Mystery fish deaths

[Peter Demski]

Ok I am trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with my fish?
First off this is for a 90 gal heavily planted tank. Here are the specs:

Ammonia:0ppm
NitrIte:0ppm
NitrAte:0ppm(time to dose more)
Ph:7.4
360Watts 6700K
eco-complete substrate(3-5" deep)
Full of plants

2 angels(6")
2 swordtails
1 platy
5 cherry barbs
2 gold barbs
8 ottos
7 male guppies
1 pleco(7-8")
~30 amano shrimp

I have had a strange problem with my tank since I overpruned one week and
got an ammonia spike about a month ago(posted about it on 8/26). For about
2 weeks afterward I had problems with fish jumping out of the tank so I put
the glass back on the top and tried to increase my cooling efforts(lots of
light makes for a hot tank in a hot room). So no more jumper but it seems
like at random I will wake up in the morning and one of my fish that was
swimming around and looked healthy the night before will be laying on the
bottom.

The only clues I had were the fact that my larger angel seems to have a few
missing scales occasionally and it looks like he has a scratch mark or
two(assuming he is rubbing against my driftwood). Tonight when I got home
it looks like a whole section of scale are 'funny' looking. Like they are
there but not at the same time and it is a fairly large area. He is not
showing any signs of stress and is still acting like he normally does.

The other thing I noticed is that my swordtails gills are a brighter red
color than seems normal to me and they have a funny photoluminescent color
around the gills when the light hits them just right.

Any Ideas? I hate losing fish but when it comes to disease I have had
horrible luck curing sick fish :(

Peter

[Elaine T]

Peter Demski wrote:
> Ok I am trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with my fish?
> First off this is for a 90 gal heavily planted tank. Here are the specs:
>
> Ammonia:0ppm
> NitrIte:0ppm
> NitrAte:0ppm(time to dose more)
> Ph:7.4
> 360Watts 6700K
> eco-complete substrate(3-5" deep)
> Full of plants
>
> 2 angels(6")
> 2 swordtails
> 1 platy
> 5 cherry barbs
> 2 gold barbs
> 8 ottos
> 7 male guppies
> 1 pleco(7-8")
> ~30 amano shrimp
>
> I have had a strange problem with my tank since I overpruned one week and
> got an ammonia spike about a month ago(posted about it on 8/26). For about
> 2 weeks afterward I had problems with fish jumping out of the tank so I put
> the glass back on the top and tried to increase my cooling efforts(lots of
> light makes for a hot tank in a hot room). So no more jumper but it seems
> like at random I will wake up in the morning and one of my fish that was
> swimming around and looked healthy the night before will be laying on the
> bottom.
>
> The only clues I had were the fact that my larger angel seems to have a few
> missing scales occasionally and it looks like he has a scratch mark or
> two(assuming he is rubbing against my driftwood). Tonight when I got home
> it looks like a whole section of scale are 'funny' looking. Like they are
> there but not at the same time and it is a fairly large area. He is not
> showing any signs of stress and is still acting like he normally does.
>
> The other thing I noticed is that my swordtails gills are a brighter red
> color than seems normal to me and they have a funny photoluminescent color
> around the gills when the light hits them just right.
>
> Any Ideas? I hate losing fish but when it comes to disease I have had
> horrible luck curing sick fish :(
>
> Peter
>
>
The jumping was probably a reaction to ammonia and nitrites. Ammonia in
particular can make fish jump. The scale stuff, sudden dropping dead,
and swordtail gills sounds like a bacterial infection. Try switching to
an antibacterial food for 10 days. Jungle is making one available in
the US. The other option is to isolate visibly affected fish and treat
with kanamycin, maybe.

--
Elaine T __
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