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Tank treatments for mystery deaths and live plants?

C

creaturemd

Guest
I'm having a problem with fish loss in one of my tanks. This tank is heavily planted. The fish die suddenly with no apparent signs of disease or illness. I've tried altering the water parameters and increasing water changes but nothing seems to help. New fish typically due well for several weeks up to a couple of months before dying suddenly. They eat well, behave normally, one pair even spawned prior to their demise. You will find a detailed description of my tank and water conditions in a previous post on the apisto forum. To make a long story short...I'm considering chemically treating this tank with a parasiticide and an antibiotic prior to introducing more apistos (as a preventive measure). I don't know what I'm treating so I hope to use something broad spectrum. Can anyone recommend a couple of treatments (chemical as well as protocol) that will minimally effect my biological filtration and do the least damage to my live plants? As an aside, I think I failed to mention in my earlier post that this tank is an acrylic hex which makes it 1.5-2 feet deep with a floor space not much larger than a ten gallon. I'm only trying to keep one pair with a small school of dithers and a couple of bottom feeders. Is the depth of my water or the small floor space potentially detrimental to apistos? There is a lot of cover (mostly driftwood with some lava rocks) creating small hiding areas at various depths. Thanks for any input!
Heather
 

aspen

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,033
Location
toronto, canada
hi heather, i would not under any circumstances treat fish in a planted tank. i would move them to a bb tank with good cycled filtration, and cover, and treat them there. imo, if you leave the tank empty (with no fish) for a couple of weeks, then it should be safe for fish. this is not altogether true, there are apparently some diseases that will live without hosts, but generally i would take the chance. in fact that is exactly what i did, a couple of months ago, and the tank is in fine health today.

i have treated with formalin in my planted tank, and it became a big algified mess, and i believe that anything that kills the beneficial microfauna in a planted tank will do the same. that alternative is a teardown, but i don't think it is necessary.

jmo, rick
 

Orchid

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
107
Location
oregon
creaturemd,

A little over a year ago my planted discus tank fell victim to some bacterial disease. I tried everything I could think of in the line of meds that would also be safe for the plants. NOTHING was working and I lost three of my most beloved discus and two of my cobalts started to get sick. I posted this problem on another online site and a fellow that raised wild caught angels suggested Kanacyn. Worked like a charm. The two that were ill got better and the plants did fine. I did add some cycle or something like that afterwards and did a few water changes in case the benificial bacteria population fell. Of course, this med is for a bacterial infection and won't work if your problem arises from an animal parasite. Good luck.
 

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