bacterial infection? what and how to clean?

[Fishbert]

alright so not necessarily monster fish but i have a guppy breeding project in a ten gallon to feed my alligator snapping turtle which is currently in a 40 breeder. Now i picked up the guppies during a dollar a fish sale at petsmart recently and rather than quarantine i threw them in the ten with the couple i had left. I know i messed up there but i hold off feeding until the fish are settled and proven healthy and at least establish breeding patterns but this time things didn't go well. The breeding stopped all together and the fish started losing parts of their tail and dying one by one. Like the meat on their tails, not just fin material, almost as if there were small bites being taken out of them. anyway I'm back down to a couple and the ones i have left i don't feel comfortable using as food.

Back story aside, i came to the conclusion that this could be cause by a bacterial infection, i could be wrong, and fully expect to lose the rest of the fish i have on retainer for food. At this point it is what it is. Once all is said and done however the tank is a sand bottom with MTS, pond snails, a couple small decorations and a decent amount of plants. how do i go about making sure this problem won't come back when i get more feeder fish?

i plan on losing the decor, losing the sand and somehow cleaning the plants, most are floating plants anyway so they should do fine in a bare bottom but i don't know how to effectively clean them without killing them or how much i need to do otherwise.

thank you!

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Two things come to mind. First is to try a strong solution of a broad spectrum antibiotic. I tried this method recently to try and rid tank plants, snails and some equipment of what I believe to be cyanobacteria-algae. I put about four gallons of water in a five gallon bucket. I put my live plants, snails and some small tank equipment in the bucket with a packet of erythromycin. I left the stuff in for three to five days with a second packet of erythromycin the second day. The four gallons of water made for a stronger solution and the extra time should have allowed for better killing of any succeptable bacteria. In this case I had some confidence the bacteria were succeptable to the antibiotic. For a mystery or unknown bacterial infection it can be a crap shoot as to which antibiotic might work. A particular antibiotic will not kill all bacteria so just trying one might not work at all. There are also issues with antibiotic resistence so that should be taken into account.

Another method I have read about and recently have some experience with is a soak in a clorox solution. When setting up my tanks recently I cleaned the gravel and soaked it in a clorox solution. I also test filled a tank and put some clorox in the water to try to ensure any lingering bacteria are dead. This was the first time trying clorox to disinfect. I allowed it to run with only water for a few days and put in some live plants and snails. The snails were affected right away. About a day and a half later I found some dechlor chemical locally that took care of the remaining clorox. That was about a week ago. The Cryptocorynes and java ferns are still alive but the dwarf sagittaria died.
I have read posts of other members having put plants in a clorox solution for 60 seconds. I do not know the strength of the solution.

 

[Fishbert]

great thanks a lot, definitely a step in the right direction for me