Help, My Fish Are Sick & Suffering

terry54 · 03-09-2007, 08:54 PM

Hi

Over the last two months I have been slowly stocking my community tank, it looks awsome and I have really been enjoying it. Until 4 days ago when I found one of my Patties dead. I was a little surprised, he had been acting a little listless but no other symptoms or drastic behavior changes. The next day I thought one of my fancy tailed guppies was dead lying at the bottom of the tank, his coloring is normally yellow and he was now almost white. When I opened the tank to scoop him up he swam away, like he was just napping.

This has been going on for 3 days now, he naps more than swims when he swims he swims normally, he still has spunk. I wish I could say the same thing about a glass fish I have. He came down sick a day after the guppie, but the glass fish is much worse. He too rests on his side at the bottom of the tank most of the day. When he tries to swim he swims on his side or franticly swims in circles and upside down to the surface only to come crashing back down to the bottom face first. After 3 days he is getting weaker and weaker and the poor little guy is truly pathetic to watch he seems to be suffering so.. I don't know what is wrong with these fish, nor weather it is contagious or not ? I would hate to lose my whole tank of fish to this slow miserable death !

So what do you think it is and more important should I isolated them from the others in a hosp. Tank ? Would you advise any kind of medication for them ? What about medicating the whole community tank to insure there health ? Also I read something about giving sick fish a salt bath before putting them in a hosp. Tank. Do you think this is a good idea ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated by me and my poor sick sick fish.

Terry

Loman · 03-09-2007, 10:28 PM

Terry,
Not a lot to go on in this post. Sorry but there are a ton of questios that jump to mind that will hekp us understand the situations

How many and what fish do you have?
How fast did you add them?
How long has the toank been set up?
Was it cycled?
What are the water paramaters Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, pH, kH
Any other symptons ont efish discolred patches, bulges, bloating, white spots etc.

Without any idea of what the problem is if you have only a few fish that seem to be effected and have a hospital tank I would pull them out to protect the rest. The salt bath is mostly for ick and parasites which you do not seem to be describing. I am not sure hat is wrong so it is nearly impossible to suggest a medication/treatement. In fact IME it is probably best to wait it out a bit and try to figure out what is happeneing before treating with the wrong med and maybe having a bigger side effect than you already have.

terry54 · 03-10-2007, 12:09 AM

Thanks for responding to my post so fast. Let's see, I will try and answer your questions.

* Yes my tank if fully cycled & has been up and running for about 3 months now.

* The water parameters are all normal, I checked them before my problem started. (I did a 25% water change)

* My community tank consists of a variety of 13 fish that were all added a minimum of a week apart, sometimes more.
2- guppies
5- platties
2- molly's
4- glass fish

* The fish have no marks dots or patches on them, nore do they look bloated.

So you see why I am baffled. I thought it might be that bloated bladder disease at first. Can fish get that if too much water is added to fast to the tank ? I'm reaching I know, but ya never know.

Terry

alexfevery · 03-10-2007, 02:13 AM

What are you feeding them?

and the water temperature is 72-80 right?

terry54 · 03-10-2007, 03:02 AM

I feed them flake food on a daily basis. About once a week I give them a little dried plankton. Every few weeks for a treat I give them a little bit of a small cube of frozen bloodworms. In other worrds I try to give thema little variety.

terry

sheloudre · 05-16-2007, 12:38 AM

Oh man! Thank goodness i found your question. I have what sounds like a very similar problem in my livebearer tank. Have lost a male mollie and a female guppy to this problem. They sit on the bottom and breathe heavy, swim to top and then sink almost immediately. Can't eat the flake food since they can't stay afloat. We took the mollie into the lfs and were told he had dropsy, but he wasn't bloated at all. Female guppy isn't either. Will be watching any answers on this post.