Anyone keeps freshwater planted tanks?

[ervine]

Hi guys,

Was wondering if i could get some advice here as well, already posted this is a FW forum...

Anyway, several of my fishes suddenly died overnight with a few more looking close to death.

Only symptom i see is that their bodies seem to turn white, not spots like ich, just white.

When they die almost their whole body is white. This is the 2nd time it occured, the strange thing is the other non-affected fishes have no symptoms whatsoever.

Also, at the sides of the fish tank it looks like left over tubifex worms that were vomitted out or something...

I did a major water change on sunday, yesterday nothing went wrong, then today disaster struck... Was wondering if it's due to chlorine?

I've changed about 70% of the water again.. any other advice?

Thanks!

Ervine

PS: Tank is 2.5m, planted aquarium, fishes - tertras, corys, barbs, 2 discus - tank is abt 5yrs old or more, cannot remember already

[alexgo310038]

Hi guys,

Was wondering if i could get some advice here as well, already posted this is a FW forum...

Anyway, several of my fishes suddenly died overnight with a few more looking close to death.

Only symptom i see is that their bodies seem to turn white, not spots like ich, just white.

When they die almost their whole body is white. This is the 2nd time it occured, the strange thing is the other non-affected fishes have no symptoms whatsoever.

Also, at the sides of the fish tank it looks like left over tubifex worms that were vomitted out or something...

I did a major water change on sunday, yesterday nothing went wrong, then today disaster struck... Was wondering if it's due to chlorine?

I've changed about 70% of the water again.. any other advice?

Thanks!

Ervine

PS: Tank is 2.5m, planted aquarium, fishes - tertras, corys, barbs, 2 discus - tank is abt 5yrs old or more, cannot remember already

hi me use to bead discus also now i reef tank.

ok first thing first.

1) water plants also takes in O2 at night.

2) u may have too may plant & fish in your tank liao.

3) as you say your fishes vomit?? it SHOULD becos they are lek of O2 at night.

4) too mach water cahnge at 1 time is no good for your fishes also

5) did you run CO2 in your tank???? try to turn it off at night

i may not be right at all just some thing for you to look into Y..

[ervine]

HMmm... maybe it's O2 problem...

i already raised the rain bar above the water line, and fishes seem to look better already... but those already jialat ones I think I will find them floating tomorrow.. sigh..

Was wondering if it's an ammonia spike for some reason.. too much water changed then chemistry go haywire or something..

[seafood]

is your CO2 supply "off" during the night??? might be O2 deficiency, try using CO2 solenoid valve for cutting off the supply during nite. If not O2 issue, sorri dun kno liao

[trader_best]

feeding tubifex worms to FW fish isnt a good choice at all as it contains numerous parasites n harmful stuff.... maybe becoz of your major water change tat leads to e death?

[ah^siao]

did u do anything that was different from wad u normally do? like change fert regime? or new filter media?

[ervine]

I not pumping CO2 into tank.. haven't done so for the past 4-5 yrs liao...

As for tubis i do suspect something is wrong with the recent batches of worms i've been getting.. coz they usually can last me several days before it turns foul.. but recently it keeps turning bad almost overnight...

Maybe time to switch over to frozen.. hm..

And during Sunday's water change I did take out all the wood and rock work and pour boiling water over them to kill the stupid black brush algae that's been taking over the tank... also plucked out a bunch of infected plants...

I wonder if the die off from the dead algae could be the cause.. ammonia spike perhaps??

[ah^siao]

could be the die off from the plants. try to train the fishes to feed pellets. or flake food. less pollution to the water less worries.

[BFG]

If you look closely at the dead fish body, is there any up turn scales on them? Meaning their scales are raised up against the body instead of lying flat.

[ervine]

If you look closely at the dead fish body, is there any up turn scales on them? Meaning their scales are raised up against the body instead of lying flat.

Hmm.. not leh...

From what I notice there's some white substance on their body that can be shaken off... i don't know what it is, slime? i don think it's velvet or what but I not sure..

Also.. almost confirm the batches of worms I getting something wrong... crap.. i've stopped feeding them already and I'm going to change another 50% of the water again..

Intrestingly, all the rummy noses and neon tetras nothing happened, all the platies, cories and zebra dainos perished... i don't get it!

Also my two discus looks ok..

[FuEl]

Never ever feed live tubifex worms. These are always laden with bacteria and you would'nt want to imagine what these worms are fed. I kept f.w fishes for a long time. Once I ceased feeding tubifex worms and even stopped FROZEN bloodworms, fish just stopped dying. As you mentioned, the only surviving fishes are characins. The worms might have introduced some viral infection that characins have gained immunity against, but unfortunately not for the rest of the fishes.

You mentioned a major water change. I doubt it would be chlorine in the tapwater as it has never been a major problem for me. I used to do 60-70% water changes without addition of anti-chlorine and nothing died. But I'm not sure how tapwater chlorine and chloramine content has changed compared to 4-5 years ago. If you did dose anti-chlorine, I have reasons to suspect that you overdosed it. Overdosing antichlorine will lead to such symptoms that you described (white slime produced on body). Basically their stress coat is being "burnt" off.

Another reason I could think of is pH swing. Apparently all your fishes that survive come from areas of very soft and acidic waters. The other fishes that died are found in slightly acidic-neutral (danios and corydoras)-slightly alkaline (platys)waters in nature. Your tapwater might have decreased in pH somehow? Only way to find out is to use a test kit.

That's all the reasons I could think of, the rest is up to you to investigate. All the best~

[FuEl]

Oh yea..in case you might want a solution to your black brush algae problem. Pump up CO2 (a worthwhile investment), regular dose of Dennerle plazengold 7 (I swear by this product), Weekly 50% water changes. By the 3rd - 4th week your black brush algae should have turned white and died.

[ervine]

Oh yea..in case you might want a solution to your black brush algae problem. Pump up CO2 (a worthwhile investment), regular dose of Dennerle plazengold 7 (I swear by this product), Weekly 50% water changes. By the 3rd - 4th week your black brush algae should have turned white and died.

Maybe will rig up my old DIY C02... as for the plazengold I used to dose it but what was it supposed to do again? forgot already..

I din know overdosing of anti-chlorine causes slime melt?? Confirms?

[FuEl]

Supposedly gold 7 is a plant hormone to enhance the growth of your plants. As for why BBA dies I have no idea..it's just my personal observation, along with other dennerle users.

I once worked in an aquarium. During water change I used the brand "O**** F***". Overdosed it much to my boss horror, alot of fish had problems within 24 hours.

[ervine]

Supposedly gold 7 is a plant hormone to enhance the growth of your plants. As for why BBA dies I have no idea..it's just my personal observation, along with other dennerle users.

I once worked in an aquarium. During water change I used the brand "O**** F***". Overdosed it much to my boss horror, alot of fish had problems within 24 hours.

GASP!!! SAME BRAND!!!!

Shucks... lucky already changed brand..

As for pH i wanted to test but realised my test kit only measures from 7.4 up... will try to borrow one...

I think they recently (before the major water change) replaced the water tank/heated that serves my unit... wonder if they could have added anything into the water...

btw where still got sell dennerle products?

[FuEl]

Hmmm...those places specializing in aquatic plants? Not sure if Eco-culture at lavender carries them..you could try though. Another places you could try are petmart, aquanature, sam yick (marine parade branch got the most variety of dennerle products..I know since I used to work at one of their branches.. ). Price of Dennerle has been rising over the years, mainly due to the company overseas increasing the price slowly. Nothing much local distributors can do about that. If you really commit to Dennerle, it can almost cost you as much or even more compared to maintaining a marine tank in terms of supplements. IMO their products are meant to be used in conjunction with one another, but I've had success just by using their base fert, E15 and gold7. Did'nt bother with the rest as it is too expensive. I'm sure I'm not the only one complaining about the increasing price (one of the reason why I gave up my planted tank for a marine aquarium) but seems like Dennerle has become established as the "Mercedes-Benz" of aquatic plant products. I'm starting to wonder if current Dennerle users are actually paying for the increased prestige of the brand, when the only change I notice in the products are new fancy packagings.

[ervine]

i see.. i'll go check it out.. thanks for the tips bro!