Need some help big time

**Cassandra** · 02-04-2011, 07:38 PM

Ok so I have had 5 fish die, at least 1 each day, two separate tanks. I have no idea whats going on here. I check my water parameters every day, and all my readings are perfect.

I look for my my fish every single day to make sure everyone is accounted for. And every day for the past 4 days I have found a dead fish. And not just a typical dead fish. They are covered in white fuzz, as if they have been there for days, rotting away, with some kind of fungus.

The first day it happened my husband went down and bought 2 small plecos and I tested my water and everything looked good, so instead of taking them back, against my better judgement, I figured it would be fine, and we put him in. The next morning I find one of them under a piece of driftwood, and he's dead, covered in this fuzz. I kind of thought he got stuck and couldnt get out, but I know they like to squeeze into tight spots and he really wasnt that far in, so that cant be it. I took him back to the lfs and they exchanged him for another one, this time an albino, who is a little bigger. About 2 days go by and everything is fine. The 3rd day there was one of the tiger barbs hanging out by himself, and hes really small and skinny, so I figured he was a runt and was losing out to the bigger tiger barbs on the food. I put food in for him when he was at the surface but he would swim right on by it, not even interested. The next morning, he's dead, again covered in the white fuzz. Yesterday Im looking for the other pleco (the other original, not the albino replacement) and hes hiding under a piece of driftwood. I wait to see if hes gonna come out, but he never does, so I move the piece of driftwood, and he's dead, covered in fuzz. A few hours later I discover that my betta, who is by himself in another tank has a couple white spots on him. ICK!!!! I figure this is because his heater broke and his water got too cold at night and now hes sick, so I run to walmart to get another heater for him. I get home and hook it up, do about a 90% water change, and put in a couple drops of QuICK Cure.Upon further inspection I notice a tiny spot of white fuzz on his mouth. I ran to the grocery store and return home to find my betta is dying. Hes twitching and falling upside down, so Im just hoping he goes fast. We leaveto run a couple errands and Jack the betta is dead. Today it was another tiger barb out of my 60 gallon.

There is one common denominator between the 2 tanks. I had bought some of those seed pods where you grow your own aponegeton plants. I took some out of the betta tank where I first had them and I buried them into the substrate of the 60 gallon about a week ago. Could they have brought in the fungus that is killing all of my fish? Im so worried now that Im going to lose all my fish, and other than a water change I dont know what to do. Im thinking about running to the store and grabbing a bottle of Pimafix. Please help I dont know what to do and I feel bad for my poor little fishies!!!

**Scrup** · 02-04-2011, 07:59 PM

So you didn't QT the new plecos?

While there is a chance you cross contaminated the tank, I would imagine the two problems are unrelated, and def not caused by the plants.

Ich is a sign of stress. So is fin rot/mouth rot.

Are any of the other fish acting or looking strange?

**Cassandra** · 02-04-2011, 09:50 PM

No, stupid me, I did not quarantine the plecos.

If ick and mouth rot are a sign of stress, then couldnt the stress factor be that the betta's water got too cold?

That is what is so weird about this...I watch my fish all the time. I have a bench pulled up to the tank where I sit just to watch the fish. None of them seemed to be acting weird before they died, the only exception being the first tiger barb that was really skinny. And I just realized that I messed up when I was explaining what happened...the pleco was not the first to die. It was the skinny barb. But I figured when he died that he just didnt do well on the trip home, seeing as how it was a 3 hour trip, not to mention he was much smaller than the rest, and some fish just dont make it sometimes. But everyone will be acting normal, and then I wake up to find one floating and covered in fuzz. Ive never had this kind of problem before, and I have no idea what the source is.

I picked up some Pimafix since Im guessing it is definitely a fungus...would you all agree? And since nobody is showing any signs of any disease at the moment, should I just treat the whole tank? I dont want to wait til I see something because I never see anything until someone is floating...

And if I dose the whole tank I have activated carbon in my canister filter, so I need to take that out, dont I?

**CassieLEO** · 02-04-2011, 09:56 PM

OMG, that sucks. Im so sorry this is happening when I know all the planning you put into your tank!!!
I found this online-
http://www.fishlore.com/Disease.htm
One thing I was thinking about is, whats the temp of your tank? Sometimes when a dead body is heated up, it causes fungus and bacteria to grow faster, so what you are seeing is a fast decomposition of the body? Did the fish have the fuzz before they died? Other than that, im not sure what is going on. But im awful sorry to hear your having a hard time!!

**Cassandra** · 02-04-2011, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Scrup

While there is a chance you cross contaminated the tank, I would imagine the two problems are unrelated, and def not caused by the plants.

Oh forgot to add that when I pulled out the apontegeton pods out of the tank the ones that were just floating around had the same suspicious fuzz on them...that is why I keep thinking it could have been from them...

**CassieLEO** · 02-04-2011, 10:14 PM

Ive had those fuzzy parts on my bulbs hundreds of times and never run into this...

**Cassandra** · 02-04-2011, 10:16 PM

Thanks Cassie! Yeah it really sucks! We try to do good for our fish and give them a nice life and stupid mistakes end up killing them

Ive actually looked at that link before and Im going to go ahead and do another water test, probably do a water change, and take the carbon out and medicate if I see the problem again in a day or two...

**CassieLEO** · 02-04-2011, 10:18 PM

Yeah, I would do that too. Im awful sorry about this, I hope the meds help the poor fishies. (and help you feel better about whats going on!)

**Cassandra** · 02-04-2011, 10:25 PM

Btw I did just notice that my temp is higher than it should be....it was real cold here and I had it set at 78...it is really hot today and its reading at about 82...please let that be the problem!!!!

**Scrup** · 02-04-2011, 10:34 PM

That could very easily be the problem. The white on the dead guys is probably just normal dead fish fuzz.

Pimafix and melafix work nicely together as a general initial attack on certain conditions. It can be hard to tell a fungus from a bacteria in water, since bacterial infections are often fuzzy and fungus like.