Mites?

Question
QUESTION: Hi Karen
Hoping you'll be able to help me. Just over a month ago alot my fish started dying (fighter fish, guppies, tetras, mollies, gourami's). I have some kind of mite or bug that lives both in the filter system and around the bottom of the tank. I took some sick fish and part of the filter showing the bugs to the local pet shop to see if they could help. They gave me a parasite solution and also a white spot solution which I have been using as recommended for the past four weeks or so. My fish keep dying so I went back to the pet shop and they basically said I need to chuck the fish I have left, empty my tank and keep it in the sun for seven days, then start again. I simply cannot 'chuck' my remaining fish away, some of them don't look sick at all but others still do.
The bugs are a light green/white colour and start of as a little speck but grow into the size of a flea and I can sort of see that they've got lots of legs.
What should I do?

ANSWER: Hi Kelly,
This is going to take a little work to figure all this out. I'm too sure about the mites. They could be some of the types of mites that infect fish but those kinds of problems are actually rare. The mites may be the kind that get into your aquarium from the outdoors. They may just be one of the many harmless scavengers that find their way into aquariums and begin thriving there.
What symptoms do your fish exhibit? Are they being bothered by the mites crawling on them? Does their skin or scales look rough? Do they itch themselves on rocks or decorations frequently? Please let me know how the ones who are sickly were/are behaving and their appearance. You may actually have a completely different set of problems then what you think. There could be a water quality issue, the fish may have a disease not related to the mites, and there may be a severe pollution problem especially since the presence of the large numbers of mite-like bugs in your.

What I would do if this were my tank is start doing massive daily water changes. Drain the tank down to just enough water left for the fish to remain comfortable. Vacuum the gravel thoroughly and siphon as many of the bugs as you can possibly get. Take the filters and vigorously rinse them in a bucket of tank water to get rid of the bugs. Keep doing these water changes every day. ((Note: always make sure that the replacement water is always dechlorinated and equal or close-to in temperature to your aquarium's)) Until the bugs dissapear. I would also be very tempted to add some aquarium salt to the tank. Salt can kill off or discourage many parasites and 'bad bugs' in your tank. That's all I would add to the water for now.
Please don't continue the ick medication because this can be causing more problems, not only does it kill off your beneficial bacteria, but it also puts even more stress on fish especially if they don't need the medication.
I would stop all medications for now. We aren't sure what we are treating for.

One good thing I would recommend is to try to test your water also. That is always a very important thing to do, you really need to know your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates.

But for now, just keep aquarium salt in the tank and do the massive water changes (add the salt back according to however many gallons you take out--make sure to always pre-dissolve the salt before adding it) It's also important when you first add salt to pre-dissolve it first in a cup of water and slowly add little bits over the course of a few hours to slowly get your fish use to it. Usually salt has no harmful affects on fish and has the ability to sooth fish and help with gill function, just watch them for stress as always.

I'm not sure of what the mites you have are. But there is such a thing as Fish Lice. These are disc shaped crustacean measuring up to 0.4 inch in diameter. It attaches itself to the fish's fins and skin and feeds off the fish's blood, causing intense irritation that may cause fish to scratch against rocks or even jump out of the water. Reddened lesions also develop at the point where the lice is feeding, and these can become secondary infected with bacteria. I'll try to provide a link to a picture of these terrible bugs. Copy and paste it into your search box-
http://www.tropicalfish4u.co.uk/acatalog/argulus.jpg

Usually you will know if your fish are being affected by parasites because they will usually develop skin lesions, scratch themselves a lot, or breath heavily.

The best treatment I can recommend is to gradually raise the temperature to at least 82-85F, begin daily massive water changes and gravel vaccumings, and add aquarium salt. Continue this treatment for as long as the bugs are still around. It usually won't do harm to your fish at all and it is much, much less harmful then exposing them to a bunch of chemicals and medications.

Don't add anymore chemicals. I know the what you said the petstore recommended but remember they aren't going to put too much thought into things like this and they are more focused on just selling something and just going the "easy way out" You should not have to get rid of all your fish.

~Remember there are also many types of scavenger bugs/crustaceans that get into aquariums. They are all completely harmless, but just a sign that your tank may need more frequent cleanings. Gammarus shrimp, Ostracods, Copepodes. Copepodes may actually be what you are seeing. They are tiny crustaceans not much bigger than a pinhead. These animals arrive on plants or even in the water of fish bags. They are harmless scavengers of course and you can safely ignore them. But large numbers can indicate that your maintenance schedule is not sufficient enough. Copepods will appear as tiny minute dots moving jerkily on the glass.
The usual procedure for all of these aquarium intruders is to increase the maintenance schedule and usually they can be eradicated.

I really hope this helps!
Best of luck!
Karen~






---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Karen, I will start emptying as much water as possible on a daily basis and I'll buy some aquarium salt to put in the tank.
The symptoms of the fish have varied a little the only common thing really is that they are gasping for air.
Some fish (mainly the guppies) fins start to go clear and they get small patches of white on their bodies, usually the back half, then their entire back half seems to go droopy before they die.
The others (including femal fighter fish) have the same white patches appearing on their body but their face area goes white before they die.
The pet shop believed this to be either from the mites or from white spot.
The link you sent through doesn't look like the same mites I have and I havent' actually seen them attach themselves to the fish at all and the fish don't seem to try and rub against anything either.
I do check the PH levels of my tank regularly and they are always good but the testing you mentioned for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates is something I haven't heard of so I will see what I can buy locally to do this aswell.

Thankyou so much for your help with this problem

regards
Kelly

Answer
Hi Kelly,
I'm wondering if your fish have fungus infections? Look here at this link for pictures of fungus which may help you ID it better- (Here's a link to some pictures and info-
http://www.fishjunkies.com/Diseases/fungus.php

fungus can appear as patches, slimy growths, or long threads trailing from the fishes body and fins. The treatment for it is pretty much the same and from what you described it does sound like this could be what your fish are being affected by.

~*~Ich will appear as fine little white dots and the fish will look as if he has been sprinkled with salt. Fungus will always be somewhat patchy...~*~


If this is the case, you'd need to start a medication for fungus. Jungle Brand's Fungus clear is usually pretty good. But Mardel's products are also one that I highly trust also.
If you could test your water and take note of the levels of Ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates that would be great. Knowing these levels can help eliminate and narrow down the possible causes to fish illness or if your fish are behaving listless. pH actually isn't as important as ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. You need to keep these levels as follows : ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-20 or less.

I really hope this helps!
Best of luck!!!
Karen~