Unexplained deaths

Question
Hi Nicole,

I am actually really good with freshwater aquaria myself, however, whatever is going on with my tanks is a mystery. I change 25% of the water and do a gravel vacuum once a month, the only products I use are Seachem's Prime, Tetra's Easy Balance and API Stress Coat at the water changes.    

Tank 1: 55 gallons, 110 gallon Aqua Clear hang on filter, and there are 2 calico oranda goldfish, 1 black moor, 1 red cap goldfish and 6 gold mountain minnows. All has been well in the tank, the tank has been cycled for about 2 years and the fish were added after the cycle was complete, and have had no problems. pH always 7.6, ammonia and nitrites 0 and nitrates 5-10 ppm. Suddenly my favorite calico developed dropsy almost overnight. Despite doing the normal dropsy treatment I figured it was just a weird incident and instead I treated the whole tank with Maracyn II for a week. He never got better and as I was setting up the traditional dropsy treatment he died. About a week later the other calico oranda did the same thing. This time as soon as he showed signs I did the traditional treatment: separate 10 gallon tank with 20 gallon filter, using gravel and filter sponge from the main tank to instantly cycle it. Took 2 days to gradually get the temp to 82 F and used 1/8 teaspoon of epsom salts. In a week he was eating and swimming and looking great. A few days later I eased the temp down and returned him to the main tank. He suddenly died 2 days later and his fins were ragged so I figured he developed a secondary baterial infection.  That was 2 weeks ago and the remaining fish are fine, the tank water still tests fine. I'm not real concerned about this tank as the remaining fish seem fine but it would be helpful if you had any thoughts on what might have happened.   

Tank 2: This is the REAL PROBLEM!  It's 125 gallons, (2) 70 gallon hang on Aqua Clear filters, has been cycled for well over a year and no fish were added until after the cycle, some I had in another 55 gallon for awhile. Have: 1 small high finned pleco, 4 medium clown loaches, 4 schwartzi cory cats, 5 nickel to sand dollar sized angelfish, 6 zebra danios, 13 neon tetras, 8 platies, 4 mollies, 8 red eye tetra and 1 powder blue dwarf gourami. In the past two weeks I have lost so many fish, all with different symptoms, that I don't know what's happening or what to do! First, a tuxedo platy that wasn't old at all suddenly died. I noticed her when I turned on the lights to feed, dead in the plants. She was fine the day before and had no external injuries. Next, a zebra danio developed acute severe dropsy. I removed and euthanized him because he was beyond repair, as he also had a large red lesion on his body. He was eating and swimming fine the day before I noticed. Then, the powder blue dwarf gourami appeared swollen and hovering at the top and wouldn't eat suddenly. He was dead in the morning. Next, the neons started dropping like flies. I went from 13, today I have 6, 4 of which just died yesterday. One did have a large white patch on his body, not furry, the day before he died, similar to pics I have seen of NTD but had no other symptoms and I have had these neons awhile. Then one of my schwartzi cory cats was floating dead 2 days ago with a bright red belly. Today I woke up to a dead orange wag platy with no outward physical issues, a dead angelfish with his dorsal fin gone and some white on his back, a dead yucatan molly with no outward signs and a platinum molly barely clinging to life with a mouth so bright red and swollen and some white funk on her mouth and tail. All the dead fish from today and the barely alive molly looked, acted and ate fine yesterday! I did put the obviously sick molly in a separate 5G tank (all I have!) with some Formulin and Fura MS. I just did a 30% water change and thourough gravel vacuum and tested the water 2 days ago when this seemed to be spiraling out of control because I never lose fish like this and it isn't seeming to have helped. I have not added any new fish with the exception of the black nickel sized angel that was dead this morning but he didn't arrive until after some of these deaths started happening when I just thought some of the fish I had were aging out so I don't think it's that either. A lot of the other fish I have had a while but not close to their lifespan. I have no clue what's happening, I have some sensitive fish, like the loaches, so I don't want to go dumping a bunch of stuff in there.  I did notice that one of my 4 clown loaches now has ich, he looked sprinkled in salt.  Since they are so sensitive to meds I just raised the temp and will continue to do so slowly until we are at 82 F and it dies on it's own.  I did put some Fura MS in there (90 gallons worth to be easy on the loaches and the tetra) for the bacteria since it's multi-spectrum gram negative and gram positive.  But I have a lot of fish with clamped fins hovering at the top or laying on the bottom and none of them look great.  I am worried I am going to lose all of my fish.  Please let me know what else I can try or what happened here!  Thanks!

Answer
Hi April,

Wow, those are some troubling issues! I don't know how much insight I can offer, but here's a little. I'll send you some links that might help at the end of this message.

About the goldfish tank. Orandas (be they calicos or red caps) need their tanks to be kept heated - unlike standard goldfish, such as comets and shubunkins, they can't tolerate very cold water. 78 degrees is recommended in many places, although as low as 72 ought to be fine. I'm just letting you know in case you are keeping them in an unheated tank (which would probably be fine for black moors and white cloud mountain minnows). Orandas just aren't at their best when they are kept in water that's too cold.

I'm not sure what you feed the goldfish, but they don't do well on standard dry foods only such as goldfish flakes. This is a recipe for constipation - fancy goldfish are particularly sensitive since over the generations they have been selectively bred to have their spines curve in an S shape. It causes their internal organs to be in unnatural positions, making them prone to swim bladder and bloating issues. I have great success by following a simple formula - 25% flake or pellet foods, 25% frozen foods, and 50% fresh foods. Defrosted frozen peas with the skins pinched off, a lengthwise slice of zucchini or cucumber (I weigh it down with a "Chip Clip") and canned, unsalted green beans all work well to satisfy the fresh food component. For frozen foods, I use Hikari frozen brine shrimp enhanced with Spirulina. Sometimes I give them frozen bloodworms, but rarely since they are high in protein, and goldfish do best on a low protein, high fiber diet. The frozen brine shrimp contains quite a bit of roughage so helps to keep their intestines cleaned out. Lastly, for dried foods, I depend a lot on nori - those roasted sheets of dried seaweed used for wrapping sushi. I tear a strip, weigh it down with a plastic clothespin, and they gobble away! It doesn't pollute the tank, and it's exactly the kind of "green food" goldfish need to thrive. I also use algae wafers (HBH are my favorite brand currently because they come in a large bag, but Omega One is also great) and Spirulina flake. You can also use goldfish flakes and pellets, of course. Probably the best goldfish food is New Life Spectrum goldfish formula - these are truly nutritionally complete, and very shelf stable. They won't go stale like flake so often does, losing lots of nutritional value in the process.

Anyhow, sorry to go on for a while, but goldfish diet is key to their longevity and health. Many people recommend feeding their goldfish plants regularly - Anacharis/Elodea being the most widely used. You can read more about this here:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWsubwebindex/gldfshmalnut.htm

Now, on to the issue of the 125 gallon tank. This almost sounds like a pH crash. I wish you had included test results - testing is the first thing to do when you see a rash of deaths like this. Test strips or kits are important to keep handy - they are the only diagnostic tool you have! Are you using water from a water softerner? Using reverse osmosis or deionized water? (It's fine to use RO/DI water, just have to use some sort of product such as RO Right in order to remineralize).

I am glad you are just using heat to treat the ich - but you'll need to bring it up to at least 84, I would say 85, degrees in order for it to work. Leave it at that temperature for at least 10 days. Drop your water level so that the filter makes more splash, and run airstones or powerheads (preferably) if you have them, in order to compensate for the warmer water holding less oxygen.

The only thing you can do is massive water changes, I would do 50% right from the get go. Don't worry too much about the gravel vacuuming unless you feel like the gravel is dirty - it's easier and quicker to just change water from the top sometimes. For a tank this big, something like a Python is a must!

Without a thorough water test, I can't really see what's wrong. I need pH, alkalinity, hardness (water chemistry) and ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate (water quality) readings to be more certain of this, but it seems like your alkalinity has bottomed out. Do you have hard water or soft water? Often times you can just tell by looking at your glassware and such - do you get water spots? If you are using water of low mineral content, you need to buffer it up with something. It doesn't really make sense though, that you can keep goldfish happy in your water, since they require hard, alkaline water to do well...are you using a different source for the 125 gallon tank?

You don't really need Stress Coat for your water changes, the Prime takes care of the chlorine and chloramine neutralization. It's best not to add too many chemicals - I am wary of those "slime coat" adding chemicals because a healthy fish needs no slime coat supplementation! These products are also bad for marine tanks because they interfere with skimmers, causing them to froth like crazy. If you have a fish that looks like it's had scrapes or nips, things like Stress Coat and Melafix are all right to use - but avoid them otherwise.

About the Easy Balance, I wonder if you should avoid using it for now. If you are using it to bind up nitrates and avoid doing water changes - best to only use it this way if you are going on vacation and can't be there to do water changes. Once a month water changes are really not enough, I'm afraid - get yourself something like a Python or Ultimate Vac so you can do water drains and fills from your tap to the tank. That way you can change water twice as often, every 2 weeks. This is the minimum I can recommend - weekly water changes are actually best for fish.

The only thing I can say for sure is to change 50% of the water in your 125 gallon tank. Even if it takes you two days to do, it's worth doing! It's easier than you think to change 30 gallons per day if you do some in the morning and some in the evening...I've done this using just buckets before. Make sure if there is ammonia or nitrite registering, that you use a double dose of Prime (4 drops per gallon). Skip the Stress Coat and Easy Balance for now.

I would also recommend running some carbon. I would either get a bag of activated carbon from a place like Walmart, put it in a brand new pantyhose with a knot tied at the top (rinse first) - or just save yourself the trouble, pay extra and use a bag of Chemi-Pure.

The only other thing I can think of is maybe there has been some kind of contamination? Have you used aerosol, flea products for the home, anything of that nature? Paint fumes? It's surprisingly easy to contaminate a fish tank - I always cover mine if I'm going to use anything like flea powder. (It actually says to do so on the package, if you read the fine print).

Lastly, I would highly recommend you write the Wet Web Media crew - they are the experts I go to when I have a question! Here's the link to write them:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/wwmadminsubwebindex/question_page.htm

If you can, provide those water quality and chemistry results (as complete as you can) - they will surely be asking for them also. I would also tell them what kind of media you are using in your AquaClear filters (Biomax, foam sponges, etc). They also tend to ask how much circulation is your tank - I can tell you that. In your 55 gallon tank your filter is 500 gph, in your 125 gallon tank you have 600 gph total. List any powerheads or additional airstones.

I hope they can help. I have to admit, I'm basically stumped here! If you need to reach me for a followup, I suggest posting in Disease Emergency as a guest at the Wet Web Media forum (http://bb.wetwebmedia.com) - I'll see your post there, as I'm a moderator - and maybe others will have some suggestions, too. You can also try me here again, but since I answer only one question daily, I tend to get "maxed out" right away.

So sorry to hear about all your hardships. Wish I could offer more clues.

Take care,
Nicole