Random thrashing and Death

[ryang85]

Have you tested your water?

Yes

If I did not test my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.

Do you do water changes?

Yes

If I do not change my water...

1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.

Hello everyone,
Hopefully I can get someone to help me out with this issue. Over the past 2 months I had a few fish sporaticly start thrashing around the tank and die within minutes. First it happened to a 5" pbass in my 70 gallon. I assumed it hit its head or something. Small fish deaths are sometimes hard to ID so I didn't think much. Then my 12" jururense cat had a similar violent thrashing and died the next day in my 180 gallon. A few weeks ago I had a Asian upside down cat start twitching and appeared to have some numerological issues . Then seemed to be fine and had another thrashing after a week and died. Now my 15" mono pbass in my 300 gallon thrashed around for about 3 seconds turned upside down and is drifting around the tank twitching its gills, its lost its colors and is most likely going to be dead pretty quickly. All of the fish ate the previous days and showed absolutely no health issues before the sporatic thrashing.

I run a drip system so there's no water changes and my parameters are 0,0,15 ppm for all my tanks. My water comes from a small spring we developed about 4 years ago and ph remains extreamly stable at about 7.1, theres nothing nearby to contimate the water since there not even any human development for dozens of miles. all my tanks are at 80 degrees. I assume it's a parasite but really want to avoid using medication to start blindly treating issues because I've done that in my first years of fish keeping and seemly never solved the issues until I figured out the issue. I'm going to order some prazi pro to have on hand to dose it to all my 6 tanks. I'd hate too loose one of my fogo bass or pariab to something I could have prevented with a 100 dollars in medication.

I do feed lots of saltwater white meat fish because I work on a fishing boat and get all i want for free. I usually freeze it for a week but sometimes I throw a little in fresh, which I'm planning on not doing anymore.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[GolemGolem]

I'm not one of the experts here, but for what it's worth I was thinking nasty internal parasite too.

 

[Deadeye]

Do the affected fish ever stop eating before dying? Or get really thin? Most parasites cause a fish do slowly waste away until they are too weak to survive.

 

[ryang85]

Do the affected fish ever stop eating before dying? Or get really thin? Most parasites cause a fish do slowly waste away until they are too weak to survive.

Nope all the fish were eating up to the day before, that's the part that confuses me.

 

[deeda]

Is anyone in your home using deodorizing aerosol sprays including plug in the wall types, air fresheners or aerosol cleaning supplies that may drift toward the aquariums?

Any children, visitors or cleaning personnel that might have contaminated the tank somehow? What about products you use to clean your hands such as soap, disinfectant, hand cleaners prior to working or feeding the tanks?

 

[esoxlucius]

There is such a phenomenon as stray voltage in aquariums. I read about it some time ago on an old thread. I think jjohnwm may know something about it being an electrician.

 

[kendragon]

I think you already figured it out. The classic symptoms of thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1). A good quality pellet is better.

 

[ryang85]

Is anyone in your home using deodorizing aerosol sprays including plug in the wall types, air fresheners or aerosol cleaning supplies that may drift toward the aquariums?

Any children, visitors or cleaning personnel that might have contaminated the tank somehow? What about products you use to clean your hands such as soap, disinfectant, hand cleaners prior to working or feeding the tanks?

It's a pretty remote cabin and I'm the only one who lives here, I practically never use aerosols especially near the tanks.

I usually wash my hands well, I do work around a ranch and on the boat so my hands are usually pretty dirty but I try to wash them very well before feeding. I did clean the glass last night about 10 minutes before my pbass starting acting up.


But it seems isolated to only one fish, in one tank.

 

[ryang85]

I think you already figured it out. The classic symptoms of thiamine deficiency (vitamin B1). A good quality pellet is better.

I think that could be the issue, as I regularly feed pellets about every 3 days but some fish refuse them and just spit them out and wait for the fisb, off the fish that suffered so far are the picky fish of the tank.


Maybe I need to give them a diet to get them all on pelets, or order some vitachem and soak the fish in it before feeding? The aggressive catfish as well as the big hungry pbass who eat anything that hits the water seem to not have this issue.

 

[ryang85]

There is such a phenomenon as stray voltage in aquariums. I read about it some time ago on an old thread. I think jjohnwm may know something about it being an electrician.

I suspected that at first with my upside down cat, I throughly tested all the tanks with a voltimeter(I do occasional electrical work around the ranch) and got nothing. I'm going to retest it using a wire to the actaul ground to get better reading vs the ground on the socket. I doubt it is that because of tanks having the same issue.

I'm really leaning tword the vitamin b deficiency.

Thanks for all the input from everyone, all the help I can get to check things off the list is helpful until I get this thing solved and fixed.