# Please help. My fish are dying



## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

I've been running two tanks now for the best part of six months.

Every week, I do a 25% water change. My fish have been really happy but for the past couple of weeks.

My Siamese Fighter got an eye infection, but that passed pretty quickly, but since then my plants have been turning furry (for want of a better word) and one-third of my aquatic life has died in my larger tank, including one of my prized clown loaches - poor Pascal!

I have now been left with (in my larger tank)

1 x clown loach
2 x x-ray tetras
1 x siamese fighter (male)
5 x harlequins
5 x neon tetras- these seem impervious to whatever it is
4 x cherry barbs
3 x ancistrus
1 x Dalmatian molly
3 x zebra danios

The x-ray tetras are looking decidedly ragged and quite opaque and the female cherry barbs are looking as though they've been dipped in icing sugar.

I've done a 50% water change today as a precaution, but I don't understand what's gone wrong. I clean the filter (in water taken from the tank) every other water change and I don't want to lose the rest of the fish but I seem to be powerless against whatever's ravaging them.

Also, I had some bogwood in the tank, and it had some white growths on it. I have now removed this from the tank and don't plan to put it back for the foreseeable future. 

I expect to lose the rest of the cherry barbs and x-ray tetras in the next few days, but I'm desperate not to lose my final clown loach - they were a mother's day gift from my children.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Steffi


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Too late.

Just went to check on my tank - Coco is dead. :'(


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

I'm sorry to hear about your fish!

When you say they look like they have been sipped in icing sugar - do you mean they have little white spots on them? If so I would suspect whitespot.itch. Cheak out the sticky at thentop of this section for information on this disease.


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Hi Julie

Thanks for getting back to me.

I started treatment for ICH last week and they've just had a second dose. However, they not responding and it only seems to have made the problem worse.

I can have a chat with my lfs tomorrow, but I've lost some of my favourite fish today and I'm very upset.

I'm looking for a miracle cure.

I have whacked the thermostat up to 29 degrees on the advice of a friend and am hoping it stabilises matters.


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

Increasing the temperature will speed up the treatment for the white sopt.

I hope it works out for you.


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Been to see my local fish supplier.

Took in some sample water and a couple of my blighted fish.

He agrees that its ICH! Nice (not).

He seems to think that clown loaches are particularly susceptible to white spot - explains a lot really.

Like me, he's amazed that my neon tetras are still doing okay, considering the rest are dying left, right and centre. Apparently all I can do is wait it out now and see what happens.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Steffiweff said:


> He seems to think that clown loaches are particularly susceptible to white spot - explains a lot really.


Loaches are scaleless fish and therefore were considered prone to ich. They will take the meds with a more fatal blow than most fish so half-dosages are recommended depending on the strength of the meds.

What are your water parameters so far?


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Water parameters are normal (or as near to normal as you can get in Yorkshire - hard water area).

It seems to have settled down a bit now.

All cherry barbs bit it, alongside my clown loaches.

I'm left with 6 neons, 4 harlequins, 3 zebra danios, 3 ancistrus, 2 xray tetras and 1 molly and a partridge in a pear tree!

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Trouble is, my other tank now seems to have developed the same problem. Head slowly being done in - painfully!

I'm setting up yet another tank in the next couple of days. At least I will be able to ensure that we have a quarantine tank then! At the moment it's touch and go with the second tank.

I'm using Interpet 6, but find the instructions very ambiguous - anyone else had that problem?


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## Mirta (Apr 21, 2007)

Oh how I can understand you! We have lost our favourite baby angels and all the pretty neons as well as two cherries and a cory - all to that ugly itch. Oh I forgot - a great number of guppies who must have started it. 

It is all over and we still have 5 more cories, three golden gouramis, seven cherries, one bristle-nose, and one tiny guppy, plus apple snails, who survived both the itch and our attempts to treat them. The fish have had some signs of disease for a while, but nobody has been dying for more than a week now! 

We applied some green stuff to treat it, and raised the temp.

I am also thinking about a quarantine tank now. I will wait till the end of summer when I will buy some more fish for this tank. I really love angels and cories!

I wish you to recover soon and forget about this terrible experience!


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## Mirta (Apr 21, 2007)

Oh I wanted to add that I too found the instructions ambiguous. 

Do you think it may have come with the bogwood?


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## Sadie (Jan 21, 2007)

If you need to try another med and have access to Jungle Products where you are you might try "Ick Guard II for scaless fish" Worked for me but you do have to add extra aeration but you don't have to increase the temp. I am in the US but my well water is hard as well. The loaches may have been the culprits. When I bought my YO-yo loach, I had Ick in 2 weeks and he was the first to show signs. Good luck.


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## MattD (Apr 25, 2007)

Sorry to hear about your fish. 

Keep up the work, your fish will appreciate it.


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

I agree with the previous post that loaches are more susceptible to ich because they are scaleless but this also means they are more sensitive to the medication. Do not use a full dose with these. I have seen them survive through full doses but sometimes the medication can be what kills them. This is the reason that I look at my fish tank almost daily and check every fish to see how they are doing. If you can catch ich fast enough you can usually treat it with simple water changes, aquarium salt and a stress coat. I've even bought oscars that had ich in the store and I treated them with just salt when I got home. Within 2 days, they had no more white spots and it hadn't spread to my other fish. Raising the temperature is always good as well because it speeds up the life cycle of the ich parasite. This allows the medication to have a stronger impact on the tomitic stage (when it is susceptible to the medication) of Ich. THe downfall of raising temperature though is that elements such as Ammonia and Nitrite are a lot more lethal at higher temps. If the water quality isn't great and you raise the temp, you may have the opposite effect that you wanted! :-( Extreme cases of Ich often lead to secondary fungal and bacterial infections too so sometimes multiple treatments are needed (but never at the same time).


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Hi folks

Thanks for your support. It has been really difficult getting the problem anywhere near sorted.

Having discussed it with yet another fishy friend, I've been advised the problem is velvet. It's very similar to ich, but a lot finer - almost an icing sugar effect. I'm nearly 3 days on one tank (I got a head start with the medicine as fishy friend had some.)

I must admit, after treating with Protozin the problems do seem to be subsiding somewhat although my Siamese fighter lost his fight for survival on Sunday morning.

I just hope that my continued efforts bring things full circle.

I've been keeping the aquarium lights off, added rock salt to the water and am treating the water (having FINALLY established that my filter DOES have a carbon cartridge). Wish they'd explain these things properly when you buy them!

I'll be giving one of the local fish suppliers a wide berth in future. Okay for fish food, useless for fish.


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

also keep in mind that carbon will remove most medications from the water to be sure to take that out while medicating.


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## Steffiweff (Apr 22, 2007)

Yeah, Mike. Finally figured THAT out last week.

Many tears have been shed in frustration, I can promise you.


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## mHeinitz57 (Jun 9, 2007)

awww i'm sorry to hear that :-( Just don't let it get you down. The fish hobby can be incredibly frustrating at times but it can be also very rewarding.


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