Fish Catastrophe Part II: Cory Problems
Posted: Wed Jun 28, 2006 3:32 pm
Ok, well, this is Part II of my problems that seem to be never ending...
Not only did 3 of my beloved fish die but my husband and I are in the middle of repairing our car, and renovating our house which we think had asbestos in the tiles we just ripped up, so we are sending a sample away to be tested while imagining dying slowly from lung cancer...
So needless to say, we are absolutely devastated by these past 2 weeks' events...
So, anyways, our largest tank, a 30 or 35 gallon (I think the latter, it was sold to us as a 29 though its dimensions don't match a 29's) had a sudden outbreak of some mysterious disease.
This past Saturday I was carrying out my 50% water change/gravel vac/filter & decor cleaning as usual. I did nothing different than I normally do, the tank was at its usual levels after a week:
Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 0
pH: 7.0
Temp: 78F
Tank inhabitants: 9" Pangasius Cat, 5" Bala, 3" Yoyo loach, 3- 3" corydoras (one spotted two emeralds).
The next morning I went to feed the fish their normal diet (Pangasius gets a couple catfish pellets followed by an algae wafer or two, the rest are fed fish flakes and spirulina flakes). I looked at my small school of full grown corys and realized that my oldest, the spotted, had his entire mouth engulfed in white. White that wasn't cottony, not translucent and slimy, but white like a big, uniform spot of ich large enough to engulf his moth and withering tendrils. I was clear to me this, whatever it was, was eating away at his flesh, and I quickly went through online Cory forums, my own fish books, and even google, searching for a positive ID on this mysterious and deadly affliction.
I wasn't satisfied by it, but the closest thing seemed to be 'fish fungus' which I knew was really bacterial, so I put the only medicine I trust, my Melafix, into the tank (yes hurting badly for a QT tank).
Well, I watched over him carefully and despite the affliction he was swimming around normally so I decided he could survive through my trial-and-error diagnosis. I was wrong, he was dead the next morning, and to my terror one of my emeralds, carefully inspected the night before, had his entire left side engulfed by the same white, flesh-eating something-or-other.
I was terrified to lose any more fish (my dragon goby died less than a week before in my brackish tank) and I fumbled around in my fish medicine box-filled with a medley of medicines I had never used before and had acquired from friends, family, and the woman who sold me the tank.
I saw "Coppersafe" though I didn't want to risk using it in a tank with two scaless fish. Several meds contained dyes and ingredients I couldn't understand and there for was skeptical of.
After my emerald cory died that evening, I saw the fins were eaten away and the body had the red lines of septicemia creeping from the belly up. I Inspected my last cory and realized he has the tiniest little red line forming below a fin. That was enough for me to reach for a brand of medicine in desperation, and plunk it in the tank...
The brand is some cheap Walmart brand I suspect, considering that I have the entire line from 'Algae Clear' to 'Ammonia Clear' from the idiot (sorry) I bought the tank from. The package convinced me with its terrible little diagrams of 'fish fungus' and 'Septicemia' that I had to try it. The brand name is 'Jungle: Fungus Clear' and part of their line of mostly unnecessary meds called 'tank buddies'...
So, now my tank is Gatorade green, but my fish are all healthy and the cory is symptom-free.
Now I just wonder what is causing these sudden problems with my fish? I doubt that my dragon goby's death is related to the corys considering they are in totally different environments with different symptoms, but I can't help but feel I've failed them in some way...
Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this may have happened?
Also, what do you think is in the medicine I gave them, is it copper? If so, how can I safely remove it (the box says to leave it in the tank for 4 days, which is tomorrow)?
Not only did 3 of my beloved fish die but my husband and I are in the middle of repairing our car, and renovating our house which we think had asbestos in the tiles we just ripped up, so we are sending a sample away to be tested while imagining dying slowly from lung cancer...
So needless to say, we are absolutely devastated by these past 2 weeks' events...
So, anyways, our largest tank, a 30 or 35 gallon (I think the latter, it was sold to us as a 29 though its dimensions don't match a 29's) had a sudden outbreak of some mysterious disease.
This past Saturday I was carrying out my 50% water change/gravel vac/filter & decor cleaning as usual. I did nothing different than I normally do, the tank was at its usual levels after a week:
Nitrates: 20
Nitrites: 0
pH: 7.0
Temp: 78F
Tank inhabitants: 9" Pangasius Cat, 5" Bala, 3" Yoyo loach, 3- 3" corydoras (one spotted two emeralds).
The next morning I went to feed the fish their normal diet (Pangasius gets a couple catfish pellets followed by an algae wafer or two, the rest are fed fish flakes and spirulina flakes). I looked at my small school of full grown corys and realized that my oldest, the spotted, had his entire mouth engulfed in white. White that wasn't cottony, not translucent and slimy, but white like a big, uniform spot of ich large enough to engulf his moth and withering tendrils. I was clear to me this, whatever it was, was eating away at his flesh, and I quickly went through online Cory forums, my own fish books, and even google, searching for a positive ID on this mysterious and deadly affliction.
I wasn't satisfied by it, but the closest thing seemed to be 'fish fungus' which I knew was really bacterial, so I put the only medicine I trust, my Melafix, into the tank (yes hurting badly for a QT tank).
Well, I watched over him carefully and despite the affliction he was swimming around normally so I decided he could survive through my trial-and-error diagnosis. I was wrong, he was dead the next morning, and to my terror one of my emeralds, carefully inspected the night before, had his entire left side engulfed by the same white, flesh-eating something-or-other.
I was terrified to lose any more fish (my dragon goby died less than a week before in my brackish tank) and I fumbled around in my fish medicine box-filled with a medley of medicines I had never used before and had acquired from friends, family, and the woman who sold me the tank.
I saw "Coppersafe" though I didn't want to risk using it in a tank with two scaless fish. Several meds contained dyes and ingredients I couldn't understand and there for was skeptical of.
After my emerald cory died that evening, I saw the fins were eaten away and the body had the red lines of septicemia creeping from the belly up. I Inspected my last cory and realized he has the tiniest little red line forming below a fin. That was enough for me to reach for a brand of medicine in desperation, and plunk it in the tank...
The brand is some cheap Walmart brand I suspect, considering that I have the entire line from 'Algae Clear' to 'Ammonia Clear' from the idiot (sorry) I bought the tank from. The package convinced me with its terrible little diagrams of 'fish fungus' and 'Septicemia' that I had to try it. The brand name is 'Jungle: Fungus Clear' and part of their line of mostly unnecessary meds called 'tank buddies'...
So, now my tank is Gatorade green, but my fish are all healthy and the cory is symptom-free.
Now I just wonder what is causing these sudden problems with my fish? I doubt that my dragon goby's death is related to the corys considering they are in totally different environments with different symptoms, but I can't help but feel I've failed them in some way...
Does anyone have any suggestions as to why this may have happened?
Also, what do you think is in the medicine I gave them, is it copper? If so, how can I safely remove it (the box says to leave it in the tank for 4 days, which is tomorrow)?
Losing any beloved pet is about as rough as it can get, but hang in there!