2 of my fish have died because of fungus mouth, I need help?

Question

I want to keep my sand in the tank, but i don't know how i can constantly clean it. My honey took me about underfloor filter or something like that. But then i'll have to lose my sand. I built to rock shire and i have a big castle ordiment and those big pearl getting clam shell. I also have plants. I new at this hobby of fish. But i want pretty fishies. They all swim in a 55gal tank. I now only have a mature male electric blue, kid mayan cichlid, kid acei, baby acei, mature electric yellow, two inmature sunshine peacock, inmature jack dempsey and jewel, 2 small southamerican bumble bee catfishs, a medium pleco, two ivory snails, 2 stripped rachael catfishs, and that is it. It now being run by a fluvo filter, for i think 60 gal and now i just bought a whisper filter for 30-60gal.

help i want the fish to live but i want the sand too to be in there. what can i do to keep both?

who has had cichlid with sand before tell me?

before the fishes die, they look like monkeys. From the mouth towards their round eye, a look like skins been peeling away.

Answer 1

Sounds like you actually have several problems going on here.

First the tank is over stocked. I would suggest you remove the Jack dempsey, the jewel the pleco and the bumble bee and rapheal cats. Even then you will be way over stovked as the fish grow to adult size and will have to thin out the fish more in the near future. Your fish are aggressive and need space.

The sand should be fine as long as you keep it clean. Vacuuming it is a hassle, but you only want to remove the stuff from the surface, not down into the sand. With practice you'll get the hang of it. Poking the salt all over the tank witha slender rod of some sort to be sure there are no bacteria pockets is a good idea as well, in fact pretty much required of a sand substrate.

You mention mouth fungus as well. This may be fungus or could very well be a columnaris infection. They look very similar but you treat them in totally different ways. The best way to tell them apart is that columnaris always grows in a very round circular spot while fungus rarely does. Columnaris is also pearly or opalescent white while fungus is a flatter, grayish white.

Columnaris: it can occur anywhere on the fishes body but usually starts around the mouth and gills of the fish. There have been documented lab cases of it being a systemic, or body wide infection. It's not real easy to treat as it only responds well to a very limited number of antibiotics. The best treatment for columnaris is Furanace. It is the only known antibiotic that will treat both the surface and internal parts of the infection and the only one that will treat it if it becomes systemic. Other treatments are usually very harsh and include copper sulfate, potassium permanganate and Oxolinix acid. Treat with Furanace for 2 weeks to be sure you are rid of the disease.

Fungus - Hopefully this is what you have and odds are good it is. Fungus is easy to treat and responds well to common Malachite green ick medications. There are several fungus medications that also contain Malachite Green and work very well. Treat until you have seen no signs of the disease for 5 days.

No need to use extra salt or heat for either of these problems if you are treating with the above mentioned medications.

Hope this helps

MM

Answer 2

Use less sand.

I used to have goldfish and I did not use any sand at all in their 10 and 30 gallon acquariums.

Your fish sound beautiful -- next time one of them gets fungus, isolate it in another tank setup (small, about 5 gallons, with seasoned water, and filtration) and medicate using the proper medication, with a dosage a little less than the recommended one ( alittle less, becuz the full dosage CAN kill, and sadly I saw that happen once to two beautiful little fish of mine)

Answer 3

If you have a fungal infection in the tank, there isn't a lot you can do. I would turn the heat up and put the maximum amount of aquarium salt in the tank that you can (according to the directions). Be SURE to dissolve the salt in water before you add it to the tank. Aquarium salt is cheap, and usually more effective than the fancy "cures" you can buy at the pet store. You'll get the salt out of the water gradually as you do water changes. **Do not put any more new fish in the tank**

**If all your fish die** You'll need to disinfect the whole tank to get the infection out before you can put more in. Take all the toys out, and disinfect with bleach and hot water. Rinse well and soak in a water and de-chlorinator solution to get the bleach off of them. Clean the tank with bleach as well, then water and de-chlorinator. If you want to keep the sand, you'll need to boil it to dis-infect it. Make sure you are using pure chlorine bleach without scents or additives.

When you set the tank back up, be sure to cycle it with ammonia before you put more fish in. There are detailed instructions on how to do that on many aquarium websites. You will need some water test kits to do it.

To prevent this in the future, you'll need to have a quarantine tank for any new fish, so you can make sure they aren't sick before you put them in your tank. Unfortunately, it's hard to find healthy fish at most pet stores. You need to inspect the thanks carefully, and if there are signs of disease in any of the tanks, don't buy the fish. Your best bet is to find another hobbyist who breeds and buy fish from them. The fish the petstore sells are stressed, flown in in big bags from breeders who many times breed the fish in the wrong Ph for their type. All of this skews them to disease.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Hello..you need a fish pet store, one that deals primarily or only in fish to help you..you must also take some tank water with you for testing .. even the sick fish if you can..when you notice sick fish, you have to have a back up, hospital tank to put them in as well & ASAP..otherwise diesease & illness can affect the whole tank, or just treat the whole tank, whatever the expert fish person advises..that's what you do..Take Care :)