Please help

[ldoerr]

Yesterday I noticed one of my Panda corys flashing, so I looked at him the best that I could. I did not see anything out of the normal. When I checked the tank around lunch time (first time I had looked at the tank today) I found my gold mystery snail eating something. It turns out that it was a panda cory that was dead. I got the fish out of the tank and looked at it. It had white cottony stuf on it. My question is how should I treat the tank? It will take about a week to get pretty much any medication. I do have aquarium salt. The tank is heavily planted. I just tested the tank as I was draining the water for a WC. I got .25ppm ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10 nitrate. My test kit always comes in at .25ppm of ammonia or higher. It just never looks 0ppm. I will be getting a new test kit soon so hopefully that will change. The tank has been up and running for over a year now. The stock is after the death, 6panda corys, 10 harlequin rasbora, 3 male guppies, 2 platys, 1 dwarf gourami, 2 mystery snails, 1 assassin snail (who has run out of food). I have 6 bandit corys that need to be moved into this tank soon. They made it through qt great. I have an Aquaclear 70 and an Aquaclear 30 on this tank.

[rmiller]

You might check your ammonia level at the tap. That could explain your ammonia level.

Is anyone else showing signs of illness?

[Brhino]

Did you have any impression as to how long the fish had been dead? In my experience such growth is common on the bodies of fish that have been dead for more than a day or two. I saw it once in my tank when I was away for a few days, and I've seen it in extremely ill-maintained betta cups at petco (even though the betta cups are filled with an anti-fungal solution!). The growth may be a result of the death rather than the cause of it.

[ldoerr]

I think that the fish had been dead for less than a day.

Last time I tested the tap I had over .5ppm of ammonia maybe even 1ppm.

Do you think that it is safe to add the qt fish in to the tank? No other fish is showing signs of stress.

[Brhino]

personally I would leave the incoming fish in QT for another week and make sure there are no future deaths in the main tank. That's not based on any expert information, just my gut feeling. I did that with my platies - had them in QT and then had a spate of deaths in my main tank, so I left the platies in QT for a few more weeks than I had planned.

[rmiller]

+1 on leaving them in qt. Since you don't know what caused the death, I would consider you main tank under qt for 4-6 weeks after the last death. It would really stink if the new additions caught something after you took the time to qt them.

Since there is so much ammonia in your tap, you should be sure to use a product that will help detoxify the ammonia as you do water changes. May have been a large ammonia spike after a wc that killed the fish in question, and your bb took care of the spike in the time since you tested.

[Indian Woods Angels]

Any time that any type of ammonia level is showing up the fish will have some sort of a delayed physical expression of the ammonia situation.

The absolute very first thing that must be done is to lower the ammonia level.

The very best way to lower the ammonia level is through small but frequent water changes and or the addition of some sort of ammonia consuming filter that has the bio on it to eat the ammonia.

If you do not lower the levels to be favorable you will get no result as it is the levels that cause 95% of all problems.

Give the tank a day or two to react to the lowering of the ammonia levels and monitor the situation, we too often try to solve our problems by tossing in this or that.

[Cermet]

+1 for Indian Woods Angels and all their points - small but frequent - only way to both give your filter a chance to remove the ammonia without harming the fish, and get nitrates down. Also, something to lock the ammonia into a harmless form is very important. :hmm3grin2orange:

Sorry Indian Head Angels - would like to give you points for those excellent calls but on another post, I already did that today or yesterday - you are running on all cylinders!

[ldoerr]

When I do WCs I add a little bit over 1 capefull of Prime to the tank. The tank is 29g so that is double dosing. What products would you recomend I add? I added a little bit over 1/2 cup of aquarium salt to the tank yesterday. That should clear up most problems. (It always clears up any problems that I have).

[ldoerr]

I think htat panda corys are just more sensitive than other fish. All of my other fish are doing great. The remaining pandas look great.