Went on vacation... came home to horribly sick tank

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ktluvsfish

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 21, 2008
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Southern CA
My husband and I were out of town for about a week and a half for the holidays, and yesterday we came home to find my 80 gallon tank completely infested with ich. All of my cories were dead. I fished them out, did a huge water change, and then slowly raised the temp. This morning I lost my gold nugget pleco. This evening I came home and the fish look 10 times worse. They are all covered in ich, and a few are developing a white cottony fungus. I am completely confused how a tank of healthy fish got so sick in such a short period of time. All readings are good and I don't overfeed. I am hoping for the best, but its not looking good. I added some coppersafe to the tank tonight to see if it will help things. Needless to say, I'm pretty bummed... I love those fish :(
 
Have you checked your aquarium heater? I had something similar happen a while back when an aquarium heater failed and I failed to notice. Cooler water temperatures seem to be more inviting for ich.
 
Sounds like it might Cotton Wool - Looks like the fish are covered in spiderwebs? I'd use aquarium salt and mardel cletted cooper asap to try to cure what's left. Sorry for your loses.
 
Almost all disease is the result of environmental issues. Improve the environment = improve the diseased fish.

Lots of diseases (ich and others) are often present in a tank of fully healthy fish. It is the stress from environmental degradation that stresses them to the point of being infected. It's sort of like when a person goes with too little sleep for a long time. Catching a cold is easy then!

Medicating already sick fish is often worse than doing nothing. Very few of available medications actually target anything specific, and most add to the stress on already sick fish.

I suggest you just try to track down and solve the environmental issue. Missmary may be right that you had a big drop in temp. Regardless, it seems like water quality would be the first place to start. Lots of small changes (maybe 10% a day to minimize stress) may pay off.
 
That sucks. You already increased the temperature......I would add aquarium salt after you do another water change to help them breathe. What ever is in your tank is most likely attacking the gills as well and making it hard for them to breathe. If your fish are tolerant of aquarium salt it really helps and its cheap

Good Luck Fishies
 
Thanks for the input everyone. I have lost three rainbowfish and my heckelli that I got from Rapps a few months ago and I am so upset. My blue acara and the rest of my rainbows look like they won't make it though the next few days. My chocolate and jurupari are looking good though, so hopefully they'll make it.

Water conditions are all fine: 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 10 Nitrates. Temp is at 84 degrees. pH is 7.2.

I'll try doing frequent water changes and see if it helps. I am thinking that since I introduced the cories into the tank in November, that I didn't quarantine them for long enough and they introduced something. I'll try adding aquarium salt since now that my pleco's gone, all my fish should tollerate it.
 
cichlid master;3757493; said:
should of done a water change
before you left
Click to expand...

:screwy:

I dont see anywhere that said she didnt and she stated when she got back all the levels were fine.

Sounds to me like the temp drastically changed while she was gone.
 
I did do a water change on all my tanks the day before I left.

It is possible that the heater malfunctioned when I was gone, or that the temp dropped really low and the heater wasn't powerful enough to keep the temp steady. I'll have to invest in a new heater when payday comes just in case.

Anyways, I just did a 20 percent water change, and we'll see how they do. Thanks again for all of the suggestions thus far.
 
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