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Help!! Red Zebras

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:29 am
by Lucy
I did a water change at the weekend as usual & the zebs seemed fine then last night I noticed one out in the open & its body was red & ragged looking - the other 2 seemed fine. I treated with eSHa 2000 funguf,finrot & bacteria treatment. This morning that one is dead & one of the others looks red - the 3rd looks ok but is not hiding.
I keep 3 corrys with them 1 died 2 weeks ago but I could find no cause & the others are fine.

Any advice? Should I remove the 'healthy looking' one, or the sick one, I don't have a Q tank at present but could move some of my other fish around.

Water peramaters are as normal.

suggestions please.

Lucy <><

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 7:39 am
by Lucy
These from last night

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:03 pm
by Jo's Zebs
Interpet No 9 is a good treatment that could be a septicemia have you tested your water for high readings this is a good starting point, have you added any fish recently say in the last month, how long has your tank been running

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:32 pm
by Lucy
Hi Jo
Thanks for your reply!
The tanks been running over a year & the water perameters are as usual - the only high I've got is phosphate - but that's an ongoing battle with the levels in the tap water & is not significantly different to usual.
I've added no new fish (other than the baby endlers that are born in the tank).

I've done a small partial water change & added some charcoal to clear out an unwanted 'things' in the water that I cant test for - I'm not sure I should have but I had to DO something if you know what I mean.

The 2 remaining zebs are out in the open & both showing 'red' signs. The corrys & endlers are fine.

Should I try another treatment or leave them? What would cause septicemia - high readings of what?
The charcoal is in the external filter so easy to remove again. :cry:

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 1:58 pm
by Jo's Zebs
I would use No 9 it treats bactirial infections if all your other water parameters are good I am a little stumped is your filter working 100%

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:17 pm
by sam
I would be tempted to do a 50% water change
good luck

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:34 pm
by Andrew C
Lucy, sorry to hear about your zebs !
Not sure what could be happening, though i did invest in an RO Unit for my tap water as Neil from Pier Aquatics told me high phosphate readings are detrimental to a plecs health over the long term.
Though the RO Unit still hasn't helped me with random fry deaths.

In cases like this i would run some Underworld Polyfilter on the tank; http://www.aquatics-online.co.uk/catalo ... ilters.asp
"PolyFilter will remove excess nutrients, toxins and unwanted pollutants", it is much better than carbon.
Most aquatic stores have it, the only downside to it, is that is a bit expensive and you also need a spare internal filter for it.
To use it remove the media from a Fluval 2 internal, cut a bit of polyfilter to fit inside the chamber that held the sponges and just put it in the tank, it also dosen't leech anything back into the tank when it's used.

The Esha treatment you used is what i would also have tried, but i am not sure what you should do apart from daily 40% water changes for the next few days at least and keep the Esha treatment going, as from what i have read septicemia is a bacteria.
http://www.nippyfish.net/septicemia.html

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:27 am
by Lucy
Thank you all for your replys - the last zeb was dead this morning :cry:

I really don't know what killed them as the other fish seem fine - typical that it was my zebs it attacked - & it happened really quickly.

Lucy <><

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 2:00 pm
by Jo's Zebs
So sorry to hear this news gutted for you :( :(

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 3:38 pm
by Stevie.K
Sorry for your losses. :(

m

Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:12 pm
by civicr
sorry to hear about this lucy,

poor wee zebs,gutted for you

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:43 pm
by Lucy
I didn't think it could get any worse but it has.
It was bad enough losing one tank of fish - now it's 3 tanks - all to the same thing.

The only 'common factor' that I can think of is that I added some TetraAqua SafeStart to all these tanks when I last cleaned them (I usually do - it was not a 'new' thing) but I had not noticed that the bottle was 1 month out of date.

Even more gutting is that my more mature Zebs (Big Mumma, Midge & Titch) who were all dead this morning had laid eggs in the small cave. :cry:

The 3rd tank contained 14 corys that I had bred - 2 have survived.

I don't have words to describe how awful I feel but I do thank you all for your kind thoughts.

Lucy <><

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:28 pm
by Andrew C
Very sorry to hear about all your losses Lucy !

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:10 pm
by Jo's Zebs
So sorry Lucy its so sad.

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 11:45 pm
by NetsuaiAngel
*big hug to Lucy*

Oh! Darling, I'm so sorry =(

I hope you can save your two corys .

- Angela