As I've written in other threads, I bought some sick fish about a month ago and had a massive die off in my tank. I used melafix and hoped for the best, everything seemed stable after that so I left it for a bit to see what would happen. Well yesterday I noticed that one of my blackskirts (the heartiest fish in my tank) doesn't look well. I've decided to do what I really didn't want to do..totally restart my tank. My question is, what should I do?

It's planted with loads of little snails, I didn't want to use bleach and kill those guys . Other than that I have two cories, two neons and three blackskirt tetras. I was thinking of dosing it with heavy duty meds, maybe T.C.?? Any suggestions would be great.

Chrissy

This is a hard one hun!

Melafix even thou it says its antibacterial is a very very mild natural therapy. I have used it for healing only, but in a real sick fish case, I would never rely on it.
Just to let you know

The real question is finding out what is wrong with the blackskirt and if its contagious.

Hopefully its not and you can isolate and treat therefore saving the tank itself from a treatment or major overhaul, especially as you have snails, you cant even salt with them.

as for TC I am guessing you mean tetracycline??

its a great antibiotic but i would not recomend using it as a blanket treatment unless you are sure this is a bacterial issue as the overuse of antibiots only help to establish resistant strains of bacteria.

Do you have a QT tank? can you isolate the fish in pristine water and observe to gather any data as to what is its ailment?
This will 1..help get further info
and 2. take it away from the tank for now.

CAn you give us info on size of tank/params,etc?What is the fish's actual symtoms?

Sorry about the lack of details earlier...
20 gal tank
all the perams are good (nitrates 10, nitrites/ammonia 0, ph 6.8)
it's got a large internal wisper filter
I feed flakes, brine shrimp, blood worms

The origional sickness came in with a corie but the symptoms that killed all the other fish seemed like neon tetra disease or a type of bacterial infection. The fish would suddly get pale/a little bloated and be dead the next day, a few didn't even show signs of illness but were simply dead - it killed about 10 fish in a week.

I've had my blackskirts forever and they've never been ill, but lately they are hiding constantly and avoiding one another. The one I noticed has a small white spot on the tip of his tail and a tattered fin. It could be fighting damage, but it seems a bit odd. I think he may be pale as well.

I do have a quarenteen tank and I may put him in there (if I can catch him!!!) but I'm really afraid the bacteria/virus is still in there. I know how weak melafix is, I used it in an attempt to maintain my cycle but at this point I'm willing to use something heavy duty

Chrissy

Well,from the sounds of it,if water params have always been right on with no recent problems,etc.,I would treat for the bacterial,and would probably start medicating with an antibiotic asap. Melafix won't be a strong enough fix for this. I normally am a Marasyn user,and that does sometimes throw a bump in the cycle,but I'm thinking that Tetracycline definitely will. Don't quote me on that,###### it's been quite a few years and I'm getting old.

I agree

your water params are good

[quote]The fish would suddenly get pale/a little bloated and be dead the next day[quote]
this implies neon tetra disease



however......... I do not want to put the other fish in jeopardy

Id go with devs suggestion and your orig thought of TC (tetracycline)
melafix as both of us have said is too mild...forget it!


maybe a good 50% waterchange, the the tetracycline treatment then wait 3 days or as the package says, then another waterchange and repeat
if anything goes wrong in that time....well we have to consider that then

also test water twice a day with TC in it

the amonia may hit a high, so be careful of that
if that happens then change water, replacing the med, to reduce any amonia build up

Thanks, I'm going to pick up the TC today. Wish me luck

Chrissy

How's the fish doing?Did you start a treatment?

Well the fish seems ok and all of the tetras are hiding less, but I still think I may treat before I add more fish. (I'm going through a break up so I haven't gotten around to picking up the meds yet). I just don't want to restock my tank and see another die off.

Chrissy