# All of my fish are mysteriously dying?



## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

Hello,

I can't for the life of me figure out why all of my fish are randomly dieing. I have a 75G planted aquarium and I have the following fish in it

1x Golden Dojo Loach (Was 2, one died).
1x Spotted Raphael Catfish
2x Dwarf Gourami (Been in there for almost a year).
1x Red-eye Tetra


I had some other great fish that recently mysteriously died such as 9x Cherry barbs and 8x Serpae tetras. These all died over the course of 2 days. My large striped raphael catfish recently died as well, along with both of my angelicus botias. 

My tank parameters are as follows 

Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 0ppm 
(according to my API test kit). 
pH: 7.6
Temp: 78'
Substrate: Ivory coast sand

My tank has been running perfectly fine up until recently when all my fish mysteriously started randomly dieing and for no apparent reason. 

I had a powder blue gourami (small one) in there which I seen nibbling on the cherry barbs but is it even possible for the powder blue gourami to realistically kill 9 cherry barbs and 8 serpae tetras over the course of 2 nights? 

My angelicus botias recently died as well (while the powder blue was in the tank) and one of my golden dojo loaches died this morning (no apparent reason). I can't really find a reason as to why all these fish are dieing.


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

Not sure if it is relevant but my plants have a weird white "?fuzz?" on them. I used Melafix to treat the tank because I haven't a clue what is causing these bizarre deaths.


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## emeraldsky (Oct 4, 2011)

AndrewM21 said:


> Not sure if it is relevant but my plants have a weird white "?fuzz?" on them. I used Melafix to treat the tank because I haven't a clue what is causing these bizarre deaths.


Do you have driftwood in your tank? Does it also have the white fuzz on it?


I seem to recall hearing somewhere that someones driftwood was causing white fuzz on plants and mysterious deaths. 

If you have some it might be worth looking at closely.


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

emeraldsky said:


> Do you have driftwood in your tank? Does it also have the white fuzz on it?
> 
> 
> I seem to recall hearing somewhere that someones driftwood was causing white fuzz on plants and mysterious deaths.
> ...


No fuzz on my DW as far as I can tell. All I know is I had 25+ fish in my tank 3 days ago and now I have 7 today. There is a serious problem there but nothing that shows what it is. I've dosed the tank with melafix yesterday and I'll dose it again today and tomorrow. My idea at this point is a bacterial infection (even though I see no signs). I'll probably do a huge PWC to see if I can clear it up (probably 50% then redose with melafix).


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

I believe my tank is suffering from Columnaris. This is the only disease that makes sense to me, after carefully investigating my cherry barbs after death I noticed white fungi on their body as well as missing tails. 

I'm not entirely sure how this was introduced to my tank unless it was from the Cherry barbs & Serpae tetras I added to the tank (since the disease followed a day after I added them). 

I will continue treating my tank with Melafix and do a large PWC to hopefully get rid of this infection.


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## emeraldsky (Oct 4, 2011)

AndrewM21 said:


> I believe my tank is suffering from Columnaris. This is the only disease that makes sense to me, after carefully investigating my cherry barbs after death I noticed white fungi on their body as well as missing tails.
> 
> I'm not entirely sure how this was introduced to my tank unless it was from the Cherry barbs & Serpae tetras I added to the tank (since the disease followed a day after I added them).
> 
> I will continue treating my tank with Melafix and do a large PWC to hopefully get rid of this infection.


The white fuzzy stuff can also be the fishes slime coat, the shed it when they die. The missing tails could also be from the other fish picking at them. 


How soon are you finding the fish after they die?


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

emeraldsky said:


> The white fuzzy stuff can also be the fishes slime coat, the shed it when they die. The missing tails could also be from the other fish picking at them.
> 
> 
> How soon are you finding the fish after they die?


My spotted Raphael is losing his tail as we speak and has the white cotton on the side of his body (He's still alive). I investigated the cherry barb as soon as I seen them float to the top so it couldn't have been more than 10 or 15 minutes after death. 

I've reviewed photos I've found on the net of fish that are infected with this virus and it fits my fish symptoms to a T. 

My concern is how rapidly they are dieing and some fish don't appear to be affected by this at all. My Dwarf gouramis have shown no signs of being infected nor has my 2 tetras in the tank (or the black mollies). 

The fish that rapidly died were the Serpae tetras and the cherry barbs as well as one of my golden dojos. My water params are perfectly fine which leads me to believe this has got to be some sort of bacterial infection that rapidly spread through the tank. But my concern in regards to how quickly my fish dropped still stands.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

I would surmise that the recent new fish brought in whatever is causing this, and from my similar experience it may be some type of internal protozoan.

I am going to PM Dawn, one of our members who has considerable experience in this area, and hopefully she will be available to offer some advice. I do not have the experience/knowledge with diseases, and won't guess at this or that.

I will also move this thread out of characins and into the disease section which is more pertinent to the subject.

Byron.


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

Byron said:


> I would surmise that the recent new fish brought in whatever is causing this, and from my similar experience it may be some type of internal protozoan.
> 
> I am going to PM Dawn, one of our members who has considerable experience in this area, and hopefully she will be available to offer some advice. I do not have the experience/knowledge with diseases, and won't guess at this or that.
> 
> ...


That's what I thought as well Byron, I didn't have this issue until I brought home the new fish. Also thanks for messaging the expert on this whole thing as well as moving this thread to the proper section.

I have attached some photos of my spotted raphael in his current state. You can see the white "cotton" on the side of his body near his pectoral fin. You can also see the decaying caudal fin. 

75% of the fish that I have found during this whole ordeal have had the same damaged caudal fin (some did not). Not all had the same white cottom growth but some did.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Andrew, a couple questions which I think Dawn will want to know.

How large is the Raphael catfish? These are predatory, and might have something to do with this. And could you post a good photo of the entire tank?

This tank has been running for over a year, and you are sure the nitrates are zero? Is this the API liquid test, and did you shake Regent #2 for a good 2 minutes?

Byron.


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

Byron said:


> Andrew, a couple questions which I think Dawn will want to know.
> 
> How large is the Raphael catfish? These are predatory, and might have something to do with this. And could you post a good photo of the entire tank?
> 
> ...


I will get an up to date photo for this thread later today. The raphael is small and is about 2 1/2 inches. He also met the same fate as the other fish the other morning. 

It is an API liquid test kit and I did not shake it for 2 minutes which may have given a misreading. I'm quite positive the tank is fully cycled due to the length the aquarium has been running with little fish loss (I lost some bala sharks due to stress in transport but that's about it).


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Sorry it took so long for me to get here, I have been extremely busy. 

I will need to ask you to retest that nitrate level for me please. Knowing accurate test results is going to help determine what medication is safe to use, if any. I also will need that full tank photo that Byron so generously requested on my behalf. There are often answers in photos such as that and I will need the ability to look it over and see if there is anything that can help me to properly diagnose the problem.

While it appears quite obvious that there is a fungus problem going on, the symptoms you describe tell me it's something besides the fungus that is the actual cause of death in your fish. Fungus tends to be secondary to other, more serious problems.

I will do my best to get back later today/tonight to see if you've posted the photo and new nitrate result. Knowing that the tank is cycled or not is only 1 of 2 answers we need to know... the other being how high or low exactly is the nitrate? 
Can you please also post the rest of the basic stats for the tank such as what species of live plants are in it, what type of filtration you are using, your maintenance schedule (water changes, how often, how much at a time, gravel vac frequency, etc.), as well as any other possible symptoms you may be able to think of? 
How long did the raphael catfish appear sick before it died? Were there any symptoms before you noticed the fungus on it? When you removed it from the tank did you notice any abrasions, especially on the underside (belly) of the fish? The more info you can offer the faster I can help.


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## AndrewM21 (Mar 4, 2012)

Hey Dawn,

I would like to take this time to appreciate you taking time away from your schedule to try and help me with this problem. The reason I haven't responded to this thread is due to the fact I found it much easier to simply remove the problem as a whole than losing more fish while I attempted to diagnose the problem and treat it.

I did a 75% water change and cleaned all of the sand at the bottom of the tank (left all filter media and decor untouched to prevent losing beneficial bacteria). For the first two days after the large water change and cleaning I treated the tank with the Melafix and the fish that /were/ left after a majority of the other fish died were doing much better. I was also able to reintroduce the fish that I originally moved the day the mysterious deaths began with no ill effect to those fish either. 

I am unsettled that I will not be able to know what caused the death of my fish but I am glad to see that some of my fish were able to pull through since I had no other room to store them they had to stay in the infected tank during treatment which was surprising that the handful of fish that made it, did actually make it. I was able to save a total of 8 fish by going ahead with my method rather than waiting it out, although we will not know what caused this, I still find it satisfactory that some of the fish I have had for a long period of time did make it through the ordeal rather than passing like the rest of the fish.

Again, I really appreciate you taking your time away Dawn and I do apologize that we were unable to determine the cause of this and hopefully we won't see this issue again in the future!


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## bettababy (Oct 12, 2006)

Good Luck to you and your remaining fish.


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