Sick blue ram

Question
Hi,

In my tank (1m x 0.5m x 0.5m) I have a pair of blue rams, 6 bala sharks 4 red tailed rasbora, 4 tigerbarbs, 4 rosey barbs 2 siamese algae eaters and 2 peppered corydoras. The water is always crystal clear and I do regular water and filter media changes.

A few days a go I noticed my male blue ram was looking a lot darker than normal and I also noticed he had a small white lump right on his side where his fin meets his body, he appears to be having a bit of trouble swimming as he is staying on the floor of the tank and isnt eating very much.  The lump has got larger and now some of the tiger barbs now have ripped looking fins. The rest of the fish look and act abosolutley normally.  I went to my local fish shop and they reccommended interpret aquarium treatment no.8 antifungus and finrot.  I put the reccommended dose in (after removing the carbon from the filter as directed)on saturday.  This morning I woke up to find two of my balas laying on the bottom of the tank dead, I removed them and went to work, when  I got back this evening 2 more had died.  The treatment says it is safe for all fish, could they have reacted badly to it even though they were fine to start with? The male ram and tiger barbs remain as described.

Thanks for your help

Emma

Answer
Hi,
The Bala sharks will be causing the nipping in the Barbs' fins, so I would recommend rehoming both of the remaining ones, as it will just get worse and they will end up killing most of the fish.
I would say that the lump is some sort of fungal infection, so continue to dose the tank with the fungal treatment.
The treatment will not have killed the Balas, but is impossible to say what did without water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate etc). They may have died of stress or ammonia poisoning.

You should never change the filter media unless it is actually falling to pieces, and even then, never change it all at once. You will lose all the bacteria in your filter if you do that. Just clean half of the media once a month.

Do 20 to 30 percent water changes every 2 or 3 days, buy test kits for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and continue to dose with interpet.

Best wishes,
Kathryn