Everything Fishy: FishNotes |
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Many aquarium backgrounds and decorative plants and ornaments are on sale, as we are discontinuing all but the backgrounds. Prices are for current stock only. We are re-focusing on water quality products, only the very best, and will be bringing the species-tailored Medicine Chests back. Our email and service and pond service divisions keep us current on new problems, much disease and quarantine research has been completed. Not selling plastic rocks might let the new version of Murphy finally get written. Most of the information below is excerpted from the 1997 edition of "Keeping Murphy Out of Your Aquarium". but some contributions from other fishkeepers and new items are here too. Murphy 2003 will have a lot of additional research, new disease diagnoses and treatments based on what's currently coming in on the fish. I'd like to test some of the new products that have entered the market, but welcome emails from aquarists that have tested them. Between local aquatics maintenance and the online store, I don't have the time to test as many products as I'd hoped to, and it's greatly slowing the new edition. Let me know if it's OK to put your name in the credits, online and/or in print..For those that already own Murphy, or are considering buying it, the next edition will be available in a stand-alone version similar to the original book, but with only the new material. The price will stay reasonable, the binding won't be fancy. A larger volume, containing the original book plus new material, will cost at least twice as much, but the binding will be better. |
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Part of my research includes answering questions by email, so I stay current on what is going on in aquariums all over, not just in the DFW area. Some of the questions also had answers in them. If you have a cure for a problem, send it. I'll add it, and give you credit, or leave it anonymous, as you choose. Some of the products Everything Fishy carries were located or developed to answer needs that were turning up in my email. Here are some excerpts, problem and 'cure', from the most common emails I receive. Since these are actually quotes, the replies are my opinion, so read it as email over someone's shoulder. If you wish to submit a question please include: pH, ammonia and nitrite test results, the age of your tank (how long it's been set up), water change frequency and last water change date, a complete stock list, and specifics about the problem. Sometimes the meaning would be lost if I ****'d out a brand or company name. This page contains 'experience and opinion'. The FishNote page is kept online by Everything Fishy. Click here for links to product pages.
Temperature Conversion Chart: Fahrenheit to Centigrade.
My quarantine procedure for newly purchased stock: 1. All fish take a brief dip in 2-3% saltwater solution (recipe). 2% for loaches and silver dollars, 3% on gouramis, tetras, etc. 3% will burn the skin off of a scaleless fish, but on normal fishes, eliminates the possibility of gill flukes. Limit exposure to 2 minutes max, or when they roll over on delicate fish, and yes, that's the silver dollar, piranha, clown loaches, etc. 1/1/2006 note from someone dipping rasboras: I recently used your recipe for aquarium salt dip which states 2 tsp per 2 cups, which resulted in an instant shock/ death in my Rasbora fish ( within 5 seconds). I immediately removed him and put him in fresh water, which revived him, but I can now see blood under the skin by the gills. All other sites have called for 1 tsp per gallon for salt baths, a recipe I use regularly with my Beta with good results. Your recipe must be a typo or misinformation. I thought you should know so that you could correct this so others don't make the same mistake. My note follow-up: if the fish have ich, I really do use 2%, and I haven't had a problem. But I was cautious the last time I dipped rasboras, after receiving this note and only left them in about 30 seconds, as they did not have visible ich. Mine all lived. We all have to make our judgment calls, and we are either right or wrong. If we are wrong, the fish die. If I am wrong and fail to adequately prevent the spread of disease, a LOT of fish die. Not just a couple. My quarantine is aggressive. After my fish get to a customer tank, they generally die of old age, several years later. 2. Tank temp: 83 degrees. The only time I don't quarantine at 83 is when I'm doing swordtails. They really hate heat. So I quarantine them at 70 or 71. (limits summer quarantines on these.) 3. Good biological filtration with zero carbon. This way if I have to medicate the tank I don't have to worry about the carbon being old enough not to remove the meds. 4. Usually the saltwater dip nails ich, fortunately. If they are clearly infected, I try to keep them in a tank without gravel, on a sponge filter, and dose accordingly. CopperSafe or Clear Ich if the ich doesn't seem to be too bad. I encountered a tougher strain of ich early in 2002 that was immune to those products, and am working on getting the correct medicine for the website. What I ended up using then was Formalite, but the manufacturer is gone. Of CopperSafe and Clear Ich, Clear Ich is better. Takes 3 days, lights out all the time. CopperSafe added after the Clear Ich is done, if the tank has already been infected. For 7 days during ich treatment dose with tetracycline as well. It will handle ES, which is becoming far too common, and is too fatal once you can see symptoms. 4. All cichlids get dosed with metronidazole, period. BUT metronidazole combined with an ich treatment can be fatal, and it can't combine with tetracycline either. So first week, ich treatment as needed and tetracycline. Then cichlid quarantine tanks get a partial water change and filtration with fresh carbon (usually Fritz brand) after the first week of quarantine. When I'm sure all of the other meds are out, I remove the carbon, and dose the tank with metronidazole. in stock on the website. Never combine metronidazole with tetracycline treatment, since metronidazole and tetracycline neutralize each other and so neither one works together. 5. If fin rot is present, Melafix seems to be safe in combination with either metronidazole or the Ich treatments. Seems: I've tried it many and haven't killed any fish. The key things are excellent filtration, (see tips on my Murphy page) appropriate water quality, not changing pH. I adjust the tanks to match water on incoming fish before I add the fish. I use as few aquarium products as possible. The fewer chemicals I'm mixing, the less likely I'll have negative interactions. Good luck, Alice Burkhart http://www.everythingfishy.com
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Bettas (especially in the winter)
9-25-00 Thank you for the prompt reply. This is the first time I've made a purchase from your
business, and so far I'm really impressed! There really aren't books on keeping bettas in small containers, but I can give you some quick tips in this
email.
2004 Alice's Editorial Note: Thank the powers that be for Melafix, which is much easier to dose down than Maracyn, to treat fin rot
in a small bowl. It is also more effective. It's on the site and way past the experimental stage. I like this product. Initial Problem: The perils of feeding live food: Hydra, small worms, organisms large enough to see that don't belong in your aquarium. My Reply: I can't tell you exactly what they are, but this should take care of them:1 tsp white distilled vinegar per 10 gallons, one time. (That is teaspoon,....) Supposedly this will wipe them out overnight. It absolutely works on hydra, (the only other cure for hydra being deadly for fish.) I don't know how they got in your tank either. My 2 thoughts are live plants or live food. A couple of hours of pH dip probably won't bother your fish, but I can't guarantee that, especially without
knowing your tank pH. There are risks. There are larger risks in the formal remedy found in an aquarium atlas.
Vinegar is safer, and is neutralized by the buffer in the tank, so there is no toxic medicine to remove afterward.
Medicines that will kill parasites and larger invaders are nearly always toxic. The vinegar alters the ENVIRONMENT
for both fish and parasites. The fish are larger, and stronger, hence, they live.... (So far I don't know of any
deaths related to this treatment.) I never saw these little guys until I fed my fish some frozen cube food and a few guppies. I will never do that again! Not to mention one of my biggest and colorful cichlids got bloat after eating a few guppies. I learned a very valuable lesson there! One thing that really sucks about not being able to feed guppies anymore - some of my fish grew very quickly and colored up quite nice. Any recommendations on food that will do the same as live food? ----------------------------- Avoiding introduction of unwanted species is difficult if you feed live food. I feed freshwater guppies to my marine tank, and occasionally marine frozen brine shrimp to my freshwater tank. Pests from one can't live in the other environment. I occasionally allow mosquitoes to breed in a fairly clean bowl of water outdoors, then net their offspring and feed them to my aquariums. All of these live foods do produce color, without contamination. I'm sure there are others. |
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Cloudy Water, White. Additional Info
(u/g filter)Here's My Problem : I can never seem to be able to keep my water from being cloudy. I have a 30 gallon tank with undergravel filter and above tank filter, I do regular water changes and vacuum the gravel, there are 10 tiger barbs, 4 swordtails 1 pleco in the tank. Stop vacuuming all of your gravel during water changes. Continue doing a 25% water change monthly, lift debris
from above the gravel, but do not vaccuum for your next 2 water changes. After that, vacuum only 25% of the bottom's
surface each month. The cloudiness is your bacteria frantically trying to multiply after water changes. Also, rinse
the media from your above tank filter in water you removed during water changes, don't change the media, don't
rinse in hot chlorinated water. (External Filter) Types of Fish : Mollies, Tetras, Bleeding hearts Stop changing the filter, don't do any water changes, and don't add any clarifiers. The cloudiness is from multiplying bacteria, and your fish need the bacteria. It will house in your floss or sponge media, so it is critical that you not throw those out or rinse them in hot water. Rinse in dechlorinated cool water or just leave them alone. The tank will clear and cloud, clear and cloud several times as the filter grows back. When the filter is fully established the tank will be beautifully clear for years. My page has some more info. Good luck, AB
Cichlids and pleco, High nitrites. Additional Info Tank Size in Gallons: 20 . Types of Fish : african cichlids, 1 large pleco
New Tank Additional Info Types of Fish : Tetras-neon, yellow, 2 other types that I can't remember names of. I do have alot of live plants and about 20 fish (the fish are all less than 3/4 inch.) I have done partial water changes about every two weeks also. One of the main reasons I am concerned is that I lose 2-4 fish a week. I am not sure if they were sick prior to introducing them into my tank or not. I had 3 mollys and two of them gave birth to frys and then died. I had 2 kissing gourmais and one dwarf and they all died within days of a water change. Could this be due to the fluctuation in water temp (My heater got goofed up during the change and the temp spiked up to 84 degrees). The other thing I notice is alot of brown algae on my filter, I have one of those that sits on the side of the tank and filters the water through a bag filled with charcoal. Is this caused by decaying plant matter or is it something I need to worry about? I don't have a problem with green alsge since my algae eaters are good about cleaning that up. So bottom line is how do I clear the water up, get rid of the brown algae and keep my fish from dieing? Thank you for your help. Reply: I think you are going to like this answer. During water changes, change no more than 30% of your water. Don't change the floss or sponge media in your external filter. If you do not have floss or sponge in your external filter, you need to put some in. Instead of throwing it away when it's dirty, rinse it in water removed from the tank. You're going to like the results in a couple of weeks. Wait at least 2 months before replacing floss or sponge. (Do 1 at a time if you have 2.) Don't replace your floss or sponge AND do a Large water change at the same time, allow a couple of weeks in between. Or toss your (dechlorinated water rinsed) old floss or sponge in the tank when you put the new one in the pump. It will look tacky for a week, but help keep your fish alive. Good luck, AB
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HITH disease, 10 year old, 55 gallon aquarium, nitrite 'low'
Types of Fish : Red oscar, pleco catfish, shovelnose catfish. Note: There's a reason I have no independent research on HITH. I've kept fish since 1983, but have never had a fish with HITH. I do tend to toss a frozen green bean, a zucchini slice, or a piece of romaine lettuce in the tank every couple of weeks. I get behind on maintenance and my nitrates top the chart (over 100 ppm), sometimes once a month. My tanks are a long way from perfect. I have old fish and young fish and in-between fish, especially in gouramis. But I've just never had a case. AB
A Hole In The Head successful cure 1/28/00 Sent in by Shannon Callister, in Walla Walla, WA. Used by permission. Tank Size in Gallons: 55g Shannon's notes:
Fishless cycling. The idea came from somewhere, but I can't say it was mine first. I have found the technique very useful when I have to sterilize a tank to remove disease. First I run a small amount of bleach through the empty tank, with pumps, heaters, etc. on. (I use about 1/4 cup for 30 gallons. It doesn't take much.) Then I rinse thoroughly, dechlorinate heavily, add a culture from a healthy tank without disease, (I did use a houseplant in one testing tank) and add a small amount of ammonia. If the tank will be heavily stocked I add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of ammonia per 10 gallons per day. Average stocking 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of ammonia per 10 gallons per day. I haven't the patience for the eye dropper. Thanks, Alice. I did locate the article I was looking for. It can be seen at http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycling.html |
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Fishless cycling & clearing up possible parasite at the same time Here's My Problem : I have a 15 gallon tall eclipse tank with an additional undergravel filtration setup. I
had the tank running for about 8 months with no real problems and I introduced two kissing gourmis to the tank.
Immediately my other fish started to get sick. I changed all the water, thinking the tank chemistry might be off.
They also died. Before I change the tank again is it possible I missed something? Is it possible for the tank to
be contaminated with something I don't know about? Do you have any suggestions? Cycle the tank with plain ammonia, without clarifiers, coloring agents, etc.
If you can find it, it will cost about $3.00.
Unexplained hard water Tank Size in Gallons: 30. Types of Fish : 6 serpae tetras, 5 cory cats, 2 small plecos, 1 small blue gourami Here's My Problem : I set up a 30 gallon aquarium in September, and added my first fish (5 serpae tetras). It took about three months for the ammonia cycle to finish up, and only then because I added some stress zyme. Initially I had filled the tank with conditioned tapwater; the hardness was 2-3ppm. In the mean time I have carried out partial water changes on a monthly basis, and kept the tank very clean, but the hardness has increased dramatically. It is now over 30 ppm, and (coincidentally?) I've lost a cory cat... I have not lost before now, even during the terrible ammonia peak. My plant is also starting to die off. I would really like to get the water back down to 10-15 ppm, but I am not sure how. I tried a water softener pillow in my filter (as a local aquarist advised me) but I must have used it wrong, because the water could not go through it, and my filter almost backed up. Any advice would be appreciated. Reply 1: I don't see salt on your chemical list, but it definitely causes hard water. Some stones can dissolve in the tank as well. Seashells will do it, and raise pH quite dramatically too. (Proper pH 7.0 drops pH below 7 in water with a KH below 10, it takes mine to 6.8 too.) The hardness will kill your cory cats, otocinclis, and some other fish. Write back and tell me about your gravel and decorations. Please leave your first message attached as well. Thanks, AB Message 2: Thank you for responding so quickly to my message... as far as my tank decorations go, I have only Dowell aquarium gravel (which says on the bag that it will not alter water chemistry, some supposedly aquarium-safe rocks I bought at PetsMart, and a piece of driftwood (weighted with slate) that I got from a reputable aquarium shop here. The only other thing in the tank is my aquarium plant (which was doing incredibly well, and now seems to be dying). I keep the tank as clean as possible, so I'm not sure what could be causing the problem. Thanks for any feedback... Reply 2: An aquarium is a closed system, so the hardness had to come from somewhere. If you add no salt of any kind, either your gravel or one of your rocks is leaching. The wood should be safe enough. Finding out which is leaching is somewhat more difficult. You'll need a couple of clean jars and a KH/GH kit. You can test the gravel easily. The rock you may need to break a sample off of, or you can test the gravel and if it's ok you can just remove the rock. Fill the jars with water from your aquarium, test KH & GH, record your results. Add gravel to one, 1/2 a jar worth. Add your rock sample to the other. Cap and retest KH and GH in one week. The one that goes up is the guilty party. Good luck, AB Green Water Additional Info 10 Gallon containing: 2 Mickey Mouse Platys, I had 3 but 1 jumped out this week, 4 Neon Tetras 2 Corydoras Catfish Here's My Problem : I have a persistent green water problem and I'm not sure what to do about it. This has been going on for about 2-3 months. When I change the water it clears up but within a few days it is so cloudy I can't see more than a couple of (fish or inches, online editor cut it off.) Thank you I think you're doing 2 things too often.
Salt Water Dip Ich appears differently on different fish. On platies, it would probably look like white
spots. On guppies, if they are silvery, it would look like clear bubbles. Fungus can either look white & furry,
or be in blobs. Some fish fungi aren't really fungi at all, they are bacterial. When you aren't sure whether it's
bacterial or fungus, you can treat with both Maroxy and Maracyn. A strain of ich resistant to Coppersafe and Clear Ich appeared in my tanks in spring of 2002. Formalite finally took care of it, after it resisted methylene blue, Coppersafe and Clear Ich. I now own a UV light that can be connected to a quarantine tank. I have not been able to locate Formalite for the online store, but it will be there when I find a wholesale source. |
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Low pH. Additional Info
: 30 gallon tank, stocked with 2 Cory's, 3 white clouds, 1 betta, an algae eater, serpae tetra, 2 black neons, and 1 lemon tetra. For many months my aquarium has been fine and staying at normal levels of all water tests. However, recently the PH level has decided to be ever diminishing. Now I cannot seem to get the PH level to stabilize and stop turning acidic. The tank is 7 months old. pH is currently 6.4. The 11 fish are fed Betta bites, typically flake food and sometimes brine shrimp. The tank has aquatic plants.
Filtration is Undergravel and Power Filter. I test for Ammonia, Nitrite, and PH. I do a quarter water change monthly.
The temperature is at 76-77 degrees. Tank is cleaned monthly Chemicals used: Leaf Zone-plant fertilizer, ACT, Stress
coat, & Proper PH 7.0 Twitchy, erratic fish, head damaged or missing at death. In non-catfish species the disease generally infects the brain. However, it can mimic dropsy, with severe abdominal bloat (abdomen filled with clear, brownish liquid). In catfish, sores, loss of appetite, general debilitation followed by death. The bad news is: this bacteria can live in a fish's body for 200 days. If the fish does not get sick right away, but develops an injury in the next 200 days, instead of just dealing with the injury you are dealing with a fatal condition, as the bacteria get the upper hand. After the initial outbreak in one tank, I've been dealing with mildly injured fish that die. Now I know why. The good news: once exposed, if the fish doesn't get sick, it does develop some immunity, although an injury or stress can undermine the immunity. The other good news, the bacteria seem to become non-contagious below 71 degrees (can be tough to do in a house) or at 83 degrees. In a tank without fish the enteric septicemia bacteria are supposed to die within 24 hours. Being very conservative, I raised a tank temp to 86 and added ammonia (fishless cycling) for about 1 week at that temperature. (The biological filter can tolerate 83, 86 degrees, even higher as long as oxygen is available.) The african cichlids I put in afterward have shown no signs of exposure to enteric septicemia. Follow the links at the end of this practical article to see all the scientific facts I found in their original form, from the original sources.. Enteric Septicemia in catfish. It has different symptoms for different species, but this disease does have a name! Enteric Septicemia symptom list by type of fish, as of 4/12/00.
Tank Stats on someone else's tank: Dying Rasboras and Red Tailed Shark Tank: about 50 gallons (180 litres), filtration: external carbon/sponge, tank is 7 weeks old, pH 7.2, temp 80 deg F; flourescent light, 14 hours a day on timer, aquatic plants in tank. Water Changes: 10-15% weekly, Tank Cleaning: cleaned filter once, "vaccumed" twice in this time. Fish, 9 remaining: swordtails - 3 adult, one 4 month old baby, redtail shark x 1 (now deceased), corydora julii x2, bronze corydora x 1, harlequin rasboras x 4 (two now deceased). Food: Wardleys Total Tropical flakes twice a day and Wardleys Spirulina Tablets every other day. Occasional freeze dried worms.Chemicals: Sera-aquatan water conditioner, Sera-nitrivec biostarter when setting up the tank, Also use salt. Problem: I have lost two harlequin rasboras and one red tail shark this week. The only strange thing
I noticed was the redtail shark racing around madly, hit a rock then hid behind the heater and wouldn't come out.
The next morning he was dead Turn your tank temperature up to 83 degrees. I am testing Tetra Anti-Bacteria medicated flakes (tetracycline) on a bala shark that appeared to be dying. They seem to be working. I have a clown loach that won't eat, so I've moved him (and his buddy) to a clean, empty, established tank at 83. If I can slow the multiplication of bacteria long enough to get him to eat, I may manage to save him. 4/12/00 I lost the clown loach (who never ate) and the bala, who ate for about 2 days. I fed the Tetra AB for 7 days. I have not had a new definite case of ES since feeding it. The fish already exhibiting symptoms when they started the food did die, more slowly, but they did die. You may treat sick fish that are still eating with a medicated food containing one of the products referenced in the following articles. Since these are designed for farm-raised dinner table catfish, I can't give you a commercial product name yet. Here are links to the article by the University of Florida. And one by the Southern Regional Aquaculture Center. The SRAC's is a pdf file. 4-2-00 How my tanks got infected with enteric septicemia. 9-21-98, I picked up 4 rosy barbs for my daughter at Petsmart and I guess they had it, but I lost one fish at a time, so far apart, initially, that I chalked it up to aggression. I also had a chinese algae eater from Petsmart, and a couple of other fish from other sources. I start tracking an infectious disease from the first fish I saw the symptoms on, usually the first death. While there were a few other fish in that tank, some of them are still alive and well, although they have doubtless carried this gram-negative bacteria to the other tanks they are in. The first rosy barb died on 10-19-98, no spots, no ragged fins, no reason. The other rosy barbs went 1 at a time, the first 3 with a little erratic swimming followed by death, while it multiplied in the tank. The little neon tetras in with them looked like their heads were bitten off. On 7-2-99 I salt water dipped the last barb, who had dropsy symptoms, and put him in a goldfish bowl. I dipped the barbs' tankmates and moved them to my 29 and 40 gallon tanks, but the disease traveled on those fish, even though they weren't sick, and they stopped dying. My 29 gallon quarantine stays at 83 degrees, but gets quite crowded in summer, and enteric septicemia seems to have been living in one fish at a time, killing very, very, sporadically, since then. (I believe I have lost 6 to 8 fish so far.) One article says this gram-negative bacteria can live in the brain, kidneys, and another organ of fish for 200 days, but at the same time, most fish seem to develop an immunity. As a consequence, while I'm not putting potentially exposed fish out of their misery, but my tropical freshwater fish aren't moving to any tank they aren't already in. (My african cichlids are safe since I never put tropicals in with them.) So far, deaths have only occurred in the quarantine tanks and one school tank, and I'd like to keep it that way. I'm distributing medicated food to any customer I gave a fish to out of one of my large tanks. On empty tanks with good filtration, the bacteria should die out within 24 hours. So by the time 7 days of medicated food are complete, the tanks should all be safe. The bala shark ate the medicated food for 2 days, and died after 5 days. I've also stepped up water changes, as well as turning heaters on.
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Live Plants -- and, yes, this is definitely my opinion. (Partly formed
by my red tailed shark, red hook silver dollars, gouramis, and other plant-eating fish, whom I am very fond of.)
Here's My Problem : what are some benefits and cons of live plants vs. those fake ones. In my opinion, live plants provide snack food for the fish, supplementing their diets with real vitamins, etc. The biggest disadvantage is that if you don't have enough light, many live plants turn into dead plants and the floating leaves and debris can contribute to an ammonia problem. My favorite live aquarium plant is a cutting off of the house plant, pothos, which is a large leaf ivy. It does very well, even in new aquariums, the cutting can be just laid in the gravel with a rock to anchor it, and dying leaves are rare, easy to spot, and easy to remove. It requires less light than many aquarium plants, and doesn't come with pond snails. Good luck, AB
What kind of fish do I have? If you don't mind me asking, what kind of fish do you have? Haven't decided on what I want... Have been thinking
about Discus but I understand they do not get alone with other species of fish, so I have not decided.... Thx again,
L a 10 gallon livebearer tank with mollies, |
Click redtailed shark to Email requestsFishNotes is still under construction. Aquatics information, photographs, articles Copyright © 1999 - 2007 by Alice Burkhart, All Rights Reserved.. Keeping Murphy Out Of Your Aquarium is © Copyright 1997, 1998 by Alice Burkhart, All Rights Reserved. Cover Photos by Andrew M Burns. Top of Page