# all my fish are dying....



## fiona (Jul 27, 2006)

iv had a big problem in my tank.
the other day i went to do a water change and i saw that 1 of my neons was dead. thought, ok, they are small, praps another fish got him. anyways, fished him out, but then saw that my to clown loauches were gone, followed shortly by the 2 little cat fish, the other 5 neons.  

then on sat night i was looking t the fish and saw that 2 more had got very fat bellys. i took them to the local fish man the next day where he said they had dropsy. i used anitbactrial treatment but 1 of the has sadly gone now as well.  

my tank just looks so sad and empty but i cant put any more fish in till iv given wot evrs in the water time to clear. 

i have no idead whats goig on but i dont wanna lose any more.


----------



## JouteiMike (Oct 7, 2006)

That really sucks, sorry about your loss of fish. Hope the new inhabitants do better. What are you thinking of getting?


----------



## girlofgod (Aug 22, 2006)

i'm so sorry for your loss...did it completely wipe out your fish? i would recommend doing a large water change and starting over if it did...hopefully it wont happen again!

Bri


----------



## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Hi Fiona.:wave:

Hang on. We'll try to sort out your problems. Sorry to hear about your situation.:blueworry:


fiona said:


> then on sat night i was looking t the fish and saw that 2 more had got very fat bellys. i took them to the local fish man the next day where he said they had dropsy. i used anitbactrial treatment but 1 of the has sadly gone now as well.


First of all, I'd like to know if your fish also have protrusion of scales and eyes popping out of the socket. While dropsy may not show all the symptoms, I find it a common sight that fish with dropsy have protruding scales apart from abnormally fat bellies.

If the fish have protrusion of scales already, I don't think there's any hope for you to help the fish. At this stage, dropsy is almost incurable and may not heal.

What antibacterial treatment did you use? Some can harm your beneficial bacteria and this may result to mini-cycles.

Pls try to post your water stats. We'll need it to determine the exact cause of your fish deaths. Another question is how long your tank has established.

At this moment, don't add any more fish. Try to determine the cause so you may be able to avoid it in the future.

_~Thread moved to a proper section._


----------



## joeshmoe (Aug 2, 2006)

if this is dropsy theres about a 85% chance the fish wont live. im sry for your fish


----------



## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Also, what size tank is this?
Dropsy is not curable. Sometimes, if caught soon enough, it is possible to treat the symptoms, but it is always fatal in the end. One thing encouraging is that it is not transmitted like most other fish illnesses. The only way for one fish to give it to another is if a healthy fish eats the internal organs of a sick fish that has died. With this in mind, are we sure this is dropsy that you're dealing with and not an internal parasite?
I would look most for the protruding scales that Blue mentioned. The scales will look like they are "standing up" or "sticking out" individually from each other.
Something else I'm wondering about... dropsy tends to hit specific species of fish, and loaches, catfishes, and neons are not on that list.
What kind of catfish are we speaking of? How long has your tank been set up, and do you have water params for us to review?
Also, what are you feeding the fish and how often? What kind of filter are you using, and how often do you do water exchanges? How much at a time? How often do you vacuum the gravel?
The more information you can give, the faster we can help.
Very sorry to hear about your loss. I'll do whatever I can to help make sure it doesn't continue or happen again with new fish. 
At this moment, I would say best not to add more fish until we know for sure what the problem is. If you were closer I'd be asking you to bring me a body for autopsy. There are tell tale signs of most illnesses, and an examination of a freshly decesased fish always makes it easier to determine.
When the fish died, did you notice any other symptoms? Changes in habits? Red gills? The more you can provide for info, the more we can help to get an accurate diagnosis.


----------



## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Dawn, I did a research on Fiona's threads and found out her tank is 55 gallons. The catfish she owns are plecs(I assume more like common plecs).

I feel the need to research these ones.:mrgreen: Although I understand this information is quite inadequate.:blueworry:


----------



## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Plecos are not known to get dropsy. I am thinking there is something else going on here, and it could be contagious, but without more information, I'm at a loss.


----------



## caferacermike (Oct 3, 2006)

Without more information I might even be inclined to say that it could be chemical. Spray any Febreeze for the fresh clean smell? Wipe the tank with Windex? Anyone clean the stand with Pledge? Do you spray your perfume or hairspray anywhere near the tank? 2 things with this and I've seen it in my own home. My girl likes to get ready next to her 20g planted tank with an open top. She would spray all of her perfumes and hairsprays near the tank. I would ask her all the time why her tank had an oil slick on top and even once bought her a surface skimmer that works with her canister filter to remove oil slicks. One day she figured out what was killing her fish, it was her own doing.


----------



## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

caferacermike said:


> Anyone clean the stand with Pledge?


:bluelaugh: Pledge is also available here.:mrgreen: Luckily, our household never get to used that. Not even Lysol or Glade.:bluelaugh:

Reminds me that my father doesn't even listen to my pleas to stop spraying insecticides near my tank.:redmad: Although I'm lucky that it hasn't hit my tanks yet but I don't want that to happen especially when I have expensive discus.:blink:


----------

