Pleco turned all white and died!!!!!
- Thread starter Slayer_will
- Start date
1. So once a month I do a 75% water change And gravel vacuum
2. I think we're running a penguin B I'm not sure I'm not with the tank right now but the filter is rated for 40-50 gallons I think (I've always bought bigger filters) and the tank is only 20 gallons, for the last 2 months we've just been using filter floss since we're trying to convert it to a planted aquarium, been changing the filter floss every few days along with adding flourish to the water for the plants when needed.
3. Turned the heater off and the water temp has been staying at 80 won't drop any more than that but have ran it at 84 for the last year and a half constantly.
4. No didn't really think to since we just did a big water change on Friday.
5. Havnt tried anything, when the pleco originally died and I thought It possibly was from ick we turned the heat up on the hater to 88 I think (it's listed in original post) since heater was broke though and didn't know it put the water temp 10 degrees higher than what we put it at. Don't know what to do now though.
6. 20 gallons. A small golden ram, a small blue ram (both about an inch), bala shark, blue gromi, 2 small paradise gromi (little over an inch each), a small clown loach, and a Rafael catfish, and a hoplo cat is all that's left, on another note though all of these fished lived happy together for about 8 months since we got any new fish and didn't have any issues till now.
Alright, i dont want to sound mean but i can see quite a few problems that probably lead to the demise of your fish...
1. 75% water change once a month really doesnt cut it, especially in your case since tbh, its very overstocked by the sound of it...
2. If you changed all filter media to just filter floss overnight, then that would mean you took out all the beneficial bacteria keeping your system somewhat stable making other parameters probably spike like crazy adding extra stress to your fish...
3. Temp sounds okay...
4. Without prior parameters we can only guess, but with once a month water change im going to guess it got pretty bad by the end...
5. Again, a 20G is very small for all those fish... sadly i dont have much experience with them so will let other members chime in for that, but be prepared for an upgrade or two
1. 75% water change once a month really doesnt cut it, especially in your case since tbh, its very overstocked by the sound of it...
2. If you changed all filter media to just filter floss overnight, then that would mean you took out all the beneficial bacteria keeping your system somewhat stable making other parameters probably spike like crazy adding extra stress to your fish...
3. Temp sounds okay...
4. Without prior parameters we can only guess, but with once a month water change im going to guess it got pretty bad by the end...
5. Again, a 20G is very small for all those fish... sadly i dont have much experience with them so will let other members chime in for that, but be prepared for an upgrade or two
Alright, i dont want to sound mean but i can see quite a few problems that probably lead to the demise of your fish...
1. 75% water change once a month really doesnt cut it, especially in your case since tbh, its very overstocked by the sound of it...
2. If you changed all filter media to just filter floss overnight, then that would mean you took out all the beneficial bacteria keeping your system somewhat stable making other parameters probably spike like crazy adding extra stress to your fish...
3. Temp sounds okay...
4. Without prior parameters we can only guess, but with once a month water change im going to guess it got pretty bad by the end...
5. Again, a 20G is very small for all those fish... sadly i dont have much experience with them so will let other members chime in for that, but be prepared for an upgrade or two
1. 75% water change once a month really doesnt cut it, especially in your case since tbh, its very overstocked by the sound of it...
2. If you changed all filter media to just filter floss overnight, then that would mean you took out all the beneficial bacteria keeping your system somewhat stable making other parameters probably spike like crazy adding extra stress to your fish...
3. Temp sounds okay...
4. Without prior parameters we can only guess, but with once a month water change im going to guess it got pretty bad by the end...
5. Again, a 20G is very small for all those fish... sadly i dont have much experience with them so will let other members chime in for that, but be prepared for an upgrade or two
Personally I think poor water quality led to stressed fish getting sick with ich and maybe columanris got in and wiped out your stock. Since seeing fungus like spots. This is what I believe has happened.
FAT HOMER is 100% right here.
You are overstocked and under-filtered. This guarantees sick/dead fish unless you change water about every day.
You should normally change water twice a week in this aquarium, when healthy, and basically just rinse the filters off in aged water and put them back. Re-use them as long as possible, under normal conditions. Frequent filter replacements kill bacteria, and bacteria are your real sanitation workers. They clean the water by reducing wastes to less poisonous things.
I agree that this looks like columnaris. This is a bacterial problem that I have treated with Kanaplex on my Jewel Tetras. The thing is that you can't wait until the fish looks "funny" over big patches of his body.
Even then, Kanaplex has saved some rather scabrous looking fish, with repeated treatments in a hospital tank, over 2 weeks and more. Some couldn't be saved because initially I was treating for fungus. In 45 years I had never had columnaris and misidentified it, because fungus can grow right away on skin damaged by the bacteria.
Nasty smells in the tank are normally decomposition of dead bacteria. Healthy bacteria make the water smell better, not worse.
Perhaps you put active healthy filters into a tank with a much lower pH, which instantly "burned" the bacteria and thus stunk up the tank.
I would divide up these fish if possible and treat the bad looking ones separately.
Remove any carbon/charcoal then do a 75% to 90% water change. Then dose with Kanaplex. Repeat this every two days. The 7th day, change water but no Kanaplex. on the 8th day, start the 6 day treatment again.
You will not get by with just one round of treatment, as I believe all your fish are heavily infected now.
After the 14th day, discontinue Kanaplex, and change water twice a week thereafter. Watch closely for re-infection.
You are overstocked and under-filtered. This guarantees sick/dead fish unless you change water about every day.
You should normally change water twice a week in this aquarium, when healthy, and basically just rinse the filters off in aged water and put them back. Re-use them as long as possible, under normal conditions. Frequent filter replacements kill bacteria, and bacteria are your real sanitation workers. They clean the water by reducing wastes to less poisonous things.
I agree that this looks like columnaris. This is a bacterial problem that I have treated with Kanaplex on my Jewel Tetras. The thing is that you can't wait until the fish looks "funny" over big patches of his body.
Even then, Kanaplex has saved some rather scabrous looking fish, with repeated treatments in a hospital tank, over 2 weeks and more. Some couldn't be saved because initially I was treating for fungus. In 45 years I had never had columnaris and misidentified it, because fungus can grow right away on skin damaged by the bacteria.
Nasty smells in the tank are normally decomposition of dead bacteria. Healthy bacteria make the water smell better, not worse.
Perhaps you put active healthy filters into a tank with a much lower pH, which instantly "burned" the bacteria and thus stunk up the tank.
I would divide up these fish if possible and treat the bad looking ones separately.
Remove any carbon/charcoal then do a 75% to 90% water change. Then dose with Kanaplex. Repeat this every two days. The 7th day, change water but no Kanaplex. on the 8th day, start the 6 day treatment again.
You will not get by with just one round of treatment, as I believe all your fish are heavily infected now.
After the 14th day, discontinue Kanaplex, and change water twice a week thereafter. Watch closely for re-infection.
Kanaplex has been my only success against columnaris.
I cannot guarantee you have this, but it appears that way.
I had NO success with changing ph or temps. I tried Triple Sulfa drugs, Furan, Furan2, Malachite green+salt (NoxIch), Erythromycin, PraziPro, Paraguard, Metroplex, almond leaves, & blackwater additive. Probably other things I cannot recall, and struggled with this for 6 mos in my tetra tank
I had never had or seen columnaris before, but when Kanaplex knocked it out, it was confirmed in my mind.
I believe that the Melafix may provide some topical relief to the fish (as do some other things) but I have been told that enough of that stuff to kill an established disease is fatal to most fish, and I doubt it can prevent re-infection.
One other thing to mention (If this is columnaris) is that one or two rounds of treatment plus repeated water changes can get it under control; but it is likely that four 6-day treatments may be necessary. This is expensive in a big tank.
The good news is, though I lost 4 of ten fish, 3 of the remaining who had nasty skin and crippling internal problems (presenting as spinal deformities!) all cleared up and the remaining 6 are healthy now for one year.
The bad news is that I literally spent HUNDREDS of dollars and dozens of hours treating $50 worth of fish in a 33g system.
Cost is based on how much water your tank holds. A 100g would cost 3x as much to treat.
I would have saved so much $$$ had I known what I had and what to do.
I cannot guarantee you have this, but it appears that way.
I had NO success with changing ph or temps. I tried Triple Sulfa drugs, Furan, Furan2, Malachite green+salt (NoxIch), Erythromycin, PraziPro, Paraguard, Metroplex, almond leaves, & blackwater additive. Probably other things I cannot recall, and struggled with this for 6 mos in my tetra tank
I had never had or seen columnaris before, but when Kanaplex knocked it out, it was confirmed in my mind.
I believe that the Melafix may provide some topical relief to the fish (as do some other things) but I have been told that enough of that stuff to kill an established disease is fatal to most fish, and I doubt it can prevent re-infection.
One other thing to mention (If this is columnaris) is that one or two rounds of treatment plus repeated water changes can get it under control; but it is likely that four 6-day treatments may be necessary. This is expensive in a big tank.
The good news is, though I lost 4 of ten fish, 3 of the remaining who had nasty skin and crippling internal problems (presenting as spinal deformities!) all cleared up and the remaining 6 are healthy now for one year.
The bad news is that I literally spent HUNDREDS of dollars and dozens of hours treating $50 worth of fish in a 33g system.
Cost is based on how much water your tank holds. A 100g would cost 3x as much to treat.
I would have saved so much $$$ had I known what I had and what to do.
