can see the blood under the scales like its really sore.
i would thinhk it was amonia burn myself but there is not the slightest mark on the rays other than a few bite marks from breeding recently.

I'm going to take a swing here. Offer an opinion. I would try a nitrofurazone, methylene blue, Sulfathiazole Sodium combination therapy. You need the big guns, multispectrum, the nuclear option in my opinion. I don't know whether that's gram positive, negative, fungal, parasitic or demonic in nature.
I think a similar combination may possibly be bundled in a marketed product in the UK. Or you could source all 3 I hope. Perhaps I remember hearing methylene blue is restricted in EU? If it is you could substitute in Kanamycin. I've heard of minocycline being used with this combo but I've never personally tried.

Good luck!

im worried about dosing in general tbh but i would be very worried about anything green or blue as i know rays are really sensitive to some chemicals..
that said the weird thing is how its only affected a few fish in a visibly serious way

the aro has been moved into the other tank along with one of the small rays that was/is pregnant. the ray seems fine, the aro looks dead but still swimming. eyes still very cloudy scales boday whiteish and fins are broken.

the bala shark thatt i thought would die has been put in a small tank with a couple of diy air powered filters and other than the edges of his fins being a bit ragged he has made a full recovery even his eyes are clear you would hardly know.

the rays left in the problem tank are mostly very still but nothing visible above or below their disk to suggest anything wrong however all but one seem to be sulking and shunning food.

the odd things are that the gar thats in there seems fine and has been eating throughout the ordeal as has an electric blue jack dempsey both obviously scaled fish. also the smallest and youngest stingray thats about 3/4 yrs and about 6inches is the most active and looking for food where the others are just sat still most of the time.

i was doing regular water changes and was up to date before it happened and as ive mentioned the rays were breeding.
its very odd that whatever it is seems to have selected a few fish who have been hit hard yet others dont seem affected.

the only thing that seems to make sense to me at the moment is that a chemicle has got into the tank possibly most concentrated where the arro and bala shark were at the time and has got dispersed as its got through the tank leaving some more exposed than others and possibly affected the filter although not enough to cause the rays to get amonia burn or show signs of nitrite posioning. the changes in stock from moving fish and reduced feeding as well as cleaning the main filter could also still be affected the tank. fingers crossed i gues. doesnt look like the arro is going to make it at the moment but if the bala shark can make a full recovery there is still chance.