Please help... panicking

[Jriley]

Hey guys, been shadowing your forums for a long time but this is my first post. I do a lot of research and am very careful so I have not needed much assistance in the past. Unfortunately, I do now.

Here's my story, 60 gallon freshwater, been established for a few months. Penguin 350 with 2 bio wheels and two of the blue mesh filters which creates quite a bit of movement on the waters surface. Temp stays between 78-79f. Weekly water changes of around 40%. All water parameters are always correct. At least they have been, ran out of ammonia strips today when this happened so I am going in the morning to get more. So I bought a new ropefish from a lfs I have not used before a few days ago and I didn't quarantine him. Big mistake. I have never had to quarantine before because I have always gone to the same place and had no problems before. I bring the ropefish home and he seems perfectly fine for a few days. Eating, exploring, seems fine. All of a sudden last night I notice he's just laying there looking like he's gasping for air on the bottom. I kept a close eye on him all night and the behavior continued. His eyes then clouded over and became white and I noticed some red irritation underneath his head/neck area. It also appears some of his scales are turning grey but maybe I just didn't notice before. He now seems to not be accepting his bloodworms. I took him out and put him into a 20 gallon quarantine and am treating with salt, melafix, and stress coat. He is still, after 24 hours just laying in the bottom of the quarantine tank gasping for air. May just be in my head but his eyes seem to have cleared up a little.

Now my problem is getting worse; a few hours ago I noticed that all of my fish in my 60 gallon seem to be opening and closing their mouths rapidly now as well. I did a 50 percent water change using chlorine treatment and stress coat and also added salt. However, now hours later I am seeing 3 different fish in the tank with long white poop hanging from them. I have had 0 problems with anything up until this new ropefish addition from a new store.

Now I have a ropefish not moving and appearing to be struggling breathing, with possible discoloration of scales and redness under his neck, and cloudy white eyes. PLUS, all of the fish in my regular tank now appear to be struggling breathing along with long white poops hanging out of several of them. Other than that the rest of the fish's behavior is completely normal. What the hell is going on?!?! These symptoms seem like internal parasites, lack of oxygen, stress, bacterial infection, all in one! And again, absolutely 0 problems before.

Now please no compatability lectures. My tank is heavily ornamented and fake planted and I keep a very close eye on everyone and have seen absolutely 0 signs of stress or aggression. They all eat well and never nip or fight and the betta and angel are always right next to each other, eat together and never even acknowledge each other.

1 molly
3 platys
1 betta
1 angel
1 5inch pleco - will be moved when he's bigger
1 dwarf guorami
1 African dwarf frog
1 very sick rope fish

I know it's a long post but I'm obviously worried. Hope you guys have some ideas. Thanks so much and it's a pleasure to finally join you.

 

[Bigfishnut]

Wow, that sucks big time! Not sure what advice I can give to help you fix this. Definitely always quarantine your fish.... Always. I'd do away with those unreliable test strips too. Get API freshwater masterkit. I'm not one to use meds ever. I've always been able to fix a problem with a bump in temp and kick up the water changes a couple notches. Problem with meds is it often will disrupt your bio, and also it's usually not the right meds. We generally are just guessing what the illness might be...imagine if your physician took this approach!! We might end up going thru chemotherapy for a common cold...pretty much what we a are doing to our fish when we start dumping meds in.

 

[Jriley]

I agree. I only medicated the quarantine tank as a last resort, not my actual tank. As far as test strips I buy the package of 5 that each one comes in its individual sealed package, and I don't have them sitting long enough for them to lose potency. I will switch if necessary but never had any need until now. Thanks for the quick reply, much appreciated.

 

[Bigfishnut]

No problem. My opinion is that the API tests are more accurat and reliable. Good that you only medicated your QT. I didn't catch that. Try doing a couple 10-20% water changes per day and kick your temp up to about 84° and see if things start to improve

 

[Jriley]

Alright will do. If anyone else has anything all answers would be appreciated.

 

[duanes]

Although many people think quarantining is just to keep new disease out, it is also possible that you established fish have something they are immune to in small doses. But when a new fish is added without quarantine, it can be overcome a tanks population with normally benign bacteria, and then start an epidemic because of the small space.
I believe every fish should be quarantined at least 2 months, and water from the established tank its going in, tone added gradually.
A friend of mine at a county zoo, quarantines everything for at least 6 months.
I know this doesn't help your situation now, but should be taken as a learning experience.
And LFSs get fish from many distributors all the time, thinking a fish is disease free, just because you haven't had a bad experience yet, is a dangerous gamble.

 

[predatorkeeper87]

first off those test strips are garbage right off the manufacturing line. Inaccurate every single time. Get a liquid test kit, that way you can give us actual numbers to base decisions off of on how to proceed.


secondly, get pics of the fish and the symptoms. A pic on here is 1000 times better than a description.


Judging by what I read I'm going to suggest a methylene blue treatment in the QT tank for the rope, and as for the other fish I'd suggest doing 75% water changes, adding just salt and watching for more symptoms to spring up, rather than chucking meds at them.

 

[Jriley]

duanes thanks for the reply. I learned my lesson there.

predator Rope is still just laying there gasping today. Is it safe to switch to methylene blue after already adding some melafix to the quarantine tank yesterday? Also, I have not medicated my actual tank nor do I intend to under any circumstance. They are being treated with salt and heat as I put earlier. At what point do I consider euthanasia for the rope guys? 3 days like this is getting very sad.

 

[Bigfishnut]

Clove oil is good for euthanization

 

[Jriley]

UPDATE noticed a red spot on the underside of the tail of the ropefish today. Where I would imagine his anus would be. Also his right fin has lost all color and appears clear whereas his left fin is still colored. I spent probably 12+ hours yesterday reading and this is beyond me. How can he be exhibiting so many different symptoms at once? Pictures below. However I could not get a good picture of the other fishes mouths I'm sure you guys know what it looks like. I didn't feed last night or this morning so no new long white poops but one platy did have a small white poop hanging out. All other fish still behaving normally. Temp was increased to 85 with salt for around 12 hours dropping the temp back down now.