Hello -
I am new to this forum, normally on plant subjects versus fish....
I keep freshwater tropical planted aquariums (6)
I have been keeping fish for 52 years, plants for 17.
I am having trouble with a relatively new tank, a 300 gallon planted tank.
Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10 ppm, pH 7.0-7.1, pH controlled CO2 injection 24 hr/day. KH 7, GH 8. Temperature is 75.2 F almost perfectly constant (+/- 0.2F).
Filtration: 3X Eheim 2028's with Sicce Booster pumps, 1X 3 Stage Sump running about 1000 gallons/hour. Sump filled by Overflows skimming surface with a BEAN 3 Configuration. Substrate EcoComplete. Clean, never used in another tank - same as with all other components. Lighting, 4X Kessil 360X WiFi controlled.
Water cycled for 6 months before adding livestock (know this isn't necessary but it happened for reasons unintended, COVID, CA Fires, Etc). And I know bacteria population would have benefitted from some, even minimal livestock. In any case not having Ammonia or Nitrite issues so bacteria population and plants are handling the fish load just fine. Plants growing well.
Livestock: 20 Rummynose Tetra, 20 Red Eye Tetra, 6 Glowline Tetra, 5 Hatchets - spotted (Wild), ~ 15 Cory of various types, Leopard (Wild), 8 Panda Garra, 8 Plecos (mostly TR small), 3 Kuhli Loaches (Wild). Red Cherry and Amano Shrimp. Nerite Snails, pond snails. Upon addition of first school of Cory Cats - the spawned and left eggs in 10 places around he aquarium. I thought that perhaps the first Cory that died (a Venezuelan Cory from a school of 7) was a result of the rather heated spawning activity, but now believe that is incorrect.
Feed - Flake (high quality), NLS AlgeMax Wafers, Frozen Hikari Brine, Frozen Hikari Frozen Tubiflex.
I am losing fish between 1 and 2 a day.
At first had no idea. Thought it was repercussions of fish shipments, and it may have been unrelated to the current disease issue.
Then I lost a pleco - which I hadn't experienced. Had small blotches - discolorations on its face but wasn't sure that it wasn't caused post mortem. And hard to capture in photo.
Then I lost a Cory catfish. It had a reddened face and what appeared to be a small hole in it's cheek going into it's mouth. Barbells 100% intact and healthy looking.
Now I getting worried so started watching behaviors very closely. Observed another Cory flashing against substrate.
Later I lost a Leopard Cory, reddened patch on the top of its head above the eyes. Picture attached.
Next I lost a Rummynose, reddened area near it's anal fin, but not on the fin. Picture attached.
I lost a Hatchett - this one has the red spot - looking like septicemia in one eye! Picture attached.
Lost another Hatchet - this one had a reddish blotch on the body above the anus (Picture attached before he died). These aren't open sores - they are red-tinged areas that seem to appear beneath the scales - the skin layer. Except for the reddened eye of the Hatchett - obviously not skin - but the eye wasn't an open lesion..
I have attached pictures of the sick fish. Hopefully between this picture and the description and parameters above I won't get the input on bad husbandry, dirty water, overcrowding, unkempt, uncleanly, etc. I have never had a problem like this - I take good care of my aquariums, I am a scientist, and an engineer with a PhD. Not meaning to be grumpy, but losing fish like this breaks my heart and I really need help, hopefully not a lecture on how important clean water with good chemistry and no pollutants are. I understand and respect that.
Tank:
Post Mortem pictures of fish:
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated for myself, and for my fish .
I know the pictures aren't optimal but adding too much light washed out the reddened areas that I wanted you to be able to see.
Here is what I tried so far:
1. API General Cure. One course (4 days, two doses, one dose every two days, per NET water volume (including Sump) according to directions from API.
2. Pima and Melafix per instructions.
After initial treatment of API General Cure - deaths dropped off to zero for a couple days following end of treatment regimen. But I wasn't confident so out of abundance of caution I decided Pima/Melafix would be a mild treatment for what might be a mild condition (at this point).
Couple days later deaths started up again. This time with what appear to be more visible symptoms (at least to me).
So at the advice of an LFS owner with some experience - I have resumed treatment with API General Cure for 2 weeks, 7 doses every other day. I just completed my 2nd does (of the 7 planned).
Insights, questions are eagerly accepted. Hopefully I have provided a decent background of the tank, the water, the creatures in the tank.
Thank you very much.
Mike
Saratoga, CA
I am new to this forum, normally on plant subjects versus fish....
I keep freshwater tropical planted aquariums (6)
I have been keeping fish for 52 years, plants for 17.
I am having trouble with a relatively new tank, a 300 gallon planted tank.
Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10 ppm, pH 7.0-7.1, pH controlled CO2 injection 24 hr/day. KH 7, GH 8. Temperature is 75.2 F almost perfectly constant (+/- 0.2F).
Filtration: 3X Eheim 2028's with Sicce Booster pumps, 1X 3 Stage Sump running about 1000 gallons/hour. Sump filled by Overflows skimming surface with a BEAN 3 Configuration. Substrate EcoComplete. Clean, never used in another tank - same as with all other components. Lighting, 4X Kessil 360X WiFi controlled.
Water cycled for 6 months before adding livestock (know this isn't necessary but it happened for reasons unintended, COVID, CA Fires, Etc). And I know bacteria population would have benefitted from some, even minimal livestock. In any case not having Ammonia or Nitrite issues so bacteria population and plants are handling the fish load just fine. Plants growing well.
Livestock: 20 Rummynose Tetra, 20 Red Eye Tetra, 6 Glowline Tetra, 5 Hatchets - spotted (Wild), ~ 15 Cory of various types, Leopard (Wild), 8 Panda Garra, 8 Plecos (mostly TR small), 3 Kuhli Loaches (Wild). Red Cherry and Amano Shrimp. Nerite Snails, pond snails. Upon addition of first school of Cory Cats - the spawned and left eggs in 10 places around he aquarium. I thought that perhaps the first Cory that died (a Venezuelan Cory from a school of 7) was a result of the rather heated spawning activity, but now believe that is incorrect.
Feed - Flake (high quality), NLS AlgeMax Wafers, Frozen Hikari Brine, Frozen Hikari Frozen Tubiflex.
I am losing fish between 1 and 2 a day.
At first had no idea. Thought it was repercussions of fish shipments, and it may have been unrelated to the current disease issue.
Then I lost a pleco - which I hadn't experienced. Had small blotches - discolorations on its face but wasn't sure that it wasn't caused post mortem. And hard to capture in photo.
Then I lost a Cory catfish. It had a reddened face and what appeared to be a small hole in it's cheek going into it's mouth. Barbells 100% intact and healthy looking.
Now I getting worried so started watching behaviors very closely. Observed another Cory flashing against substrate.
Later I lost a Leopard Cory, reddened patch on the top of its head above the eyes. Picture attached.
Next I lost a Rummynose, reddened area near it's anal fin, but not on the fin. Picture attached.
I lost a Hatchett - this one has the red spot - looking like septicemia in one eye! Picture attached.
Lost another Hatchet - this one had a reddish blotch on the body above the anus (Picture attached before he died). These aren't open sores - they are red-tinged areas that seem to appear beneath the scales - the skin layer. Except for the reddened eye of the Hatchett - obviously not skin - but the eye wasn't an open lesion..
I have attached pictures of the sick fish. Hopefully between this picture and the description and parameters above I won't get the input on bad husbandry, dirty water, overcrowding, unkempt, uncleanly, etc. I have never had a problem like this - I take good care of my aquariums, I am a scientist, and an engineer with a PhD. Not meaning to be grumpy, but losing fish like this breaks my heart and I really need help, hopefully not a lecture on how important clean water with good chemistry and no pollutants are. I understand and respect that.
Tank:
Post Mortem pictures of fish:
Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated for myself, and for my fish .
I know the pictures aren't optimal but adding too much light washed out the reddened areas that I wanted you to be able to see.
Here is what I tried so far:
1. API General Cure. One course (4 days, two doses, one dose every two days, per NET water volume (including Sump) according to directions from API.
2. Pima and Melafix per instructions.
After initial treatment of API General Cure - deaths dropped off to zero for a couple days following end of treatment regimen. But I wasn't confident so out of abundance of caution I decided Pima/Melafix would be a mild treatment for what might be a mild condition (at this point).
Couple days later deaths started up again. This time with what appear to be more visible symptoms (at least to me).
So at the advice of an LFS owner with some experience - I have resumed treatment with API General Cure for 2 weeks, 7 doses every other day. I just completed my 2nd does (of the 7 planned).
Insights, questions are eagerly accepted. Hopefully I have provided a decent background of the tank, the water, the creatures in the tank.
Thank you very much.
Mike
Saratoga, CA