PLEASE HELP!!! URGENT!!!

[malawidave]

I have one of my Victorians appear to be dying, she's lost her stripe, and is pale, she won't eat and spends much of her time on the bottom or hiding. I lost 2 others of the same species, just last month, I treated the tank, changed all the media, did 4 50% WCs since then, now I wake up this morning and this is 3. No other species in my tank is being affected so far only this one that I started with 8 and unless she gets help down to 5.

The other 2 were very abrupt, the first one, I noticed she was pale and breathing heavy, I just figured she was stressed a little, so I turned the lights off for the day and went to work. I came home and she was in the same exact spot dead. The second was a small male, the minute he started showing symptoms, I immediately netted him up and took him to the sick tank, he died within hours as well.

Now 3-4 weeks later, here I am again, I don't want my whole group to die one at a time. I'm getting freaked out that I can't do anything to help.

Please help, I also have a mother holding in the tank and don't want to lose her and the eggs/fry

[Matt Quinn]

Perhaps changing all of the media resulted in the tank going through a cycle again.

Have you tested the water for ammonia and nitrite? That would be my best guess.

If you have a cycled sponge filter or another, I'd add it to the tank. I'd also do a small water change (25%) and add some Amquel or similar...

Matt

[malawidave]

:( too late, she passed. I'm really concerned about this... It kills around 8 - 12 hours after symptoms begin to show. AND its only one species?!? Why?

As for my levels, my levels only went out of balance once and that was before I changed the media, and after the first 2. None of the other 35 fish are showing any signs of stress, my O2 can't be low, I have 2ft of bubble wands, 2 penguin 350s, and a canister witha power headchurning the water pretty good, this tank has been set up for 5 months. And the only deaths I've had involved nothing to do with the levels. With the number of fish I have, I am meticulous about checking levels.

I am concerned about losing any more, is there some sort of bug that attacks in a short amount of time? I went precautionary and treated the tank and started feeding only a medicated food, to hopefully nip this thing in the bud before it gets anymore out of hand.

Thank you everyone for your help

[slimbolen99]

You say you treated the tank...what did you treat with?
How do you know what to treat with if you don't know the cause? The problem could be a chemical imbalance, and you're possibly treating for a bacterial infection. Just like when we go to the doctor, they have to diagnose before treating...else you could die.

Also, what species of Victorian? If there is a species specific calamity, the species, or at least genus, would be very important.

Best of luck to you.

[malawidave]

I treated with AP quick cure. It supposedly treats for gasping, flicking, etc. I used what I had left of my Amquel on the last water change, 4 days ago. And as I said in my previous post, I'm always checking my levels because of the amount of fish in the tank. I just checked it after the death and everything is fine so far. I use a combonation of a Master Kit AND a 6-in-1 strip just to make sure everything adds up right.

pH: 8.2 -8.3

N03: 5

N02: 0

Ammonia: 0

Chlorine: 0

GH: 200

KH: 200

And I had just noticed a white stringy poop from one of the larger males. Oh... BTW the species in question is (Prognathochromis Perrieri), sorry I left that out before. I know Malawi Bloat shows those symptoms, of heavy breathing, white poo, stress, and not eating, but there's no swelling of the belly what so ever. So now I'm positive it's some sort of bacterial infection. There's no signs of Ich, anywhere on any fish. I looked in at the gills of the deceased female her gills looked fine (to me) I'm no biologist, but they didn't look inflamed, or have any growths on them. If the white poo is something of a warning, I have a Large male about to go down and I can't have it.

If by chemical imbalance you were talking about was referring to the tank, I don't see where, unless there's something I'm not checking. Or is there some sort of FISH chemical imbalance that I should be looking for? I treated for bacterial, because I knew levels were ok, I check everthing about every 3 - 4 days.

Something else, I didn't add... Snails. There ARE snails in the tank, I did dismiss the snails because this is the same tank, with the same snails that they were raised in since they were fry. (I bought the tank, and was given the fish to go with it). Would something with the snails possibly have anything to do with it? Like I said, I dismissed it because they have always lived with these snails:confused:.

5 months and not one death now, 5 weeks and I have 5. (ok, thats just weird)

[malawidave]

AAAaaaaHhhhhhh!!!!!!! Another one!!!! Still Perrieri... What the H! I'm getting paranoid now and can't sleep! This one showed no symptoms at all!!! Still fully colored at TOD. I managed to get the digital to snap evidence to show everyone, He had his adult colors coming in so nice too. I have 5 victorians other than the 4 remaining P.P. And they are showing nothing out of the ordinary, neither are my Mbuna, haps, peacocks or frontosa.

Please help me, I don't think I could do this anymore if I lost all of them

[slimbolen99]

Hard to tell. I'm no disease expert. Losing fish is part of the hobby, unfortunately. Hopefully someone with some good info can chime in here and help.

[malawidave]

Thank you very much for your help thus far. I will be posting the post mortum pics to see if anyone can see anything I missed soon. I'm keeping an eye on another which might be on the same path unfortunately

[chc]

How long have you had that species in the tank? With 35 other fish, unless it is a very large tank, the stress levels on newly introduced (and longtime residents of the less hardy species) can cause trouble.

High levels of stress from acclimation, aggression, paarameter changes, improper foods, or just a ton of frightening activity among the other residents can cause diseases to take hold in stressed fish while other more resilient fish naturally shrug it off.

Adding medications also adds to the stress levels a fish endures, especially if the medication isn't directly suited for the particular condition it is treating. In my experience, most trouble is environmental rather than pathological.

[Alton]

I would get them out of the tank and isolate them. Chiclids can be vicious killers. Once a dom Males figures out he can punch another fish and within 2 days it is dead from internal injuries. They do not stop doing it. Look for a mark just behind the gills or around the eyes. A very well placed hit can kill in hours. I had one sub dom male learn this trick and he took out 3 other males in a month. But even still isolating them will let you treat them and possibly protect your other fish from getting it.

[malawidave]

The tank is a 6ft L 125g. Its been fully cycled and inhabited for nearly 6 months now. They've been housed with most of the others for a little longer, they were in a 30g for a month and a half while the 125 cycled. At that time they were right at 2"

As for aggression there is none, neither in nor outside of the species.

Treating the tank, its hard for me not to, I seen the symptom of white string poop, and I had to assume that was the sign of internal parasite, not stress, although I do realize they are stressed due to the illness NOW. I think I've got them holding on for the time being.

And unfortunately I have nowhere to isolate them to right now, I have a 50 gallon getting set up as a grow out tank, for the 30 fry I have in my 30 gallon now, BUT, I am lacking the filtration, and heater for the cycling to begin, and even more unfortunate with bills I can't afford the equipment for another 2 weeks