3 Dead Zebs!

[mquinny123]

Hi Folks

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a good bacterial medicine/remedy for my ailing zebs?

Ive had 6 of them in a 90 litre tank for the past 2 and a bit years and have grown them on from 6 months old till decmeber without any problems, then suddenly the usual signs of something been wrong began to happen such as rapid breathing, loss of appetite and looking rather thin, amongst other things.Apart from frayed fins on one of the dead zebs there wasnt any visible signs of illness such as redness,swelling so im leaning towards a bacterial problem of some sort. Api test kit shows no Ammonia,Nitrite,Nitrate problems and the PH/TDS meter is showing regular results,after my largest 3"+ zeb died I did a 5 day course with myxazin and i was hopeful things would improve, then another died and another this morning. i had a few L270 fry in there that had been living with them for 6 months with no problems and these showed no signs of illness or distress whatso ever:dk: ive since moved these into a small 60 litre so i can concentrate on my remaining zebra's.

Any tips on the next course of treatment? water changes are 2 x 20% weekly standard and have been for 2 years, filtration is external, graveless bottoms same as all my hypan tanks, i lost 6 x l400 adults recently due to a stuck on heater so id like to save these 3 if possible!

Thanks

 

[Jo Crane]

Check that your water board have not been doing local works or flushes on the water system.
More and more I am hearing of fish getting wiped out due to the water supply being treated.

 

[mquinny123]

Check that your water board have not been doing local works or flushes on the water system.
More and more I am hearing of fish getting wiped out due to the water supply being treated.

Thanks Jo, that did cross my mind after the first 1 died as a local forum had a thread titled "dodgy water in S5" which is the postcode for my area! i shall look into it, any recommendations for an anti bacterial product?

Thanks for the speedy delivery of the food yesterday also :clap:

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Api test kit shows no Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate problems.

Sorry for your loss, despite that I think this is a water quality issue and very probably ammonia damage. I wouldn't necessarily believe the kits, ammonia is very difficult to measure and will be converted to nitrate in the filter which is even more difficult to measure accurately. Jo wrote:

More and more I am hearing of fish getting wiped out due to the water supply being treated.

I heard another similar tale of woe yesterday. Unfortunately it has now become a familiar scenario, water mains are leaking all over the UK and the contractor turns up to dig the main up, the water company puts a large dose of chloramine in the water in the water as soon as they know there is a leak, but it is only when the contractor comes that the company may notify you that you may suffer a pressure drop/and or discoloured water, but if you live further away from the leak you don't even get that.

Your water main may have had a leak since the end of the big freeze, and the company may have been adding chloramine ever since. The fish would have been stressed by the ammonia, even if it was sub-lethal, and the increased conversion NH3 > N02 > NO3 will have depleted the tank water of oxygen.

I probably wouldn't add any anti-bacterial medication at the moment, but would increase aeration, and if you haven't got a source of non-tap water dose with a water conditioner like Prime or Amquel.

If you don't have plants the problem is potentially worse as plants preferentially take up ammonia as their N source.

Cheers Darrel

 

[macvsog23]

Check that your water board have not been doing local works or flushes on the water system.
More and more I am hearing of fish getting wiped out due to the water supply being treated.

Joe spot on
This is the reason why I use the more expensive carbon filter blocks in my RO unit.
:wb::wb:

 

[mquinny123]

Thanks folks, ill add another powerhead with diffuser for aeriation to up the oxygen levels, i use safeguard as the conditioner and have done for years on all my tanks, i suspected foul play with the water somehow and there's been numerous road works around the area so it could be that, its just one of those things you expect/hope wont happen to you

The irony is i thought about moving these fish on before the new year as home life is pretty hectic at present and theres no room in my office at work were i keep the rest of my hypans :wb: i kept them at home as they were my prized babies and could keep an eye on them more.

I'll keep this thread updated, i may even try bringing water home from my work place when doing the w/c.

Thanks again.

 

[macvsog23]

Thanks folks, ill add another powerhead with diffuser for aeriation to up the oxygen levels, i use safeguard as the conditioner and have done for years on all my tanks, i suspected foul play with the water somehow and there's been numerous road works around the area so it could be that, its just one of those things you expect/hope wont happen to you

The irony is i thought about moving these fish on before the new year as home life is pretty hectic at present and theres no room in my office at work were i keep the rest of my hypans :wb: i kept them at home as they were my prized babies and could keep an eye on them more.

I'll keep this thread updated, i may even try bringing water home from my work place when doing the w/c.

Thanks again.

RO and HMA mix is the way to go cheap way of getting water that is good quality.

regards Bob

 

[mquinny123]

RO and HMA mix is the way to go cheap way of getting water that is good quality.

regards Bob

Thanks Bob

Its something that i always said id look into but never did, our water has always (until now!) been pretty good, comes out of the tap at 6.8-7, and a few of the guys from local fish shops round here dont even de-chlorinate as they say its soo good (not something id ever do btw!)

If i keep on breeding hypans then its something ill defo setup this time, although days like these really make you want to throw the in towel.

 

[macvsog23]

Thanks Bob

Its something that i always said id look into but never did, our water has always (until now!) been pretty good, comes out of the tap at 6.8-7, and a few of the guys from local fish shops round here dont even de-chlorinate as they say its soo good (not something id ever do btw!)

If i keep on breeding hypans then its something ill defo setup this time, although days like these really make you want to throw the in towel.

Hey don’t do that

Towels are for drying and flicking your fagg at public school.
i like all the people on this site have had problems like your,s

Just think about RO and HMA.
If you look at a few threads of mine you see how easy and cheap it is.
For me it was the Key and once I got a grip of Kh and TDS it all went well.

We keep water not fish is some thing I keep saying to people.

 

[roydon]

hi buddy sorry to hear of losses i went through just recently bacteria infection through my tanks

treatment was as follows

metronidozole 200mg to 50 litres of water for three days
20% water change for two consecutive days
then repeat again

This dose was used on L333, L066, L202, peppermints, Albino LFBN, Common LFBN, common SFB, Albino SFBN. tanks had fry in them as well

But following the treatment had blonde momment and remembered fire brigade were out checking testing fire hidrants in our street which with the sudden change in water pressure when they turn them on releases the built up rust and corroded metal particals thus when doing water changes 15% twice weekly was introducing heavy metal particles into aquarium and we all know know catfishes hate metals in there water just food for though

 

[tutters187]

Hi,
do you think they may have a parasitic infection? Maybe flukes?

the usual signs of something been wrong began to happen such as rapid breathing, loss of appetite and looking rather thin, amongst other things. Apart from frayed fins on one of the dead zebs there wasnt any visible signs of illness such as redness,swelling so im leaning towards a bacterial problem of some sort.

Just something to keep an eye out for if you can't see any bacterial symptoms and your water quality is fine.

Cheers
Stace

 

[Irene0100]

oh dear, i would suspect the water as most probable problem. can you buy any RO locally or do you have any good rain water? I would do a large water change, say 50% for several days to clear all the old water. use re-mineralised RO/rain water if you can. if not check your water conditioner has antichloramine in it, not all do. if you have no re-mineralise salts, the half treated tap water and half rain water would be better than just tap water.
also if the tank is bare bottom, give it a good wipe over to release any surface bacteria etc, add a few snails to keep the glass clean?

 

[elaine]

I tend to agree with possible parasites. A heavy worm infestation can show the same symptoms. Fish get very ill, very quickly as the worms multiply in their stomachs

If you have tried most things, then worming them is worth a go.

 

[tutters187]

I thought of it straight away as you mentioned a bacterial problem - but no physical symptoms, so i would tend to look at a Fluke problem just from the symptoms mentioned.

If you know someone with a microscope maybe try to test some of the faeces or do a scraping if possible to have a look at it under a microscope just to rule it out.

Cheers
Stace

 

[mquinny123]

Hey all,

Just thought id update this and let you know how i got on.

Shortly after posting on here a 4th zeb died with the exact same symptoms, went from being fine to basically crawling to a standstill then keeling over. :-(

I took the remaining 2 Zebs to my works tank and placed them in with 5 L270 in a large tank and all was well, plenty of hiding places and they perked up and showed there normal behaviour after a week so was really pleased.........then

The larger of the 2 zebs decided it wanted to "oust" my l270 male from its cave and a tussle broke out, from what i can gather it actually cleared the male from the cave then the male came back in force and trapped it....and killed it. This happened within the space of 6 hours as i checked on them at 9.30 in the morning and both zebs were fine, then at 3 pm i noticed i could only spot 1 of them. after peering in the caves found the zeb dead and the male still giving it a kicking, in hindsight i shouldnt have put them in here, but it was the only sensible tank as the others housed much larger and agressive hypans.and work/space/time just didnt permit me setting another tank up for it.

so now i have one lonely zeb on its own, healthy and perky but all on its own, ive decided to move this on to someone with a colony of zebs so it feels a little more at peace (placed on AQ from this morning), i stll think the 4 that died were due to contaminated water supplies, and in a twist of (evil!) fate this morning we had another burst pipe.........right outside my office where the fish are kept, i shant be doing no water changes from here for a while!

 

[Zebra Pleco]

Sorry for your losses, what price are you asking for your Zeb, can you pm me with details.

 

[Doodles]

 

[RobHarrison]

Sorry to hear you lost more you did try your best to sort it and asking people on here is a great start to solve things, hope it hasnt put you off zebs in the long term

 

[Joby]

Oh thats so sad, hypans can be nasty little boogers :wb:

 

[Irene0100]

oh dear, but if you say they perked up after the move then it would suggest there is a problem with the water in the tank at home??
is your last zeb a male or female?