RIP 90 gal inhabitants

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Diamondhitch

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 23, 2006
208
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Alberta
Just in time for christmas I just lost my favorite fish, a 12" female jag that I have had for several years. My fault completely, I did an 80% water change (fighting some type of parasite infestation) and I forgot to plug the filter and aerator back in. My convict and bristle nose pleco also died. The yabbie lobster lived though.

It sucks but one good thing may have come from it though. I have been fighting some kind of parasite with every remedy known to mankind (or at least my local fish store anyway) for several months with no success. Now that I have the fish in my hands I can see better exactly all of the symptoms. maybe someone can help identify what I have been dealing with.

One eye of the jag started to get small white balls in it that slowly filled it and it clouded over, this eye maintaned its normal shape though, the other eye was fine. Now I can see that she also had blisters on her fins and some kind of clear lumps that look like clusters of small bubbles but are very tightly attached growing on them as well. The bristle nose also had them but the convict showed no symptoms of being infected.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? also what is my best course of action to get this tank/filter etc ready for new inhabitants. I want to kill whatever this is without leaving behind anything that will contaminate the tank and harm any new fish I put in it.

Thanks
 
My first thought was "dropsy" I've been fighting it for a couple months myself. My sal died and had developed a cloudy eye too.

Look for bloating, tumors/blisters along the lateral line, and scales that stick out away form the body (liks a pinecone). Nasty stuff. I began a new treatment 2 days ago using myacin? or something like that. Have to look on the botle again, but it's for treating "Dropsy" in particular.

Sorry for your loss:(

I may not have helped much but at least there are a couple ideas you can think about.

I know photo's are kind of a weird request, but may help also if you took any before getting rid of the jag.
 
Danh;1362214; said:
Could have been bacterial. Did you treat with maracyn2? Petsmart carries it.
Click to expand...

Thats what I'm using too. Saw results after the first dosage already, second dose tonight. Good stuff

Toughest part of this type of scenario is to identify what it is bacteria or parasite

as far as tearing down the tank, not sure thats necessary yet, but might be once you figure out what you're dealing with. Hope you get it turned around

Good luck
 
Pictures will get you a positive id on whatever it is. If we could not figure it out. I would PM someone who WOULD know right off their top of their head :)
 
If you are unsure of what type of parasite it is, I would use a broad spectrum medicine and run it for several weeks. If it is parasite it will die off because there is no host for it to propagate (as long as you don't have a fish in there), after a couple of weeks do a large water change and slowly start restocking because you will have to build the BB back up. The other option is to run small amount of bleach for 24 to 48 hours that way it gets through all the filtering and submerged equipment. Then you will have to completely recycle the system.

Some people feel all you have to do is add some quality declorinator to water and run for several days to remove the bleach from everything. This is so you don't have to
completely break down the system and clean everything.
 
Sorry to hear about the loss, but at least you are staying positive about the situation.
 
Thanks for the help.

I cant even remember all the different things I have tried to get rid of it. I have been fighting it for over 2 months now. Everything that they reccomended at big als aquariums was tried with no success (with the exception of the stuff that I was supposed to mix with her food and feed to her but since she will only eat pellets I couldnt get her to eat it), they realy were scratching their heads on this one and when I originaly posted no one on here knew what it was either.

I wish I had taken photos but I am not sure if that would have helped anyway because most of it was very transparent. There was nothing that I could find wrong on the head or body, just the one eye and the fins. Both the jag and bristle nose were the same. The eye first started to show white dots maybe 1/4 as big as the pupil situated well below the surface and mainly in the bottom 1/3 of the eye. These slowly multiplied and the clouding started in the lower 1/3 of the eye and progressed over the rest of the eye over about a 3 week period.The pelvic and pectoral fins had both blisters and the clear foam like growth on them that was extremely well adheared. the tail and anal fin had blisters but none of the clear stuff. While in the tank the blisters and growth on the fins were not visible and even laying on the counter I realy had to get in close to inspect it even though there was lots of it.

Anyway, I ended up setting up my 20g sick tank for the lobster for now and adding a bottle of vinegar to the water which is now circulating overnight (Big Als suggestion). I also stirred up all the gravel real good to make sure it gets sterilized too. Tomorrow I will drain and refill it, add some cycle and steal some media from my 180g to get things going again. Then I will have to figure out what to put in there.
 
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