I'm new at this so please be kind. I have or should say had 2 Black and Gold Oranda's and 2 Spotted Dojo's. I bought 1 each on Jan 23rd 2005 and 2 more each, an Oranda on 2-6-05 and a Dojo on 4-10-05. Everyone was doing great....fed everbody the same food. I alternated frozen bloodworm and brine and also goldfish crumb food. I saw the post's here on freeze dried food and how everyone raved how their fish went nuts on it so I tried some just recently. I purchased the Hikari brand of brine and bloodworm and seemed they did fine. I started them on this 5-7-05 and seemed to do fine then all of a sudden my first Dojo started acting funny. I then noticed his top fin was what appeared to be "gone". He then was not to be eating like usual and my second Oranda looked as though she took a nip on him. I moved the Dojo to another tank that was already set up for my feeders ( I have Dino eels and Needlenose ) which I was out of. This was on 5-12-05 in which sad to say didn't make it. He died on the 14th. I then noticed my Oranda that took the nip out of him acting kinda sluggish. Hung at the bottom of the tank, not eating a lot etc.... I saw what appeared to be something out of her gill, it was white and long. I had another tank which I had set up as my sick tank and moved her to it as whatever was going on I didn't want my other fish to contract it. I had the temp the same as the one she was in so as not to freak her out, put a tank buddy in to remove any tap water funk and this stuff called Quick Cure for Ick and other parasites as I didn't know what it was. She seemed to come around a little then all of a sudden she was gone . I am so bummed out! My other Dojo and Oranda are fine, eating all the food and acting like they should. What would have caused all this anyway? I feel it was the freeze dried food as I never have had a problem with the flakes or the frozen. Could the Dojo gotten a bad part and when my Oranda nipped him got whatever as well? The Ph levels are 7.6 and ammonia 0.0 I haven't tested the Nitrate or Nitrite as I ran out of testers but like I said the remaining 2 fish are fine. Any suggestions on what happened I would be grateful.
Also, do you recommend I do a complete aquarium change like clean all the decorations and gravel and basically start over as if there is 'something' in there I can get rid of it by doing this or what?
Thanks so much.

First off..... I am wondering a few things here...1-how big is the tank that you have the fish in? and 2-Am I correct in that you have one dojo and one oranda left?
I am no expert on this by any means but I think it would be helpful to know what size tank you have them in...etc.
Also are oranda's and dojo's compatiable fish to begin with?.....I am sure Devs or someone with a better understanding will come along soon....I was just sittin here so I thought I would give it a shot!!

They're in a 29gal and they are compatable. The Dojo deteriated rapidly as did the Oranda. I did notice on the Oranda that she ( ) suffocated as she had red on her gills and under her mouth area to the back of her gill area. It's not really a compatability issue as they all got along great.

Uh oh...now other Dojo not looking good. I noticed under the belly on the bottom fin at the end of the tail there seems to be a filmy coating and a slight redness and she ate a little bit of frozen bloodworm but not as usual. Also seems to be lying on the bottom more and when she does swim about it's kinda erratic. The Oranda is acting quite normal. How do I treat whatever this is so my Oranda that's remaining won't die? I do have a snail in there since the beginning and he's ok. Like I said in my first post, they all seemed fine until I fed them the freeze dried food I bought on the 7th of this month. Help please!!

Hi Queenbee and welcome to kokos

I'm no expert either but it may be costia.Here is a link that you could read about it.I'm sure someone will come along and help you better.In the meantime,read up on it to see if your fish are having the same exact symptoms.Hang in there!

Thanks for replying. It sounds like that's what it is but it came on so suddenly. This morning when I got home from work I did a partial water change and vac'd all the gravel to remove old crud. I took out their ornaments and had that QuickCure along with StressCoat. I did wait about a half hour b4 I added the Quick. I thought to leave out the oranaments until I see signs of improvement. What would cause this to happen so quick? They all were doing great until a few day's ago. There were no drastic changes in water temp or anything. The temp of water now is 70F. I guess all I can do now is wait and see. The Dojo is looking very ragged while my fatty Oranda is eating like a pig as if nothing is wrong.

Even though you think you've seen something coming out of the gills - I would still check the water params - most lps will test for free. THere could be more than one issue going on & you may need to fix both befoer your fishies do better. (& sometimes meds can interfere with the cycle)

As far as I know, Cosita is very small & is usually diagnosed with a microscope. Are you sure the white thing was coming our of the gill & not from under a scale? (does it look like anchor worm?) (or could it have been a part of the slime coat coming off?)

Most freeze dried foods have been treated to kill of parasites - does your bottle state this or??

Hmmmm -post back soon!

I'm not sure if it was out of the gills or not. It appeared to be a long thin white string. She got sick after bitting my Dojo that was infected with something. Both have died and my other Dojo has as well. My last remainging Oranda is fine and dandy...I don't get it. And yes, the freeze dried food does state it's clear of parasites Hikari is the brand. I have posted my problems and how they were acting in the More Advice 2 Dead Fish In Matter Of Days thread.