Help sick fishes!

[cebundy]

I have a 150 gallon tank with mostly cichlids, with a few tigers and the roseline barbs and pleacos. No new fish more several months. Suddenly my two African cichlids are deathly sick. They were fine yesterday. There are lesions all over their body. Some red, some not. I took them out and put them in a container with an air stone and treated them with Melafix for tonight because my research seemed to point to a bacterial infection. I noticed that there was a lot of black particles in the water. Thinking that the activated charcoal bag in the filter sprung a leak. The Ph was at 5.6 (very low!) and the nitrate and anomie levels were super high. I just changed it out last week, and changed the filter medium as well.
So I emptied the tank of 75% of the water and only filled it back to 50% in order to more easily medicate the tank.
Does anyone know what this is?
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[cebundy]

G.I. Joe died. What ever this is it's spreading on the fishes body like wild fire.
Here is another picture of Joe. Does this look familiar to anyone?
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[Compass]

Oh man that is terrible. I have no idea what that is. I would say that the swings in your parameters and whatever this is are directly related. I would think ammonia burn but I've always seen that as white, not red.

What are you using to filter this tank and how long as the tank been running? You say you changed the filter medium? What exactly did you change out? If you removed the majority of your biomedia this could very well explain your issues.

PH is 5.6, what is it normally? You could be dealing with a big PH crash.

[Rocksor]

Hemorrhagic Septicemia

Treatment will be based upon the true PH of the tank, and not the ph of 5.6 that you have now. So do the water changes to correct the PH and dose with Prime as the ammonia will get toxic as the ph rises.


For fish showing streaks, put in a methylene blue bath at 1ml per gallon for 30 minutes

Next, treat the whole tank (I'm only suggesting this because a second fish has become infected, and the possibility is high that others will too)

Add salt at 1 tablespoon per gallon. The use the following medication

For PH 7.5 and above use Triple Sulfa or Seachem Kanaplex or both

For PH below 7.5m, use Jungle Fungus Guard (Walmart) or Furan-2 or Tetra Fungus Guard, either 3 can be combine with Seachem Kanaplex

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/vibrio_aeromonas.html

[cebundy]

What are you using to filter this tank and how long as the tank been running? You say you changed the filter medium? What exactly did you change out? If you removed the majority of your biomedia this could very well explain your issues.

Filstar - The 4 stage model. The tank a Has been running for about 5 years. We use biochem, nitrasorb, and zeo carb. We changed it all out. This is nothing different than we usually do.

PH is 5.6, what is it normally? You could be dealing with a big PH crash.
It's normally between 7.5 and 8.

[cebundy]

Thanks. I have some methalyn blue powder, any idea what the per gallon dosage would be?

[fishmommie]

Just out of curiosity, when you say you 'changed everything out' does that include any filter floss or sponges or bio rings you might using?

[cebundy]

We didn't change out the bio rings or sponges.

[cebundy]

Thanks, I've started the treatment. I?ve noticed that the ph keeps going down. After the water change it was 7.2 now it's 5.9 24 hours later. Any ideas as why why it keeps cratering?

[Cliff]

Increased CO2 levels can cause your pH to drop that much in that short of time

Do you have good water movement at the top of the tank to help keep the water oxygenated ?

Are you running/adding CO2 to the this tank ?

[fishmommie]

+ to above. have you ever checked your KH and GH? if the KH is low it might not be able to buffer and keep the pH where it needs to be.

[Rocksor]

Thanks. I have some methalyn blue powder, any idea what the per gallon dosage would be?

For a 3 % solution in a 30 minute bath, dissolve 12 mg per gallon of water..If you dont have a gram scale, put enough for a dark blue color bath. If you use water conditioner, you have to wait 30 minutes before making the bath.