# After they've recovered-- what then?



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi, All
I gave my 8 chili rasboras a disease by putting 4 unquarantined juvenile endlers into their tank. (I thought the endlers had been pre-quarantined)

The endlers died rapidly and then my rasboras became sick. I treated them and now half have survived. They have good colour and can eat again and they are swimming normally. 

If all of them had died, I would have taken down the tank, discarded the plants and substrate, sterilized everything else, and started from scratch. 

But 4 have survived and it's clear that they need a few more microrasboras in the tank in order to feel safe.

Do you think that the tank is now safe for other fish, as the rasboras have recovered? Would it be irresponsible to put new chili rasboras into a tank that has had sick fish in it? Or is it more irresponsible to leave the recovered chili rasboras in such a small group?

Should I take the recently recovered fish out of their tank and keep them in a bucket while I sterilize it, or would that be too stressful?

What do the rest of you do after you've had sick fish recover? I've never had an outbreak of any illness before in my tanks; I had a sick rescue cory but I put her directly into a hospital tank.


----------



## crazy72 (Apr 22, 2010)

Hi Maureen,

I usually clean up the tank completely, including gravel if any, throw filter media away, and set it up again with seeding from a healthy tank. Call me paranoid, but it helps me sleep at night.


----------



## darb (Apr 21, 2010)

Morainy said:


> Hi, All
> I gave my 8 chili rasboras a disease by putting 4 unquarantined juvenile endlers into their tank. (I thought the endlers had been pre-quarantined)
> 
> The endlers died rapidly and then my rasboras became sick. I treated them and now half have survived. They have good colour and can eat again and they are swimming normally.
> ...


what was the disease?


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Hi Darb and Crazy72,

I don't know what the disease was, but it seems to have been bacterial, probably gram positive. I treated the tank with salt, Jungle Lifeguard (parasites, bacterial infections) and then Erythromycin. The Erythromycin seemed to do make a difference quite quickly.

I thought at first that it was neon tetra disease because the rasboras went pale in the middle, but apparently true neon tetra disease is always fatal and so it was likely bacterial.

Do you have any thoughts on what it could have been?

The fish had no spots or any visible sign of disease or parasite, no fungus. The endlers looked healthy until they died. The rasboras, which had been in my tank for months and were perfectly healthy, first showed signs of illness by becoming startled and jerky in their swimming movements. Then, their colour changed. Four died. Four survived. Now they are chasing food again.

Their water conditions were excellent at the time and always have been in this tank. I test for everything: pH, nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, gH, kH, and all were perfect. Plants were healthy. And the new endlers were darned cute until they died. I thought at first that they hadn't like the water conditions, but when the rasboras became ill I decided that it was infectious. I was able to remove the endlers from the tank as soon as they died; they didn't sit around festering. Their bodies had no signs of disease, no bloat, no wounds.

QUOTE=darb;2826]what was the disease?[/QUOTE]


----------



## darb (Apr 21, 2010)

can't comment on the disease itself, but I would say that you are confident about the source of the disease, confident that the disease is cured and you treated your entire tank and thus anything in it so it should be fine ...


----------



## CRS Fan (Apr 21, 2010)

darb said:


> can't comment on the disease itself, but I would say that you are confident about the source of the disease, confident that the disease is cured and you treated your entire tank and thus anything in it so it should be fine ...


I agree with darb. Give it a couple weeks but in the interim, sell some of those plants already.... It's a jungle in that tank !

Stuart


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Ha ha, Stuart! You made me laugh tea up my nose!

But of course I would never sell plants from a tank that had ever had a disease, just in case my fish had some kind of immunity but it was still contagious.

Actually, I would never sell a plant. I'm not the underwater gardener -- you are! I couldn't tell a lily from a freshwater dandelion.

When my plants grow like crazy, I start new tanks. Isn't that what everyone does??



CRS Fan said:


> I agree with darb. Give it a couple weeks but in the interim, sell some of those plants already.... It's a jungle in that tank !
> 
> Stuart


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Thank you, Darb. Maybe I'll wait a couple of weeks and then introduce fish one at a time. I am sure that the staff at the LFS will think it a little odd that I just buy one teeny little fish (they're about the size of a bit of tank debris), but it's probably best in the long run. If the first one dies, then the tank comes apart and everything gets boiled or turfed. Well, except for the fish.



darb said:


> can't comment on the disease itself, but I would say that you are confident about the source of the disease, confident that the disease is cured and you treated your entire tank and thus anything in it so it should be fine ...


----------



## Blackbar (Apr 23, 2010)

Probably the worst thing you can do is buy one fish at a time... In my experience the LFS is the best source of disease! Every fish you introduce could be toting the latest pathogen. I guess you're quarantining each individual fish but sure seems like lots of work!


----------



## Morainy (Apr 21, 2010)

Ah, good point, Blackbar.

What I decided to do was to wait for a couple of months or so before introducing any more fish. If the fish get used to living in a group of only 4, I might not introduce anymore at all. They seem a little less fearful than they did last week.



Blackbar said:


> Probably the worst thing you can do is buy one fish at a time... In my experience the LFS is the best source of disease! Every fish you introduce could be toting the latest pathogen. I guess you're quarantining each individual fish but sure seems like lots of work!


----------

