potential problem

[fleshgear]

i have a 77 gallon medium/ heavily planted tank. i had 9 sword tails, 10-15 otocinclus algae eaters, 5 orange laser corys, 5 Synodontis petricola, 1 guppy, and about 20 sword babies about 1/2 inch. i recently added 3 new swords that all looked healthy, 1 died the next day and the other 2 followed soon. that was about two weeks ago. now i am down to 4 swords and 1 of the 4 does not look good he has white spots on him (it is not ich) the spots are bigger, they almost look like the scales are turning white.

i lost my test kit so i don't know what the parameters are.

i do a 30% water change every week or two if i forget.

i have a eheim pro 2 canister filter

a small power head to diffuse the co2. it is a diy co2

i am concerned about the corys and the synodontis. they appear healthy but i dont want to loose them.

what can i do

tonight i did a 50% water change and added a 70 aqua clear filter and put my spray bar on the eheim to agitate the water surface a little more

i do have an empty tank or 2 that is setup and ready to go. should i remove the corys and synodontis, or the swords. or medicate in the 77 gal tank

i am feeding frozen blood worms and i noticed today that there was a film on the water surface. there may have been an oxygen deficiency that has been contributing to this problem.

the syno's and the oto's and the corys seem to be a little more active now as i am watching them

any sugestions would be great

thanks

[Parachromis1]

Sounds like velvet to me. Buy some coppersafe and treat the fish.

[Blue Ram]

Unfortunately you CANNOT treat a PLANTED tank with coppersafe unless you want to lose all your plants. It's most likely the new fish were carrying something that was not evident when you put them in the tank. The film on the surface is just excess protein that has not dissolved. Adding some more surface agitation will help but will also diminish some of the beneficial effects of the co2. Moving the remaining fish will not likely solve anything because all of the fish have been exposed to something. Some fish are better able to fight off disease if they are very healthy and depending on the disease of course. I would keep the tank as clean as possible, even doing a small water change every day. It is the best way to keep them healthy so they can fight off disease.

Edited July 16, 2009 by Blue Ram

[fleshgear]

I have treated a planted tank with coppersafe before, I even used it as a snail removal. I removed the fish and tripled the coppersafe dose. Most plants were fine. They were all hardier plants though. In the 77 there is some plants I do not want to take the risk. Are synos scaleless fish. Will they be ok with coppersafe. I also have some methylene blue.

I also had to remove my last male sword this morning. He was looking sick. With more white spots

I will do the daily water changes for a while. And right now I am not concerned about the c02 levels. I just don't want to loose any of the expensive fish

[jvision]

I have seen this happen to swordtails before - there seems to be something that is specific to just them. If you still see the Otos and Synos and know you haven't lost any of them, chances are you won't - they tend to be more sensitive than swordtails.

In a planted tank with CO2 and ferts, O2 levels tend not to be a concern, and you don't raise them by agitating the surface - you raise O2 levels in a planted tank by taking care of the plants. If cared for, plants will saturate the water with O2.

Hopefully, this disease is just isolated to your swords.

[fleshgear]

I have seen this happen to swordtails before - there seems to be something that is specific to just them. If you still see the Otos and Synos and know you haven't lost any of them, chances are you won't - they tend to be more sensitive than swordtails.

In a planted tank with CO2 and ferts, O2 levels tend not to be a concern, and you don't raise them by agitating the surface - you raise O2 levels in a planted tank by taking care of the plants. If cared for, plants will saturate the water with O2.

Hopefully, this disease is just isolated to your swords.

I have also had a hair algae break out. So I have been reducing the light from 16 hour too 6 hours as well as cutting the wpg in half. I thought that this would result in less o2. As well as the protien on the surface of the water reducing the o2 levels

[jvision]

Hair algae is caused by too much light and/or not enough CO2. For planted tanks, buy a timer and have the lights on for 10-12 hrs. If you remove as much as you can by hand and up your CO2 - a bit extra NO3 wouldn't hurt, either - your hair algae will soon be gone.