# Big holes in sides of dead fish ??



## Niki7

I've been having a major fish problem and I can't figure it out. Really need help.

Had my 45 gal freshwater tank for 2 yrs now. Never had any major problems. A fish death here and there and nitrates being a problem now and again but no big problems.

I went on vacation and my husband and a housesitter watched the tank. Since I got back, I have pretty much lost all my tank stock, but it's wierd. The fish are looking exceptionally odd when they die. Basically, they look like holes are blown out the sides of their bellies, as if something ate it's way in or it's way out. If they don't have actual holes, they have big dark spots on their bellies just under the scales, almost like a bruise. The fish will hide for a few days, get pale, then die. I have lost all my neons, platys, all but one molly, my algae eaters (2), and several guppies. All that are left are my die-hard barbs and several of my guppies, although the 2 oldest are gasping at the surface and very pale.

When I got home from vacation, I checked my parameters and the nitrates were 80 and the ph was too high at 8. I vac'd the gravel and changed abt 25% of the water, replacing it with my own well water. Well the ph was 8+ after I changed it! I couldn't figure it out. Then I checked my well water. The ph of my well is 8 which is just too high (this is very new, but we have a drought which has affected wells in general). So I went out and bought bottled "organic" spring water (ph 6.5) and distilled also. Changed out 5 gallons with the bottled stuff after warming it up (I soaked the bottles in a hot water bath first). The next day I changed out another 4 bottles of distilled but no gravel vac'ing. Oh! one other thing too was when i got home, the water smelled bad, and it NEVER smells bad.

Right now, my ammonia is just a trace, nitrates down to 30, nitrite 0, ph abt 7.4 or 7.5, carbonate is SUPER high, 240. Hardness abt 120.

No ammonia burn on any of the dead fish, but on 2 of the newer guppies (now dead) there was a white coating on parts of their bodies (on their backs) right before they died.

Here are my theories. First, hubby didn't use the air conditioning and the house was really hot when I came home. Could it have gotten too hot for them? When I got home the water temp was 86 and usually it never gets above 80-82. Maybe they were overfed and the extra food changed the nitrate levels and weakened the fish? Would the ph of 8 in the tap water kill them? Do they have ich? (I've never had it before).

I think that maybe the water conditions caused them to get stressed and maybe ich came from the newer guppies. But would ich cause holes in their sides?

I could use whatever thoughts or advice you have. Since doing the water changes my remaining fish for the most part look ok but it seems every morning I have another dead fish *frown.


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## dave in Iliamna

I don't know what is going on but it doesn't sound like ich. Ich looks like little white spots. Almost like grains of salt or sugar. 
The only time I have ever seen a hole in a fishes side it was from an infection that formed an absess. when the absess burst there was a hole left. But again I an not sure that that is what happened because you didn't mention any bumps on your fish. 
Could one of the fish be eating holes in the dead fish? 

You said the tank smelled? What did it smell like and did the smell go away with the water changes?


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## Niki7

Hi Dave...nope, no bumps on the fish. The water smelled like swamp water I guess you could say. Like high-in-nitrogen swampy smell, and a little fishy which could have been a dead fish polluting the water and I didn;t find it for awhile. Just gross! And yes the smell has gotten much better as I have done the water changes. 

It could be that the others are eating holes in them, but the ones with holes had bloody looking edges, like it "burst" when the fish was alive. The fish that (to me) look like they've been eaten after death, the edges are not bloody but white (same color as the dead fish). Not sure if this makes a lot of sense!

I just wasnt sure if this sounded like some type of parasite. What about overfeeding? Could they have overeaten and burst when the food swelled up after eating? Maybe they had some type of bacterial abcess? But to lose so many so fast, something really odd must have happened.

Thanks for your response.


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## WhiteGloveAquatics

the smell of soggy decomp.

Ive had some die and after a few hours they get holes in them but thats usually from a scavenger or snail.


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## i4yue

a wierd thing that could have happened that has happened in my friends tank was that the algae eater(pleco) or any other sucking algae eater is that they could have ran out of food somehow and decide to eat the fish. 

what happened in his tank was that he got a tank but has a 10hr a day work schedule and only fed his fishes once a day for a while without dropping in the algae disks. he later found out that his fishes were dying one by one and then finally his algae eater died when the water got to polluted. what he would do at nite is just latch onto a fish and just suck the guts out of them.


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