Looking for some help from the pros... Please?

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DB junkie

DB junkie

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MFK Member
Jan 27, 2007
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Iowa
I've been having some serious issues with my fish lately.

Went through a period of 4-5 months with everything just fine. No losses to speak of. I turned all my growouts loose in the 300 and everything was great. Well about a month and a half ago I had a ray waste away and pass. The ray went from eating fine, to eating less, to not eating at all. I tried several Prazi treatments with no luck. I had the ray for a year and a half and was about 6 inches when I got it. Sold to me as an abarent patterned Marble, was mature when it arrived at 6 inches (male) which I thought was kinda odd, but irrelevant. Despite the ray eating regularly it only gained about an inch over a year and a half. IF I had to guess C.O.D. I would guess nematodes.

5 weeks ago a pair of Dorado quit eating, start swimming messed up. Doing flips and darting. One of them swam like the back half of it's body was weighted down. Well 3 weeks ago my Armatus started dropping like flies. One, then 2 weeks later another 2. They loose appetite then begin swimming tipsy, and darty. They begin exhibiting the same swimming like the back half of the body is weighted down. Well tonight the Aro is sucoming to the same thing. Same tipsy weighted down back end swimming. It quit eating 2 weeks ago. Will be dead shortly.

After a bunch of reading it seems these may be symptoms of internal parasites or swim bladder issues. The lack of appetite leads me to think parasites.

Here's the kicker...... Between the 2 tanks there are 5 rays. None acting any different, eating like pigs. I have 2 Armatus left. 1 acting normal, the other starting to show diminished appetite. None of the 5 Odoe or 2 Cynopotomus seem to be affected.

I thought at first maybe it's just the high PH hard water, but after seeing this happen to the Silver Aro I'm starting to think it's not the water but rather the fish being sick.

At this point I've lost more fish then I have left. Can anyone help me out here?

No feeders have been fed for months. If I had to guess I'd say 4 months prior to the fish being turned loose in the 300 over 2 months ago, so about a half year.

There has been no visual signs of anything wrong from a health point of view. They just quit eating then anywhere from 4 days to 2 weeks they start swimming funny. 3 days later tops they are dead. :cry:

Please any questions that can help lead to answers please ask, I'm really at a loss as to what's going on. Almost has to be something internal, like I said there are NO external signs of anything being wrong till the appetite and swimming issues.

To anyone that can help I can't thank you enough. I don't really wanna medicate something I can't diagnose, for the 5 rays really mean a lot to me and I don't wanna stress them with shotgunning meds in the tank.
 
The tanks are 300 and the other 150

Both filtered by pot scrubbie filled wet/dries 300 driven by a 4700gph pump the 150 3600gph. Filter socks prior to scrubbies that get cleaned every week or 2.

300 has been up for a year, 150 3 months (was started with bio from 300)

API test kit PH 8.5-8.8 Nitrite 0, ammo 0, Nitrate less then 100. Alk 240 hardness 320.

Stock in the 300- 4 Marbles under 10 in , 5 Odoes under 8in, 2 Armatus 10 and 7 in, 2 Cynos at 7in, 1 BGK @ 9in

Stock in 150- 1 6in Marble pup 1 dying 11in Silver Aro.

WCs done 2-4 times a week, roughly 50%

Diet is mainly shrimp, smelt, and fish fillet.

No natural sunlight, lights on 150 on for 8-12 hours a day. 300 one small light always on and the other 2 on 8-12 hrs a day.

IF there's any other info can provide that would help please let me know.
 
32 views and no replies?

Did I do something wrong? Or is does this situation have everyone as stumped as I am?
 
Most of us would just be guessing, I have read your posts several times and really don't know where the problem could be. Only thing I would recommend changing would be to lower your pH, this is just my opinion but many have successfully kept fish such as yours in a high pH like you have.
 
DB junkie;3904409; said:
Nitrate less then 100. Alk 240 hardness 320.
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Nitrates "less than 100"??!! There's your problem. I don't care how many people try to say high nitrates aren't dangerous-they are. And they will kill fish. There's an article on Oscarfish.com about it but I don't have their permission to post it.
Why the heck are you letting your nitates get so high?? Yet, you're worried about pH? That makes no sense.
 
TwistedPenguin;3906141; said:
Nitrates "less than 100"??!! There's your problem. I don't care how many people try to say high nitrates aren't dangerous-they are. And they will kill fish. There's an article on Oscarfish.com about it but I don't have their permission to post it.
Why the heck are you letting your nitates get so high?? Yet, you're worried about pH? That makes no sense.
Click to expand...

REALLY?

I change between 300 and 600 gallons of water/week in that tank. Test kit is kinda old so I rather then test Nitrate I just do another waterchange. Change it almost every other day, 50% at a time. This has never been an issue when I did once a week waterchanges, I'm sure water conditions were much worse then. But if you say Nitrates then I guess I'll do daily waterchanges and see if that helps. If it doesn't I'll change 100% a day.

Kinda ironic that a silver Aro would die from Nitrate poisoning yet the rays are just fine don't you think?
 
What is your nitrate out of the tap? I'm in Des Moines,and it runs high here.Sometimes at 60ppm out of tap,not usually this time of year though,mostly in spring or fall with the run off.But I just heard on the news,they were advising pregnant women and children under 6 months not to drink the water somewhere in Iowa due to high nitrate.I'm not sure in what part of the state though.

EDIT: re-read and your test for nitrate is old so you don't test. you might want to get new test and check it. not sure if that is your problem,but it is a place to start. sucks you are losing fish. you've got a great collection.
 
Its just weird that I've kept fish for many years and have never had nitrate kill fish. Don't know why it would start now. I gaurentee there's Aros out there being kept in much higher Nitrate then what I have.
 
Yeah I have too.But after I heard about the pregnant women and young children not supposed to be drinking the water somewhere in Iowa,and Twisted Penguins comment,I thought I would throw that out as a suggestion.

Des Moines just has high nitrate in the water.I am just assuming the rest of the state does too,even though I don't know what part of Iowa you are from.I use to test it quite often,then once I figured other than planting tanks,which helps a little in the tanks I have with fish that won't rip them out,that was about all I could do.
Even with the high nitrates in the tap,I don't feel I have lost any fish because of it.

Good luck.I hope the deaths stop,and you can start to re-stock your loses soon.
 
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