More help, PLEASE!

[Icewall42]

For those of you who are familiar with my trauma yesterday, four loaches (2 tigers and 2 skunks) suddenly died for no apparent reason. They were all recent additions (over the past month) that came from the same store. None of the older fish were affected.

Now, all of the sudden, my sinibotia pulchra is dying. He's kinked up, breatjing rapidly, and stiffly floating on his side. What's going on here? Is there any way at all that I can save this fish? Are all my fish going to die??

I jsut did an 80% water change yesterday and added Supersulfa to the tank! I just don't understand this, this fish was fine like 10 minutes ago... if he just having a seizure?? I'm afraid if this keeps up he'll be dead within hours....

PLEASE HELP! I've never had mass death like this.

Now he's flipped on his back on the sand... breathing heavily, twitching, stopping breathing, breathing again, repeat...

[Fear_The_Loach]

I'll hazard a guess and say that it's probably, if anything, either a water problem or a parasite.

Is it possible that you may have gotten something, say, soap-material or chemicals near the tank?

Soft bodied fish, as I'm sure you know, are easily damaged by chemicals you put in the tank, such as disease treatments and the like. Have you used any of those lately?

Otherwise, you may have a aprasite on your hands. Something quick and nasty that goes from fish to fish killing them off. Don't know what it could be, but if more fish die, check them over real good before you dispose of them. If it becomes clear there are water or parasite problems, do a water exchange.

Finally, if all else fails, bring a sample of your tank water to a pet supplier that knows their stuff and see if they can test it for any other crap going on.

I'm sorry you're losing some of your fish. Good luck!

[Icewall42]

The only medicine I used before today was a tiny (not even half) dose of Super Sulfa tot ake care of some whitepatches on the striata. The water was massively changed yesterday as a result of those four fish dying. I looked over the bodies of the dead fish but they were straight as rails with not a mark on their body... bleache dout in death, of course. Everything was perfectly fine in the months preceding this, none of the fish had a single problem.

I can't ask the pet stores here to do anything for me because they are all clueless and keep their fish in crummy conditinos. I had to tell one store how to get rid of ich, which they obviously didn't do.

I've just dumped internal parasite medication into the tank hoping that will do something....

And no, there should be no stray chemcials like soap in the tank because the sponge I use for cleaning it is exclusively used for that tank.

This really just looks like an epileptic seizure as this fish sudeenly, and literally suddenly, started doing this. But I swear he's dying, he's not getting better.

[chris1932]

Bottom dwellers are vunerable to intestinal flagelates, nematodes, and other nasties. PraziPro would rule this out. Do you see any red spots on the abdomen of the affected or dead fish. Someone else on this fourm had something like this happen recently. I wish I could remember who it was. Mabey MikeV???

[Fear_The_Loach]

Wow. Bummer.

Don't know what to tell you then. If you could bear to do an 'atopsy' on one of the dead fish, just to see if there's any internal parasites, that's always an option. I wouldn't. It'd make me sad.

Otehrwise, just keep looking for signs. I'll try to find some info on fish just randomly dying on the net. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

Oh, and did you possibly change the water temp too fast? That's also a thing that can effect fish.

[mikev]

Hi,

It is impossible to diagnose stuff like this at a distance, but what you are describing is more consistent with small parasite (bacteria, protozoa) or poisoning rather than internal parasites, for the latter the deaths would not cluster so much. A possible scenario is that you brought in infection with the new fish, and the amount of pathogen slowly increased, until it reached the level sufficient to kill fish, possibly every fish.

I've seen such things happening several times. The only way to prevent them is sufficiently long quarantines.

Now, in a situation like yours, not knowing what is the cause prevents an effective response. Is there a vet in your area who can do necropsies and look under a scope? -- finding one quickly is the best course of action. You may want to preserve the bodies in alcohol in case you can find a vet.

If the situation continues to deteriorate, separating the fish into several q-tanks via a strong disinfectant bath may be the only way to save them.

[Icewall42]

Thank you... there are no marks on the pulchra, except maybe his tummy is blushed a little bit red. It's not prominent.

I still have the dead tigers, I froze them to see if maybe a fish store could tell me what was wrong or needed me to produce the bodies... I could open up one of them. I don't want to do it to the puchra because I'be had him for so long (he's about 5-6 years old)

I decided the feed the anti-parasite gel directly to the poor pulchra's mouth... I just can't figure out what else to immediately do.

I'm to try a fish store tomorrow, if this loach is still alive, to see if I can find some PraziPro, but I really doubt they have it.

[Icewall42]

It's possible that is was a bacteria... but then why didn't my other small loaches, the established striata and the two older skunks, why didn't they die, too?

It's just so strange that only the newest fish (thouse I got within the last month, month and a half) died.

The pulchra looks like a completely different case. The dead tigers and skunks were not misshapen or kinked up.... the pulchra is. Plus, the pulhcra is a much older fish.

And what sort of vet would be able to look at a tropical fish?

[Icewall42]

Nevermind, it just died....

[Fear_The_Loach]

I don't think that bacteria chooses what fish to go to, but I suggest heavily quarentining your fish that remain sick so it, if it IS a parasite or something spreadable, at least your other fish will remain safe.

Have you increased the water temp lately?

[loachmom]

Sorry this is happening, IceWall.

Here is a link to another post where someone was having unexplained deaths.

http://forums.loaches.com/viewtopic.php?t=5411

[Fear_The_Loach]

Nevermind, it just died....

Aw, crap.

Well, I don;t have much more to say. I'm sorry.

And I can see why you wouldn't want to cut open your fish if you've had them for ages.

Not sure what vet you could find to help with your problem.

[mikev]

As I mentioned above, parasites are likely not the cause. The timing is wrong. Additionally, PraziPro is ineffective against nematodes. The gel is somewhat effective if it is ultracare, but this is likely not the disease you have.

If you want to _try_ drugs at random (sometimes not a bad idea in a real crisis and no information), consider antibiotics and/or drugs aimed at small external parasites (salt, meth blue, mal green), you are more likely to score with them.

[Icewall42]

Salt is all I've got... should I add it?

[Fear_The_Loach]

Well, salt IS known to solve a lot of things. If you've got nothing else left to do, I'd add a bit.