The saga begins when I notice my royal pleco is ill. I remove him to a qtank and treat with levamisole. Shortly thereafter, he seems to be getting better.
However, the clown tank I took him out of seems to be having problems. I did a 30% or so water change and pruned back some of the plants. The cabomba was taking over. After the water change, things got worse, not better.
I noticed there was some redness in the caudal peduncle of the largest clown, but he seemed to be behaving normally, so I did small water changes (like 5 gallons) for a couple of days.
Suddenly there was this light tan colored fuzzy stuff developing all over the plants and wood.
Have yet to find out what it is/was. Did a few more water changes (small) over the next couple days. Didn’t seem to help. In fact, it got worse.
THEN I notice the largest clown is breathing very rapidly. No other symptoms visible, but obviously distressed. I changed more water, and decided that since the royal had been in there, perhaps levamisole was called for since I had no idea whether the worms involved were direct or indirect host type. Added the levamisole after another water change. It has been 2 days since I added it by now.
You'd think by this time I'd have tested the water out of the tap, wouldn't you? But no. Not pinging on all cylinders here...
Here’s what it is today 2:28pm:
Nitrate (NO 3) 20ppm
Nitrite (NO 2) 0
Hardness 120ppm
Total Alkalinity 80ppm
pH 7.0
Sounds ok to me…but what about the tank water? Using the same test strip today 2:30pm. This is about 16 hours after I dosed with Maracyn 2 last night in desperation:
Nitrate (NO3) 25
Nitrite (NO2) .5-1.0 (eeeek!)
Hardness 120
Total Alkalinity 120 (?)
pH 6.5
Why the desperation, you ask? Because the 16cm clown is dead. ::
I found him very shortly afterwards when my son tells me last night, “Mom, the big clown is dead!” I think he’s been tricked by the old ‘playing dead’ game so I asked him. “No, he didn’t move when I poked him with a chopstick…” Aaaaahhh! NO POKING! But, no such luck. He was gone, and recently so.
Took him out of the tank and took some pics. The poor thing was covered with red ulcers. None of these were visible yesterday during the day. The only sign I had of something being wrong was the redness in the caudal which wasn't dramatic, and the rapid respiration. He was eating, and swimming around...
BHS? I think so, but I’m no expert and have no way to test microscopically. How long from the time I noticed the red in the caudal to death? Five days.
The rest of the clowns? The bigger they are the faster their respiration. But they are still alive and so is the bristlenose. The mean angel? He hasn’t even noticed there is anything wrong! Meanwhile, the tank is covered in floating tan fuzz. I’m going to break it down.
The way I see it I have 2 options:
1. Move all the fish in with the royal. If they all have the same stuff, might as well all be together. Can’t put them in with the other fish…
2. Put them in a container till the tank and filter are sterilized, load up some biomaterial from other tanks, and see what happens.
Where did the BHS come from? Last night after finding the clown dead, I investigated EVERYTHING. Somehow, the heater was set to 72F (I have kids…). The tank was cold to the touch. Probably part of the problem, but I doubt that’s the whole answer. Have been more than diligent with water changes and suspected the tap water, but it seems unlikely after testing today. The filter? I’m breaking it down today, but it was cleaned about a month ago in tank water. The bristlenose? He was qtanked, and all was ok for 3 months prior to this. Removing the Cabomba? Maybe I was overzealous. But should that cause a crash and fuzz that’s this dramatic?
Was it because I posted about BHS recently????? Maybe I should type it B*S like they type pl*co … to keep the whammy from killing their fish. D*mn! That’s all I can say. In fact, that’s what I was saying every other word for the several hours following his discovery before I dragged myself upstairs to sleep off my depression…
~sigh~ That’s what I get for trying to downsize, eh?
Maybe removing that matt of cabomba was a BAD idea...meanwhile, I guess moving the clowns should be happening, like NOW.
