Ropefish dying....why?

[ShadowBass]

Ok, I need to know if anyone else has experienced this before or has any idea whatsoever what is going on here. Usually I have some idea what my fish have when they get sick (which is rare anyway) but I'm clueless here.
I've had these fish for a couple of years now and they haven't had any issues. The only thing I can think of is the ropefish that was added a few weeks ago had something, but he was quaranteened and appeared healthy before he was added so there's no way I could have known.

Within about 3 days all but one of my 10 or so ropefish have died, and I think the last one is going to die today.
I did a huge water change even though all the parameters were around where they normally are (0 ammonia or nitrite, pH of 7.4, nitrates below 40).
Nothing could have gotten into the tank because this room is seperated from the rest of the house (there are 2 doors you have to go through to even get to that room) and my 300g sump for the tank in my living room is in there so we don't bring anything in that room that could get into water and hurt the fish. Only fish stuff in there.

The only symptoms are lighter blotches all over the fish and reddish gills, but these symptoms are only appearing right before the fish die. The last fish is swimming funny but none of the others did this before they died. The fish appeared healthy up until either they were dead or a at most few hours before they were dead.
The only other fish in the tank (which is a 125g w/ 30g sump btw, so not overstocked at all) are a 5 inch Abramites headstander, 5-6 inch Leporinus desmotes, 2 zebra obliquidens, a 4 inch rainbow shark, and a baby marble cat (he's about 3 1/2 inches long) and none of these fish are picking on the ropefish or have any sign of illness themselves. They all appear perfectly healthy.

I did top off the sump the other day before this happened but I don't think it's an issue with my tapwater because I do 50% water changes on my discus tank per day and I would assume if my tap water is messed up they would be the first to have issues. I only added a few gallons anyway.

I can't really think of anything else to add. Has anyone ever experienced anything like this before?

Thanks.

 

[Cohazard]

Sounds like a fungal or bacterial or both type of infection, how long have you had these rope fish?

 

[beblondie]

do you or can you get a picture of this?did you get them at he same time and place?

 

[Red Devil]

Is there a possibility that the food you fed them was spoiled... such as frozen blood worms... what is the time frame that they passed as compared when they were last fed? ... sorry for your loss

 

[ctenopoma]

it sounds like the" splotches" are a fungal or bacterial infection, adding a very smalll amount of salt could potentionally keep the fugus ana in low amounts. and I think ropefish and bichirs can handle a bit of salt.

I'm not sure if the other fish will tolerate it , so an anti fungal/ bacterial agent should be added

 

[ShadowBass]

Sounds like a fungal or bacterial or both type of infection, how long have you had these rope fish?

All but 2 for a couple of years.

Most recent one has been in there for a few weeks but was quarantined for a month before he was added. Appeared healthy up until 2 days ago when he died. He was much smaller than the others and I thought the lighter blotches were just discoloring from laying in there dead a long time.
I found a few dead yesterday, which is when I tested the water, and they also had the discoloration but I did not observe any discoloration or weird behavior in the remaining ones at that time. When I went to bed they all appeared normal. I didn't wanna treat them at the time because they didn't exhibit anything and I would just be dumping random meds in.
All but the last couple were found dead this morning when I went to turn the lights on. One died while I was doing the water change and another is still alive but acting weird.

Most fungal and bacterial infections will transfer between species which is what is odd, none of the other fish have any health issues whatsoever and ropefish are generally pretty tough so I'm surprised that they're the only ones having problems.

I doubt there's anything I can do about it now since this seems to be a fast acting thing (if viral there's nothing I could have done anyway) I'm just wondering if anyone has seen this specifically.

Is there a possibility that the food you fed them was spoiled... such as frozen blood worms... what is the time frame that they passed as compared when they were last fed? ... sorry for your loss

They eat carnivore pellets and super soft pellets like all the other fish. I don't think I've given them frozen food since I first got them eating a couple of years ago and the only live food they really get is earthworms, something I haven't given them in a few months.

do you or can you get a picture of this?did you get them at he same time and place?

I'll try to get a pic of the last one.
I froze the 2nd one I found dead but I dunno how well the splotches will show. I'll take a pic anyway.
Some of them were bought at the same time a couple of years ago, a couple soon after that from a different shipment and the last 2 more recently as reflected in the first part of my post.

adding a very smalll amount of salt could potentionally keep the fugus ana in low amounts

I added a bit of aquarium salt but I dunno if it will do anything for a fast acting infection like that.

 

[ShadowBass]

Hopefully that worked. I didn't wanna upload to photobucket because it usually degrades the quality of the photo so I did it as an attachment. (Sorry to those with a slow connection, I didn't wanna compress the photos that much)

This ropefish is nearly dead (didn't even try to get away when I netted him).
As you can see it looks a bit whitish now kinda like a fungus or columnaris but it didn't look like that earlier, just tannish patches. Maybe fungus growing on top of it, I dunno, but I don't personally think that's the primary infection, I could be wrong.

If you look past the whitish stuff though I notice that there's kind of ulcerish looking spots. I didn't notice that on the other ropefish but it isn't really that visible in person.
The little white grains are sand not part of the infection btw.

Any ideas?

P.S., Didn't bother uploading the pic of the frozen one, you can't really see anything on him at this point.

 

[beblondie]

If you have any antibiotics use them now no guarantee it will make it but you can try -anne

 

[ShadowBass]

If you have any antibiotics use them now no guarantee it will make it but you can try -anne

Ended up there were 2 ropefish left. I guess the one was hiding and he's my biggest one, so I hope he survives. He didn't seem as bad.

I put them in a bucket and floated them in my big sump to stay warm, put a hydor ario and added fungus cure and triple sulfa.
I might have some erythromycin somewhere, do you think I should add some of that too, or just leave the triple sulfa and fungus cure?

Any idea what they have?

 

[beblondie]

why did you add fungus cure? it looks like a bacterail infection thats why i said anti-biotics and no don't add anything else-Anne