# Fish death question.



## guitarrocker98 (Jun 28, 2011)

Okay so I have a tank that is about 70 gallons. I had 4 bala sharks and 2 rainbow sharks. I just had a disease go through and it killed one rainbow shark and all the bala sharks. It did not heart my algae eaters, guppies, or the mollies or the ghost knife that is in there. I did not know what did it, but I did medicate them and did a copper solution to make sure I got every disease under the sun. Well I am just making sure that I know what killed the fish. A guppy died and I could not find it so it was dead in the tank for around a week-2. I dont know how its dead body evaded me for that long, but ya. Could that cause it?


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Are you suggesting that the guppy's corpse or cause of the guppy's death have caused the larger problem? As to the first - no, a rotting corpse as small as a guppy's would not flood a 70 gallon with enough ammonia to do any harm at all. As far as what killed the guppy - do you know any symptoms of the fish that have died, such as pineconing scales, ragged fins, red irritated gills, erratic or abnormal swimming, long white stringy poop, lesions, sandy white grains or fuzzy spots on the fish's skin, flashing (bouncing or rubbing on structures in the tank), etc? Also, water parameters and info like how long the tank has been set up and how old the fish are would be helpful as well.

Hope the rest are ok!


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## guitarrocker98 (Jun 28, 2011)

Um... No honestly one day it just vanished. But now the other fish in the tank have long white stringy poop well mainly the mollies and the balas ended up dying from their fins turning red and the rainbow shark died from dropsy. But I think the tank is slowely recovering. I have not added my new fish yet because I am making sure its all good before I add fish. The Nitrite and Nitrate levels are low. I have super hard water here in Idaho and take has been set up for about 3 months now.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

White stringy poop means internal parasites (the poop is the eggs). Buy some anti-parasitic water treatment and start dosing to kill the eggs. Don't feed your fish for a day or two and then start feeding mushed up garlic or flake food soaked in garlic juice to kill the internal parasites.

Red gills and fins is a sign of poor water quality. Do you have a water testing kit? Also, are you doing partial water changes? If so, how much each time and how frequently? And are you dechlorinating your new water before adding to the tank?

To lower the hardness of your water, try adding 50% tap and 50% distilled water from the grocery store.


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## guitarrocker98 (Jun 28, 2011)

I just finished a week medication cycle I will not feed them for 2 days and start doing the garlic cycle. Just conventional store bough garlic? Like the juice from a minced garlic should work ya? I usually do a 25%-40% water chage every week to 2 weeks. Larger changes if its 2 weeks. I have been declorinating it now. I ran out for like 1 change.


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## Gizmo (Dec 6, 2010)

Do a few more water changes over the next few weeks then start dosing the anti-parasitic water treatment. The garlic will kill anything in the fish (and yes, just minced store-bought garlic, preferably fresh garlic too), but you need to treat the entire tank to kill the eggs, otherwise your problem will keep coming back.

Try the 50/50 tap/distilled on the next water changes. It'll help with the hardness.


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## thenewseverum (Nov 23, 2010)

Red fins sounds like hemorrhagic septicemia to me. How big were the sharks? I mean I know it doesnt matter now, but if they were huge and producing a lot of ammonia, that could cause the guppy to die.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

guitarrocker98 said:


> I just finished a week medication cycle I will not feed them for 2 days and start doing the garlic cycle. Just conventional store bough garlic? Like the juice from a minced garlic should work ya? I usually do a 25%-40% water chage every week to 2 weeks. Larger changes if its 2 weeks. I have been declorinating it now. I ran out for like 1 change.


Sounds like your having water quality problems from the fact your not doing water changes enough, should be once a week when you have fish like balas as they are major waste producers and by the looks of it your having some nitrite problems even if its low. To compound matters you did 1 water change without using a dechlorinator. Best if your out, not to do a change till you pick some up.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You should never add any medicine to your tank unless you know what the problem is. Adding a bunch of meds together is usually not a good idea either. 

Is this a fairly new tank?


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