Geophasgus deaths (gutted)

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Ballyclover

Feeder Fish
Jul 18, 2015
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0
1
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Ok, this a long story so please bare with me

I bought 10 geophasgus. I also bought 6 marble headstanders and 5 red back angles. All small ish.

Geos were around 2"

About a month in too keeping them I was offered a few german rams. These were small. After about 3 days the rams developed visiable signs of white spot. All but one died. I treated the tank with a white spot treatment, copied the directions given and did water changes as directed.

About 3 days later I lost my 1st Geo, over the next 5 days I lost a further 5.

It was suggested that I treat the tank with a bacteria treatment, as these geos were sand eaters and they were the only ones effected. They have no visible signs of infection. Although I did notice a white stringy poo from one. Over the next few days I lost the remaining Geos.

None of the other fish have been effected at all. This morning I lost an angel and have another in quaritine.

I have read that marble headstandards are semi aggressive and fin nippers which may account for the death of the angel and the stressed other one.

I have since introduced a filter boaster chemical as my ammonia levels were slightly high, this was explained that good bacteria may have been killed off by use of the white spot treatment.

I have also introduced more air to the bottom of the tank to allow more O2 in the water.

So does anyone have any suggestions on whats may have happened?

Tank is Juwel 300 (350lts). Sand substrate, less than 1/2 inch thick. temp is 80F

water is tap water treated with API stess coat. 30-50% water change once a week.

Water para Ammonia is now 0, (was 0.25) Nitrite is 0ppm nitrate around 20ppm and PH of 7.4

I would really like to know your opinions before I begin to restock. Kept Mbuna for ages and never experienced problems. any help would be appreciated
 
Sorry for your loss, that really sucks
I always quarantine new arrivals for a month or more before adding them to my display tank it is just not worth the risk imho
 
Quarantine is the most important thing you can implement. I quarantine everything. Even then you can cross-contaminate if you get careless... all it takes is wet hands or a drop of water on your finger from one tank to the next and it's over. Get a cheap used tank for QT, put it in a separate room, and give it its own net/siphon hose/bucket. Keep new fish there for 4 - 6 weeks and observe for any issues. Treat the new fish there if necessary.

As for your current batch, as much as you won't want to hear this, I'd start over. You have no idea what you have, or where it came from, so I'd sterilize it all, toss the fish, and start over. That, or avoid adding any new fish for a few months to see if your current stock balances out and stays healthy.
 
I agree with Ryan.

Additionaly the fact that you also had an ammonia spike tells me the tank wasn't fully cycled or you did something to cause it to recycle. Either the med you used caused your beneficial bacteria to die off or the bio-capacity of the system was exceeded. Either way any ammonia at all will kill the fish if not immediately addressed. What was the ich medication you used? What type of filtration are you using? What were you feeding and how often? 350 liters is about 90 gallons.
 
I used wilkinson stores own treatment. I also used esha 2000 after this to treat a possible second bacteria infection. I used 2 tetra tec 1200 external filters. I don't really want to completely sterile tank, but lost 3 Angels now and water parameters seem fine.. Am sure angles are stressed by the marble headstanders.
 
Agree with Ryan and Tom, a quarantine tank is an absolute necessity.

And just as Warfarin (rat poison) helps prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans, most ich medication is toxic to beneficial bacteria, and fish to some degree.
And the the disease ich, along with the use of those meds creates heavy stress on the system, which in turn can lead to bacterial infections.

It does not matter how trusted the source of a fish is, it should be quarantined.
Just the transfer of a fish from 1 tank to another, can create enough stress to bring out any latent malady, or opportunistic infection in the healthiest fish.
 
I have no way of knowing what was in the "store" treatment but the esha 2000 you used contains: 6.3 mg Ethacridine lactate, 3.2 mg Copper ++, 0.26 mg Methyl orange, 1 mg Proflavin. This would be very harsh on nitrofying bacteria and cause the ammonia spike you experienced. When using medications it is very important to fully understand the pros and cons, so you know what to expect form treatment and how to use it. Nitrofying bacteria is generally gram negative, unfortunately so are most aquatic bacterial infections few are gram positive. Additional some are aerobic (oxygen loving), some are (anaerobic, lack of oxygen), others like warm water, some prefer hard water etc. Then the fish themselves have certain tolerances, some species will be cured by a med that will kill another. So you see it's more than just putting medication into an aquarium which unfortunately happens all too often by well meaning aquarist. The result is a tank full of dead fish.
 
Don't beat yourself up over this kind of stuff, it's a pretty big learning curve. Hell, I've left a line of dead fish behind me longer than I care to admit. I learn new things from this site everyday. Years ago we didn't have online forums, if you didn't belong to a fish club you just muddled through reading books and trial and error. Welcome to MFK, its a great resource.
 
Agree with Tom, don't beat yourself up, we all learn by our mistakes.
I know I've made a ton.
One of the guys in our club says, if you haven't killed a lot of fish, you're not not trying hard enough.
The first thing I do when entering the fish room is to check for corpses, and when I "don't" find one, that's when I'm surprised.
 
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