# dilemma. slow fish deaths, mature tank.



## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

Some may remember my 55g tropical fw tank. Has a variety of corydoras, dwarf nen rainbowfish, zebra danios, pearl gouramis, and that lovely breeding group of plecos I got shipped up from charles at canadian aquatics.. as well as my favourite albine rainbow shark. The tank has been in its current basic setup for three years but some of the fish are old hands.. about 5-6 years old. The tank is planted and I have made no changes to my tank in over a year and a half. Just regular water changes and all parameters have stayed healthy. 

The issue I'm having is mixed. Fish are slowly dying off. Some become wasted, stop eating, and the danios would get bent backs. Now I understand my danios could have simply lived out their life span at about four years. The dwarf neon rainbowfish have eirher wasted away... or bloated before they died. I now see a pearl gourami that is showing signs of bloating. I even had a dwarf jump ship onto the floor... which is strange with water parameters being constant and normal. 

Some research has led me to believe my tank could have some kind of worm infesting my tank and that it usually is worse on the bottom dwellers than the top swimmers but the bottom dwellers often don't show the symptoms and tend to fare ok. I understand if I was to treat for these worms.. I would lose most of my stock as the deworming would effectively kill the host too. 

Hard to kill something that appears so healthy.... 

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what other causes there might be, or give more insight into this potential deworming process?


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## mollyb (May 18, 2010)

sorry to hear about the fish deaths, but I would lean towards 'natural' death myself. As far as the deworming goes, there are basically two types of worms we need to worry about in freshwater tanks, nematodes and tapeworms (cestodes). The treatments for them are different, nematodes need levamisole (I am sure there ather treatments, just levamisole is the one I use, and cestodes need Praziquantel. The praziquantel is easy to get, there is a product called 'Prazipro' that you can get at most fish stores, or maybe better yet at pond stores. The levamisole is available through Charles at Canadian Aquatics. I have used both of these treatments on many of my fish, many times, and never had a problem, or fish lost as long as I followed directions. I have bare bottom tanks, so it may be easier for me, gravel does confuse the issue somewhat as the cysts, or baby worms (both nematodes and cestodes) can inhabit the gravel and come back, so you will need to treat 2 x at least to be effective. Cestodes, and many nematodes need intermediate hosts (like a snail, or even mamalian, or reptilian host) so their life cycles will hopefully be stopped if these intermediary hosts are out of the loop. I would not hesitate to treat with these meds, just follow directions.


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## Jojodog (Oct 16, 2011)

*fish dying*

Going thru the same thing with my guppy tank. Everything was doing great until I unknowingly introduced some infected guppies about a month ago. Some have stopped eating and wasting away. Google "fish TB" You will see similar symptoms you are experiencing.


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## effox (Apr 21, 2010)

She's had the fish for a while, I'm sure she's keeping up with water changes and maintenance. I'm also sure the concern of over feeding isn't the issue either.


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## Reckon (Jul 25, 2012)

Water parameters? Perhaps dose with paraguard for a couple weeks?


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## Foxtail (Mar 14, 2012)

Look up neon tetra disease... The wasting and bent back are symptoms... Unfortunately there isn't much you can do for it but remove and euthanize the affected fish. 

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

Yeah you can't wash 3m colour quartz sand sorry. 

I feed every two days and have been doing so for years. 

Parameters are 0, 0, 10. 

No new introductions except some food snails for my assassins.. would they have brought something in?


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## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

effox said:


> She's had the fish for a while, I'm sure she's keeping up with water changes and maintenance. I'm also sure the concern of over feeding isn't the issue either.


Thanks for havin a little faith  I honestly wouldn't have come for advice if I could figure out the basics first.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

What about the temperature and PH/GH/KH? I assume that the fish that you've had for a long time are the catfish.. The water that they thrive in might be too acidic or too warm for the danios which are happier and longer-lived at lower-end tropical temperatures... The rainbows wouldn't like anything too acidic and soft either.

Gouramis shouldn't have trouble with soft water though, does the lid fit tightly? Apparently their labyrinth organ is really sensitive to cool air, and they die often from a pneumonia like illness, even if the water itself is warm. 

As for the wasting and not eating... Could there be some bullies in your tank? I don't know much about those rainbow sharks but practically all shoaling fish have been proven to be more aggressive when kept in groups less than six, so if all else fails maybe try swapping the danios and rainbows for something else?


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## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

Livyding said:


> What about the temperature and PH/GH/KH? I assume that the fish that you've had for a long time are the catfish.. The water that they thrive in might be too acidic or too warm for the danios which are happier and longer-lived at lower-end tropical temperatures... The rainbows wouldn't like anything too acidic and soft either.
> 
> Gouramis shouldn't have trouble with soft water though, does the lid fit tightly? Apparently their labyrinth organ is really sensitive to cool air, and they die often from a pneumonia like illness, even if the water itself is warm.
> 
> As for the wasting and not eating... Could there be some bullies in your tank? I don't know much about those rainbow sharks but practically all shoaling fish have been proven to be more aggressive when kept in groups less than six, so if all else fails maybe try swapping the danios and rainbows for something else?


I've had the plecos the least amount of time. Everyone else is 3+ yrs. The rainbow shark leaves everyone alone and has never been agressive. PH is steady around 8. Temp stays around 74 f. Water here is hard.

The one gourami I had concerns about seems to be doing fine now and no one else has died since. My shoals aren't shoals anymore as the fish have died off and I've been hesitant to add anyone else... but I've been a long tike considering a shoal of rummynose tetras so maybe ill get some in a couple weeks granted no one else dies..


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## Nicole (Nov 21, 2011)

The bent backs may come from nutrient deficiency?


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Hmmm... How many plecos are in this tank? I could be wrong, but it seems like an awful lot of stock for a 55. Could it be that the addition of the plecos was too much for the nitrifying bacteria to do its work? That would explain why everyone seems to be doing fine now that the tank is emptier...

I know you said your parameters were 0010 but it's just a thought... 

I'd bet the farm that the schooling fish not having enough numbers is what's making them behave strangely. If I were you I'd definitely swap them all for a nice big group of something else.


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## katienaha (May 9, 2010)

The plecos have been there for at least two or three years.... I will reiterate that there have been no new additions in stock. There's four plecos. A rubbernose and three bushynose.


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## Livyding (Feb 6, 2013)

Well since you said you added the plecos last, I was making an educated guess that they put your bioload over what it could handle, but don't take my word for it. Enter your fish into a bioload calculator and see for yourself if you're overstocked.


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