HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town - Parasites maybe ??

[AK-71]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town

It's just hard to belive it started from scratch 0-0-0 with fish being there for some time. I could measure a micro amonia spike in a day in 10 gal tank with well seeded sponge filter and only a pair of small rams in it.
On the other hand my planted tank measures 0-0-0 (had to add nitrogen from the bottle), but it has more than anubias in it.
And then why "fuzzy" stuff on the fish?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town

Depending on what test kit used.... you could get 0 all day long regardless of what you test.... then there are some that give you off the chart readings.

[kidslikefish]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town

There were a lot more plants than just the Anubias in the tank.  Back ground had a lot of Wisteria and Rotela and there was also HC and a couple of sword plants.

I tore the tank down today.  Saved the Driftwood with the Anubuis on it and some of the HC and the swordplants.  Moved all that, along with the two Amano Shrimp and one RCS into a 10 GAL quarantine tank and tossed everything else from the 20gal, I'll start dosing the quarantine tank with Binox and Melaflix in order to hopefully take care of what started the problem. I''ll put some guppy fry in the quarantine tank in about a week and let then stay for a couple of weeks before I do anything with the plants and driftwood that I pulled out of the 20gal.  

I'll start rebuilding the 20 gal in a few weeks, about the same time I start up my new shrimp tanks.  I think I'll use Aquasoil instead of Flourite this time, I like the darker look of it.  The only fish I'll really miss are the Ameca Splenda, they had just gotten to maturity and I was looking forward to the first babies from them.  I'd split some of the platties into a 46 gallon tank so I can replace them, Endlers I have to 3 tanks, so still have a lot of those.  I'll have to find some more of the Ameca Spenda when I put the tank back together.

[kidslikefish]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town - Parasites maybe ??

Ended up using a 6 GAL Eclispe tank as a quarantine tank.   Just plants from the 20 gal and the 3 shrimp.  Looked at it today when I got home and noticed what looks like swimming dust, and these little worms all along the top of the tank.  The worms are thinner than a hair and may the longest one is 3/4 inch.    I had never noticed these in the 20 gallon tank, but that is where they had to have come from. Not sure why they are all along the top in the Eclipse tank.

Could these have been the root of my problem ??  Any good sites that talk about aquarium parasites and maybe have some pictures of them ??    What can I use to wipe them out ??   Again, my goal is to save the plants and driftwood to put back into the 20 gallon tank when I rebuild it.

[Mzungu]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town - Parasites maybe ??

Looked at it today when I got home and noticed what looks like swimming dust, and these little worms all along the top of the tank.  The worms are thinner than a hair and may the longest one is 3/4 inch.  

How weird!! Is there anything more you can say about them? Can you tell if they are a certain color? Are they all about 3/4 inches long, or is that one just a mammoth? What do you mean by swimming dust? Is this separate from the worms?

EDIT: A quick google found this site, which has some pictures of worms:

http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/2007/03/trematodes-and-nematodes-in-fish.html

[kidslikefish]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town - Parasites maybe ??

The "swimming dust" is separate from the worms, unless it's different stages of the same animal.  The dust is a little larger than a pinhead. It's not just floating, it swims and crawls on the side of the tank (they are white).  It's not like the tank is swarming with them, but they are noticeable.

The worms are a whitish-grey color, the largest is about 3/4 inches, most are smaller, in the 1/4 inch range.  It would take 3 or 4 of them together to make up the width of a hair.  Some look like small scratches on the tank, until they start to move !

[Mzungu]

Re: HELP !! Disaster while Out of Town - Parasites maybe ??

Okay, the little tiny ones are probably cyclops or something similar. That's what it sounds like, at least. They'll proliferate if no one's there to eat them. I know I have some pictures I took of some, but it will take me a while to find them. I'm sure you can just google cyclops and find some pictures (you might have to look closely at yours to see what they actually look like, so just squint if you can't see   )

The worms, well, I have no clue. I would ask you more questions, but they're probably too tiny to tell!