How to disinfect tank that has a lot of live plants that I dont want to get rid of

[Keeg]

I have a tank that two fish have died in. I did not think the disease was contagious until I added the second fish in it a couple weeks later, only for it to have the same fate so now I am uneasy about adding another fish until it is properly disinfected. After the second fish died, I removed the water, not really cleaning the gravel. Then filled it back up, it has now been around three weeks with the same water and with no fish. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Also if there is a natural way without medication, that would be even better!

Thanks

[Beau Burkhalter]

How did it die? What was the disease?

[Keeg]

On 6/17/2022 at 8:08 PM, Beau Burkhalter said:

How did it die? What was the disease?

im fairly certain betta tuberculosis, both died within 2 days of showing symptoms 

 

[Brandon p]

Did you quarantine your fish first. I doubt that it was tb. Tb take a long time to kill fish. If you put a fish in two weeks later and it died soon after it most likely not TB. The tank would need to be cleaned with bleach or hydrogen peroxide. The plants are probably a lost. 

[Keeg]

On 6/17/2022 at 10:54 PM, Brandon p said:

Did you quarantine your fish first. I doubt that it was tb. Tb take a long time to kill fish. If you put a fish in two weeks later and it died soon after it most likely not TB. The tank would need to be cleaned with bleach or hydrogen peroxide. The plants are probably a lost. 

Both fish had been quarantined before hand, the second fish was just from a different tank that I thought would enjoy this one more. Im not completely certain that it was TB but both had fuzzy growths on their pelvic fins, grey spots (appeared an hour before each died), pine coning, and both died in a constricted shape of their body curled and their head pushed up. All this happened with 3 days for each fish 

[Torrey]

On 6/17/2022 at 7:55 PM, Keeg said:

I have a tank that two fish have died in. I did not think the disease was contagious until I added the second fish in it a couple weeks later, only for it to have the same fate so now I am uneasy about adding another fish until it is properly disinfected. After the second fish died, I removed the water, not really cleaning the gravel. Then filled it back up, it has now been around three weeks with the same water and with no fish. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Also if there is a natural way without medication, that would be even better!

Thanks

If there are no fish in the tank, and no animals you are interested in keeping, I think this would be an ideal opportunity to test whether the Reverse Respiration research Guppysnail and dasaltemelosguy have been working on could be utilized on an entire tank (it will kill all pests, snails, eggs, algae, fish, shrimp, etc)

 

[Brandon p]

@Keeg i still don’t think it’s tb since TB takes months and the second fish would have had it in that tank as well. I think it’s a fugal issue. After thinking about it a little more it really depends on the amount of work you want to do. You can treat the tank with an anti fungal, probably the easiest and saves the plants. You can totally disinfect the tank like suggested before. And just leave the plants. If you still think it’s tb I would treat the plants with potassium permanganate :

add potassium permanganate into the water until the color of the water changes to dark pink. And then you have to soak the live aquarium plants into the solution for about 10-15 minutes.

After 10-15 minutes pull out the plants and rinse the plants well in dechlorinated water.

If I missed anything feel free to ask. 
 

As for the Reverse Respiration it will not kill ”all” pests, snails, eggs, algae, fish, shrimp, etc. I think there finding are being misrepresented and if you ask the writers of the papers they will say the same. 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Brandon p

[Keeg]

On 6/18/2022 at 8:33 PM, Brandon p said:

@Keeg i still don’t think it’s tb since TB takes months and the second fish would have had it in that tank as well. I think it’s a fugal issue. After thinking about it a little more it really depends on the amount of work you want to do. You can treat the tank with an anti fungal, probably the easiest and saves the plants. You can totally disinfect the tank like suggested before. And just leave the plants. If you still think it’s tb I would treat the plants with potassium permanganate :

add potassium permanganate into the water until the color of the water changes to dark pink. And then you have to soak the live aquarium plants into the solution for about 10-15 minutes.

After 10-15 minutes pull out the plants and rinse the plants well in dechlorinated water.

If I missed anything feel free to ask. 
 

As for the Reverse Respiration it will not kill all pests, snails, eggs, algae, fish, shrimp, etc. I think there finding are being misrepresented and if you ask the writers of the papers they will say the same. 

Thank you so much for the help. I have pima fix on hand, would this work or should I go out and get a different antifungal medication? and if so, any recommendations? 

 

[Colu]

Pimafix is just a herbal treatment is acts like a mild antiseptic treatment so  it wont do anything if it was fish TB your only option would be to bin everything and get rid of the tank as well its very contagious and spread thought water or cuts so don't put your hands in the tank as we don't no for sure what is was what I would do is add a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution to the tank leave the filters runs after a couple of days the hydrogen peroxide solution will break down into H20 and oxygen and repeat the in one week I wouldn't add any fish back into that tank to for at least 6 weeks as most pathogens and parasites won't survive without a host for longer than 30 days and you could also run a UV steriliser In between treating with hydrogen peroxide as UV break's the DNA chains of viruses and bacteria to stop them from reproducing @Keeg

Edited June 19, 2022 by Colu

[Brandon p]

On 6/19/2022 at 8:55 AM, Colu said:

Pimafix is just a herbal treatment is acts like a mild antiseptic treatment so  it wont do anything if it was fish TB your only option would be to bin everything and get rid of the tank as well its very contagious and spread thought water or cuts so don't put your hands in the tank as we don't no for sure what is was what I would do is add a 10% hydrogen peroxide solution to the tank leave the filters runs after a couple of days the hydrogen peroxide solution will break down into H20 and oxygen and repeat the in one week I wouldn't add any fish back into that tank to for at least 6 weeks as most pathogens and parasites won't survive without a host for longer than 30 days and you could also run a UV steriliser In between treating with hydrogen peroxide as UV break's the DNA chains of viruses and bacteria to stop them from reproducing @Keeg

@Colu do you think it was tb. The one fish dead days after being put in the tank. 

[Colu]

On 6/19/2022 at 5:23 PM, Brandon p said:

@Colu do you think it was tb. The one fish dead days after being put in the tank. 

It's difficult to no for sure it could mycobacterium or some other type of bacterial infections only way to not for sure is to take skin scraps and tissue cultures 

[Torrey]

@Keeg how long had your tank been set up with the original betta?

Sometimes, we get so focused on looking for nails because everyone has been talking about the newest hammer, we forget that not every problem is a nail.

I normally do a better job asking questions for clarification, I apologize for being preoccupied and not clarifying.

Here's something to consider, as well:

https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/how-to-avoid-old-tank-syndrome/ 

I don't 100% agree with everything in this article, I have seen people (Tazawa Tanks and Jimmy Gimbal have a video of a fish store, as well) with healthily, heavily planted aquariums see better results without massive water changes... or even many small water changes. Heavily planted with healthy plants is the key there.

[Keeg]

On 6/20/2022 at 1:37 AM, Torrey said:

@Keeg how long had your tank been set up with the original betta?

Sometimes, we get so focused on looking for nails because everyone has been talking about the newest hammer, we forget that not every problem is a nail.

I normally do a better job asking questions for clarification, I apologize for being preoccupied and not clarifying.

Here's something to consider, as well:

https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/how-to-avoid-old-tank-syndrome/ 

I don't 100% agree with everything in this article, I have seen people (Tazawa Tanks and Jimmy Gimbal have a video of a fish store, as well) with healthily, heavily planted aquariums see better results without massive water changes... or even many small water changes. Heavily planted with healthy plants is the key there.

around a year and a half, betta was completely fine before I left for vacation for a week while I had a family member take care of the tanks. When I got back, one of his pelvic fins was missing a piece and there was a fuzzy part attached to the end of it. I treated it with some mild anti bacterial/fungus meds and it went away for a few days until he all of a sudden took a turn for the worse and died a few days after that. Both fish were considerably old but healthy beforehand. 

[lefty o]

On 6/21/2022 at 2:50 PM, Keeg said:

around a year and a half, betta was completely fine before I left for vacation for a week while I had a family member take care of the tanks. When I got back, one of his pelvic fins was missing a piece and there was a fuzzy part attached to the end of it. I treated it with some mild anti bacterial/fungus meds and it went away for a few days until he all of a sudden took a turn for the worse and died a few days after that. Both fish were considerably old but healthy beforehand. 

im no kind of disease expert, but that would lead to to believe a bacterial, or fungus vs TB.