Ok this is pretty new to me

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kamikaziechameleon

kamikaziechameleon

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Sep 23, 2010
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Alright I'm in trouble. I've already started taking action but I thought you guys could give me some more valuable input.

First things first on Saturday I was out of state and got a call from a friend telling me my fish where sick he described ick in my 110 (I have over 500 gallons of tank for a look at the setup look here: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=402500)

So I said do a water change raise the temp(over the next 24 hours) to 86 add appropriate amounts of quick cure and freshwater salt, also to remove the filter carbon. Do a water change on sunday and retreat with chemicals(this has treated about any combo of parasites and fungus as a primary infection I've ever had in a tank).

So he did as instructed and also changed the water in all my tanks. I get a call on Sunday, both of my big 100 gallons also have the disease/parasite. I am at a loss how ich would jump tanks like that. He also informs me that there are 2 dead fish in the top 100 gallon tank that had been infected for less than 24 hours. 2 of my oldest fish. :nilly: So I told him to take photos with his phone and go to a specific LFS where the owner is very knowledgeable and he'd help us out. The photos stunk and the LFS owner told him without knowing what we had only how aggressive it was his recommendation was to buy saltwater solution and raise salinity till the disease retreated then drop the salinity. He proposed it as the safest blanket treatment he could come up with knowing the 86 degrees/quick cure/freshwater salt didn't make a dent. So he starts the process of raising the salinity. does a little bit on sunday and tonight(now that I'm home) we are raising the salinty a little more.

Anyway I got home late last night and my description of the situation is different than his. I'd say that what I'm seeing is a series of secondary infections from some kind of invisible bacteria or viral infection attacking their immune systems. Most of my fish in the effected tanks have combinations of illness. Fin rot, open sores, white eyes, gill flukes, ich, swim bladder malfunctions, fungus, and so on. Water conditions are all pristine in my tanks. ammonia 0 nitrites 0 nitrates 0 ph 8.5. I'm at work now but I'll post some pictures of the more effected fishes. Some fish are fine like my bichirs and certain cichlids but even fish without outward signs of disease are tweaking and acting very unhealthy(beyond the heavy breathing associated with raised salinity) I cleaned the canister filter for my top 100 yesterday and found thousands of small snails (started a post here : http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=413271)

Fish in question are mainly african cichlids but also my central and south americans, synodontis and monos . I think the infection came from a new fish that we didn't put through quarantine because of pure laziness, I'm so sorry I didn't now.:cry: Lost a total of 3 fish so far, a OB peacock that was 3.5 years old and 2 haps.
 
Ok lost 15 fish yesterday. a flying fox, and 14 assorted haps and peacocks across my 3 tanks. I'm at a loss since I've never known parasites to be a major problem for cichlids unless the water conditions are poor. My tanks are all really good. I'm of the opinion its some sort of bacterial infection since fish will die with no visible illness on them. How would you guys recommend I move from here. I upped the salinity yesterday. Its still very low though and shouldn't even be an issue for the fish. I'm really at a loss here.
 
I know you don't want to hear this, buttt.....

Start by throwing away those test strips you said you use....Then get an actual test kit and actually test the water. Your nitrates are not 0 unless you are running a very liberal drip system.

What you are describing sounds like a classic case of "friend feeding fish on vacation" ammonia burn/poisoning, with secondary illnesses/infection from stress. We'll need to see some pictures of the fish and some test results from a liquid test kit. If you do go buy a test kit, be sure to shake the bottles very well immediately before applying drops to your test solution. Not doing this WILL cause false reading on some tests.

No one (that matters) will make fun of you if things aren't right with the water. We want to help & most of us that have been around a while have gone through the test strip stage. They suck.

I would not add saltwater.
 
I can't actually get a test kit for 2 days now... No pet stores on my commute route and the one that was just closed. I'm already doing other work tonight so I can't do this till tomorrow.

As for the source of the issue. My friend is my fish keeping buddy he fed everyone before doing a water change on all the tanks this last Saturday. I had what appeared to be ich on my cichlids in the 110 on Friday from what I perceived to be inadequate filtration because my ac 110 was out for repair it got put back in on Saturday though. The tank had 25 percent water changes all last week when it became apparent that water parameters where not being maintained by the supplementary filters I had in place of the AC110 (seasoned filters and bio media just not moving enough water) Sunday the 2 100 gallon tanks came down with the mystery illness. These strips aren't old and do show ammonia and stuff when its present. I'm telling you these tanks are flippin clean. my friend did 25 percent water changes on the effected tanks sunday and treated the tanks with a blend of saltwater solution as prescribed by the LFS owner. My friend did not however adjust all the tank heaters up to 84-86 degrees, the bottom 100 was about 74 and that tank lost 2/3 of its fish in a 12 hour period. Not all fish that are dieing have outward signs of illness they just tweak out. He put 2.5 coups worth of solution in each tank, that isn't allot by any means and wouldn't contribute to the deaths of the animals in my opinion. My 110 seems to be getting past it now with the tank at 86 degrees. I don't have a high enough salinity to even test. But it does seem to work well in concert with the temp to help kick things my fish in that tank are behaving well now. They aren't gasping for air or anything.

There was a new fish introduced to the 110 last week and it didn't go through quarentine. A grave error. I think that brought in the bad times and a net or siphon hose shared it.

Question being how do I make sure things are safe and not contaminate the other tanks, how do I sterilize? I do plan to buy a testing kit and will do so but for now the most pertinent question I have is how do I sterilize things safely

As I was draining water out of my bottom tank yesterday(DRAINING) 6 fish quite literally died in front of me with no ich or flukes just swim bladder failed and they tweaked out with seizures. Total body count across all 3 tanks is about 20 so far. This pretty devastating. Thanks for your input/advice Piscine. I don't think that ammonia has anything to do with what happened in my stack 100 gallon tanks though. I knew that the 110 had the potential for ammonia and even that it might have contributed to that outbreak. I still don't think that is a factor for my 100 gallon tanks though with the 50 percent weekly changes they've been getting.
 
I don't understand how I can even give you a relevant water parameter knowing that every effected tank has has a 40-50 percent water change within 24 hours every day for 3 days atleast. I just got a call, my bottom 100 has only 5 fish left in it(originally 30). My horei is dead in my top 100 and my severum is on the way out so is my synodontis. My 110 is doing better though no one is dead but they still show external signs of infection, ich spots, fin rot and some sores. The F'd up thing is that there is literally no way for ammonia or anything like it to have caused this in the stacked tanks or to continue to cause this after 3 days of treatement. Salinity is so low you can't even measure it. I've got all the temps trending up.

Half my existing stock is dead and in the garbage. What disease would do this? It infects healthy tanks causes massive secondary infections. Tell me and I'll treat it.

All my tanks are under stocked, well cleaned maintained. Ammonia might have only been a cause in one tank and definitely wouldn't have contributed to the other 2 at all.

What known bacteria or virus?
 
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