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Total Devastation
I'm losing every one of my cichlids. Every single one of them. If any makes it, I'll be surprised. And I only have my own self to blame. I'm pretty certain I introduced a disease of some kind into my main tank by not quarantining new fish. I know better than to do it, but I did it anyway, and now my entire tank of fish are dying, and I can't stop it.
It started after I introduced 3 large male peacocks I bought at a LFS. A day or two later, I woke up to a dead fish. I thought it was possibly due to aggression with new fish in the tank. I rearranged the tank's decor.
Two days later, I found another dead fish when the lights came on. Since it was happening at night, I couldn't figure out what it could be so chalked it up to aggression again.
But when two more fish died the next day, I then knew it couldn't be aggression. So I did the normal first steps. Check water quality. It was fine, but I did a thorough cleaning anyway (while still preserving the good bacteria). The other concern was oxygen since I was seriously overcrowding my tank.
Oxygen levels were ruled out when I had lowered the water to ensure constant spraying on the water surface (in addition to my surface skimmer and air wand), and yet, more fish continued to die, one by one.
I checked the fish and there was absolutely nothing visibly wrong with them. No spots. No fuzz. No redness. No bloating or puffing up. Nothing. In fact, many of them appeared to have died only a short while before the lights came on because they still had nice coloring. Some had their mouths open, but not all. Gills were in their normal position. No redness. Still no spots, fuzz, no fin damage, nothing.
At this point, I did begin seeing one symptom. Stringy poop. That's generally an indication of internal parasites. I've been feeding NLS Thera-A, but sparingly as their appetites are beginning to decline, and I don't want to overstuff their digestive system or foul the water.
And still, the fish keep dying. I've added Melafix and Pimafix to the tank, as well, just in case there is a bacterial or fungal infection going around. Since I can't see any physical signs other than the stringy poop, I decided it would be best to cover all the bases.
But damn it, they keep on dying.
I'm beginning to see more symptoms. About 24 hours before a fish dies, it will become inactive and start gasping. Not at the top of the tank. More like how a fish is when it's asleep, but it is gasping. Not a heavy gasp. Kind of like when a female is holding and rearranging her eggs/fry. It's a gentle gasp. Then it's like the fish just goes to sleep and dies. In fact, the last fish ended up not being completely dead when I removed him and prepared him for disposal. I wanted to get a good look at him so I got my magnifying glasses on to really inspect him closely. There was no movement from him whatsoever... until I touched his belly. Then he quivered. It surprised me so I did it again and got the same response. At that point, I realized he was still alive and decided to end his suffering as fast as I could.
Now I just experienced a new symptom. My #1 favorite fish just died. All of a sudden, he went beserk, jumped straight up to the surface to the point I was afraid he might have jumped out, then crashed straight back down, and is lying completely lifeless, upside down. He started the inactive/slow gasping about 24 hours ago so it's not a surprise that he died, but none of the other fish had done a "death lurch" of that kind before.
And there's been a little bit of flashing, but like all the other symptoms, it's been mild. I'll see one fish do it a couple of times and then that's it. Maybe another will do it on the same day. But it's not aggressive flashing, not constant, and not many of them are doing it. However, it does indicate there's something irritating some of the fish.
At this point, I'm at a total loss. I could rush out to get a bunch of stronger meds, but I don't even know what I'm fighting. It's pretty clear it's a disease of some type, but there are no physical signs of the disease (such as spots, etc). The dead fish are as pristine as ever. So it's internal. There's some stringy poop, listlessness, slow gasping, a little flashing, one death throw, and that's it. What's odd also is that they're not dying all at once. They're dying one by one (sometimes two). Sometimes a large fish will die, sometimes a small one. Sometimes a new fish (to the tank) will die, sometimes an older fish. There is no pattern.
What is certain is that whatever is killing them appears to wiping out every fish in my entire tank. And I hope like hell whatever it is doesn't spread to my other tanks.
If anyone has any ideas of what I might be dealing with, please let me know. I have never had anything like this happen before that I couldn't turn around. Nothing I'm doing is helping. They just keep dying.
It started after I introduced 3 large male peacocks I bought at a LFS. A day or two later, I woke up to a dead fish. I thought it was possibly due to aggression with new fish in the tank. I rearranged the tank's decor.
Two days later, I found another dead fish when the lights came on. Since it was happening at night, I couldn't figure out what it could be so chalked it up to aggression again.
But when two more fish died the next day, I then knew it couldn't be aggression. So I did the normal first steps. Check water quality. It was fine, but I did a thorough cleaning anyway (while still preserving the good bacteria). The other concern was oxygen since I was seriously overcrowding my tank.
Oxygen levels were ruled out when I had lowered the water to ensure constant spraying on the water surface (in addition to my surface skimmer and air wand), and yet, more fish continued to die, one by one.
I checked the fish and there was absolutely nothing visibly wrong with them. No spots. No fuzz. No redness. No bloating or puffing up. Nothing. In fact, many of them appeared to have died only a short while before the lights came on because they still had nice coloring. Some had their mouths open, but not all. Gills were in their normal position. No redness. Still no spots, fuzz, no fin damage, nothing.
At this point, I did begin seeing one symptom. Stringy poop. That's generally an indication of internal parasites. I've been feeding NLS Thera-A, but sparingly as their appetites are beginning to decline, and I don't want to overstuff their digestive system or foul the water.
And still, the fish keep dying. I've added Melafix and Pimafix to the tank, as well, just in case there is a bacterial or fungal infection going around. Since I can't see any physical signs other than the stringy poop, I decided it would be best to cover all the bases.
But damn it, they keep on dying.
I'm beginning to see more symptoms. About 24 hours before a fish dies, it will become inactive and start gasping. Not at the top of the tank. More like how a fish is when it's asleep, but it is gasping. Not a heavy gasp. Kind of like when a female is holding and rearranging her eggs/fry. It's a gentle gasp. Then it's like the fish just goes to sleep and dies. In fact, the last fish ended up not being completely dead when I removed him and prepared him for disposal. I wanted to get a good look at him so I got my magnifying glasses on to really inspect him closely. There was no movement from him whatsoever... until I touched his belly. Then he quivered. It surprised me so I did it again and got the same response. At that point, I realized he was still alive and decided to end his suffering as fast as I could.
Now I just experienced a new symptom. My #1 favorite fish just died. All of a sudden, he went beserk, jumped straight up to the surface to the point I was afraid he might have jumped out, then crashed straight back down, and is lying completely lifeless, upside down. He started the inactive/slow gasping about 24 hours ago so it's not a surprise that he died, but none of the other fish had done a "death lurch" of that kind before.
And there's been a little bit of flashing, but like all the other symptoms, it's been mild. I'll see one fish do it a couple of times and then that's it. Maybe another will do it on the same day. But it's not aggressive flashing, not constant, and not many of them are doing it. However, it does indicate there's something irritating some of the fish.
At this point, I'm at a total loss. I could rush out to get a bunch of stronger meds, but I don't even know what I'm fighting. It's pretty clear it's a disease of some type, but there are no physical signs of the disease (such as spots, etc). The dead fish are as pristine as ever. So it's internal. There's some stringy poop, listlessness, slow gasping, a little flashing, one death throw, and that's it. What's odd also is that they're not dying all at once. They're dying one by one (sometimes two). Sometimes a large fish will die, sometimes a small one. Sometimes a new fish (to the tank) will die, sometimes an older fish. There is no pattern.
What is certain is that whatever is killing them appears to wiping out every fish in my entire tank. And I hope like hell whatever it is doesn't spread to my other tanks.
If anyone has any ideas of what I might be dealing with, please let me know. I have never had anything like this happen before that I couldn't turn around. Nothing I'm doing is helping. They just keep dying.
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