mysterious deaths

[chafed]

over the course of th, my entire population of 7 angelfish, ranging from about 6 months to 2 years old, along with a few various catfish, died from some unknown illness. before dying, they had a white film over their skin, and were clamping fins. I raised the temp and added salt, and later melafix, to no avail. I suspected it was some random bacterial infection.

upon pulling the two most recent deaths, a small angel and a cory, I noticed something strange. it was most noticeable on the cory, but both had a red spot of internal bleeding (?) in their body. I looked back at some of the bodies of other dead fish I had saved in the freezer over the past week, and a few of the fairer-skinned fish show similar bleeding. is this significant, and does it indicate some ominous cause of death? internal parasites or something of that nature?

here is a picture of the bleeding (sorry for the poor quality). the discoloration is obvious on the cory. the angel is a blusher, but you can see a dark area in the center of the body, by the pectoral. this is pink up close.

thanks

 

[Lupin]

Hi,

I'd like a few more details here. Could you please answer the following questions below? This will ensure we are not missing out some valid details that may point to the exact issue.

1. What is the size of your tank?

2. What are your water parameters? State the brand of test kit used.

3. Is your aquarium set up freshwater or brackish water?

4. How long the aquarium has been set up?

5. What fish do you have? How many are in your tank? How big are they? How long have you had them?

6. Were the fish placed under quarantine period (minus the first batch from the point wherein the tank is ready to accommodate the inhabitants)?

7. What temperature is the tank water currently?

8. Are there live plants in the aquarium?

9. What filter are you using? State brand, maintenance routine and power capacity.

10. Any other equipment used (aside from heater and filter which are two very important components of the tank)?

11. Does your aquarium receive natural sunlight at any given part of the day? What is your lighting schedule (assuming you do not rely on sunlight for our viewing pleasure)?

12. When did you perform your last water change and how much water was changed? How often do you change your water? Do you vacuum the substrate?

13. What foods do you provide your fish? What is the feeding schedule?

14. What unusual signs have you observed in your fish?

15. Have you treated your fish ahead of diagnosis? If so, what treatments did you use? State your reasons for planning ahead of proper diagnosis.

One thing I would like to point out is that if all your fish had a history of ich infestation before, then what we may be dealing with is Aeromonas hydrophila or hemorrhagic septicemia if you don't want to be scientific about it. Ich serves as an entry point for both common bacterial infections, A. hydrophila and Flavobacterium columnaris as ich can injure the skin of the fish in their attempts to encase themselves there.

Do you have access to microscopes? If you can do a gill and skin scrape and check the specimens under a microscope, retrieve some magnification images to verify what the issue is. Nearby laboratories may lend you the microscopes. If not, you could invest in one if you feel the need to dig deeper into this issue rather than second guessing what it is. I have a friend from Wisconsin who does microscopy work. Maybe we can work something out from this one.

If you have also noticed frequent scratching aside from clamped fins and heavy production of slime coat, it is like costia or chilodonella may be involved there but we should not jump to conclusions yet which is why I provided you a diagnostics form to cover all bases.

Please do not ever jumpstart to salt or any other treatments unless you figured out the exact issue. Adding treatments will only harm your fish more than help. If in doubt, check your water parameters and do plenty of water changes as necessary. Clean water is sometimes your best defense out there.

Lupes