dawntwister

Could you post a picture?

I had a similar with danio's. I lost a few here and there. Noticed a few had a bulge on their lip. LFS said it was a scrape. Bought a few more fish. Then other fish got bulge on lip and died. Used bacteria fiz with no results. Mela fix seemed to help heal some of the fish.

mudboots

Here are some pics of the bact. hemo. sept. My camera would not adjust properly to capture the redness, probably because I don't know how to use it. The thin red lines you see at the bases of the fins are actually quite pronounced in real life, and the fins themselves are tinged red from the blood seeping. You can also see in the pic the veins in the tail in one of the pics that have become unusually visible. Only one fish has died so far, and it went from looking like the pics to quivering a lot and making blind darts around the tank, occassionally ramming into the substrate (pretty ugly to watch). The meds are on the way, but not sure if in time. To my understanding this is contagious and even if I remove these fellas the tank still needs to be treated. I'm certainly not happy about the fact that I've managed to "86" my first inhabitants, but it's a lesson learned that won't happen again.

Fishfarmacy.com recommends 7-10 days of oxytet. antibiotic with 25% water changes each day. This is a 125 gallon aqaurium. Ouch.

mudboots

Dawntwitter - Forgot to mention that these also have swollen mouths as you mentioned on your danios. I just realized the pics don't capture their mouth parts.

dawntwister

Seems it would be easier and more economical to put the fish in a 10 gallon tank. I'd go to
Pet Smart and get some Hornwort to set up a 10 gallon tank. Put the tank in a sunny window. Sometimes you can get a 10 gallon for a few dollars on craigslist.org. Buy 1 of those ammonia detectors to fit on the tank. At Rex Griggs site read that with addition of plants a few fish can be added without ammonia spikes.

How many fish are sick? How big are they?

Oh! You probably need to add some more water conditioner.

I had a few that recovered and the sores on the mouth disappeared.

mudboots

For future critters I'll definitely have a quarantine. But since two more died last night, 2 look like they will be gone by the time I get home this evening, and the bacteria is already in the aquarium I'll go ahead and treat it, plus do water changes to hopefully remove enough of the bacteria to keep this from happening again. These fish are about 2-3 inches (babies), and there were 5 of them that started bleeding last week.

For water changing, I did another yesterday. I use a Tetra product that calls for 5cc per 10 gallons, and I usually add a little extra because my tap water is high in chlorine. The tank water is fine, though nitrates are a bit high from all of the messing around I had been doing, which is what helped to weaken the poor fellas (too much stress in too short time).

Amazingly, throughout all of this the plainest fish on the planet, Gambusia species, look as healthy as they can be. I thought some of them had ick, but it turned out to be nothing. It's funny that the smallest fish in the aquarium are the toughest, and now I have the largest non-breeder Gambusia tank in Texas (lol)!! BTW - the bristlenose pleco, 3 cories, and upside-down Syn.cat are all doing just fine as well.

quatermass

Diana,

Hi again.
Interesting coming across your posting recently.

I was wondering if you've done any research of the use of a Walstad tank to reduce the levels of dangerous bacteria?

I've read articles that tell me that the expensive Koi and goldfish fish are kept in muddy ponds to keep them healthy, that certain Koi companies make waste control bacteria products that claim to keep pathogenic bacteria away by the competitive exclusion method.
That is adding lots of harmless bacteria.

I've used a soil layered tanks for the last 4 years now as I find they generate far more healthy fish.

A soil-layered tank does seem on paper to provide a lot of trace elements that aquatic animals need to grow into healthy animals with hopefully a decent immune system if the water quality and good food is provided as well.

What with the 40,000+ bacteria species, fungi and phages in soil it's a wonder why we don't promote a Walstad tank as being a potential 'hospital' or quarantine tank for our aquatic animals.

I'd love to hear your comments or anyone else on this aspect of setting up a 'Walstad'?

Is it a benefit other Walstad users have come across?