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What is this sickness?

653 views 6 replies 2 participants last post by  Bladezero 
#1 · (Edited)
It affects neon tetra, guppy and betta.
Symptoms I've seen are first the fish becomes blind and has hard time breathing.. then over the course of 2-3 hours he loses his swim bladder control(to the stage he flips belly up) after a while then sink and dies.

The whole ordeal is about 4-5 hours from first symptom..

(It's not water parameter related, no bloat, no dropsy, nothing on the body)
So far in the last 36 hours, 3 neon tetra, 2 guppy and my beloved Fang died..

(whatever it is Malachite green and aquarium salt didn't help.. The aq just shocks the fish and he dies on the spot(I tried in the early stages on fang..)
(the guppy are currently in malachite green(1 died last night few hours after I put them there) and the neon tetra in the original Aquarium, 2 died while I was sleeping)
 
#2 ·
Are they all in the same tank?

If your water's testing all okay, it could be a toxin rather than a disease.. have you added anything new to the tank, or has their been any chance of toxins drifting in?

It just seem to me a sickness wouldn't be striking everything down so quickly all at once, and no warning or effect with treatments..

I'm not an expert on fish disease, though. But toxins would be the first thing I'd look for, if the water's not spiking ammonia or nitrites or anything.
 
#3 ·
The only thing new was the guppies which seemed fine the day before added..

No chances of toxins drifting in, the other fish were living there fine for more then a month..

I never seen a sickness kill that fast either..

When I noticed fang was in a bad shape(1 day after adding them) I removed the guppies. Right now its the tetras in one and the guppy in the other..

(2 tetras and 1 guppy died after saparation) the first to go was a guppy that had 98% of his tail bitten off, second guppy had major tail dmg too.)
Tetras had no damage except the one that got eaten to a skeleton by a apple snail..

Fang had very very minor fin dmg(one spike had like 1/5 missing) I just remembered he had a patch of scales that were brighter(no fungus or nothing just lighter patch) that appeared during the morning when he died(before he died)
 
#4 ·
Hrgh. The only other thing I can think of is something like that fast-moving strain of columnaris, which hits internal organs rather than creating 'fuzzy' patches on the skin, and can kill fish in a day. I've only read about it.. but I lost a fish to the slow moving kind.. he struggled on for a while, but died very, very suddenly - was swimming fine and then just stopped, mid-swim, and sank..

Sounds like there was aggression issues.. guppies and bettas can be a bad mix for that. The biting could have helped spread it faster, whatever it was..

Maybe tear your tank down and give it a really good scrub with some pure bleach before adding any more stock.. whatever this was, it was clearly nasty. And quarantine any new fish.. especially if from the same supplier as the guppies.
 
#5 ·
I know usually they don't mix but Fang didn't flare at anything other then a female betta (not even other males or reflections) About them attacking him, could be but doubt it did serious dmg..

But you might be right about the inner columnaris if its the only thing that kills that fast.. Hope its not it.

When I took them it was less then a day after they finished treatment(after shipping).. But yea I will be much more careful next time..

Don't know if its over yet, still have more guppies and 5 tetras alive.
(other bettas in other tanks are thankfully alive and well.. )

Thanks anyway..
 
#6 ·
I notice that you mention they were just out of medication - it might be worthwhile talking to someone who knows about gram positive/negative bacteria and so on.. Not all medication deal with all bacteria and maybe something thrived without competition.

There's other diseases that kill quickly, that's just the only one I've researched and you said there was a white patch - could have been bacterial as well.. septicemia, something like that.

Good luck with your other fish. I hope they recover.
 
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