Freshwater Fish: HELP! All dying! cloudy eye, deterioration on nose, lots of white patches. red around fins?

Question

I had a tank with several bala sharks, catfish, kissing Gouriami. One bala shark had a white cloud like thing over one eye. Then there were white patches on skin (I don't think its ich because they are not small salt-like grains). Also, where the fins connect to the body it is red. 5 bala sharks have died and the 2 catfish are about too. I have done a water change, added salt, and Melafix. The catfish's whiskers are also falling off. On one of the bala sharks and now one of the catfish, it looks like the front part of their nose is deteriorating.Also, on the bala sharks, it looked like there was a whitish-clear film over the gills and the gills were mostly covered in it. Please help, as they do not seem to be getting better. I am looking for possible causes, treatments, and a diagnosis. So far I have thought it might be ich, bacteria, etc. Nothing seems to fit!

I have 2 filters running and it is a 120 gallon tank. Also, there was a rotten egg-like smell.

Answer 1

The rotten egg smell is hydrogen sulfide, did you switch off your filter for more then 8 hours? Then restart it without cleaning? Or maybe your pump to your filter has stop working thereby casuing the filter to host anaerobic bacteria.

Hydrogen sulfide is toxic to fishes and the only remedy is to change 90~100% of the water. If there is hydrogen sulfide in your filter, it's possible your nitrifying bacteria is dead and you need clean the filter throughly and proceed with a new cycle.

No matter what, the condition of your water is bad. Start immediately with and 70~80% change if you still have doubt. Hopefully with the water change, it'll buy your fish some time and hopefully those that are not too badly effected can recover. After that you can slowly figure out the problem.

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Answer 2

This sounds like a couple of issues.

First, I'd agree that water quality sounds as though it's at least a component in several problems, so I'll address that first. What size are the filters you're running on the tank? For a 120, you'd want their combined GPH (gallons per hour) rating to be 600-1200 (5-10x the tank volume). When you do water changes, you should be doing 25% on a weekly basis, using a gravel vacuum to clean out any wastes that are accumulating in the gravel - if these aren't removed, they decompose and degrade your water quality.

Do you test the water in the tank? It would be helpful to know the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH levels. Especially if this tank is less than 2 months old, It may still be cycling (developing the bacteria that convert the toxic components of your fishes' wates to less harmful compounds). If the ammonia or nitrite are above 1 or the nitrate is above 50, they may kill your fish (some species are more tolerant than others, but these are good levels to indicate a water change is needed). Even if they don't directly cause a problem, higher levels can stress your fish, and lead to slow immune response, so they are susceptible to other infections.

The redness where the find connect to the body can be a sign of ammonia poisoning, or it can be a bacterial infection (septicemia).

The white patches on the skin could be a body "fungus" (saprolegniasis) or a bacterial infection if these appear "fuzzy". The "fungus" will have an irregular outline and the filaments will be longer and straight (you'll be able to see each filament individually for most of its length, as in this photo: http://www.uib.no/bot/kurs/BB220/Algae/Figures/fish.jpg Columnaris will have an almost perfectly circular outline, but the filaments are shorter and matted: http://www.fishjunkies.com/images/Columnaris2.jpg

If the patches aren't fuzzy, but more "slimey", this may be an overproduction of body slime due to a parasite. Do your fish appear to be "scraping" against objects in the tank (including the gravel)? This may also indicate parasites.

As far as the catfish whiskers, are these bottom feeding catfish, such as corydoras (corys)? Are you keeping them on gravel or sand? They use their whiskers to find food in the substrate, so if they have to dig down into gravel, these can wear down - sand is a better choice for them. The whiskers may also be being bitten by other fish.

The "cloud" over the bala shark's eye could be another bacterial infection if the cloudiness is uniform, either by a fungus or a bacterium. If it's more "speckled", it may be eye flukes.

The nose on the bala is probably being worn physically. These fish like a lot of swimming room, and don't seem to understand the concept of glass. It may be going to a panel or corner and swimming against the glass and wearing down the skin - this can lead to an open sore that can get a secondary infection.

Mucus over the gills would indicate the presence of some type of irritant (chemical or parasite).

The rotten egg smell is usually the product of anaerobic (without oxygen) areas in the tank. As noted in another answer, this can happen if you have a canister filter and turn it off, or it can be if you have a deep gravel/sand bed without adequate water flow through it. It's also noticable in some aquarium products - to me, Amquel give off the same odor, so I would check your water conditioner as well.

It seems ich is about the one common problem you can eliminate.

For more on the other conditions, see the info I'll post below:

Answer 3

Look in the tank..uproot any decorations and look around for a dead fish that is spoiling your water. If anything, change out your filter material and do a gravel clean to make sure you get more of the stuff out. Are you using a heater?
hope this helps. also, check your filters and make sure they are running properly

Answer 4

sounds like you have not been maintaining your tank and this is the result since issues like this one take a while to develop. do a 50% water change and improve on your filtration. 120 gallons needs a little more than 2 filters, sump may work better. also if you have not maintained your filters the flow is reduced causing these issues to intensify.