Calling all Nerms.! Rainbow fish are rapidly dying please help!

[Jamo1444]

Hello All, 

Ill give some background then post my water parameters below, I’ll add pictures when I get off work if that’s helps.

 

So I had a 75 gallon peacock cichlid all male tank with some clown loaches. The tank has been up for half a decade. A few months ago I starting losing cichlids left and right I assumed it was aggression because they looked tore up or just hid in the corner and died. Note through all this the clown loaches were in perfect health.

 

After losing 12 of my 18 male peacocks I got rid of the rest and moved all my plants and school of rainbows into the 75that I have had in a 60 gallon planted tank for several years. I removed the aragonite and transferred the rainbows. That was Friday and yesterday and this morning I lost three rainbows and 6 more have white patches on the fins. It’s not ick more like fungal/bacterial 
 

The clown loaches are fine, fins look perfect. 
 

I have tested multiple times in the past few days with both liquid and test strips.

 

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nirate 10-20

ph 7.4

temp 78.5 degrees 

 

I worry that is was a disease that was killing the cichlids and not them killing each other 

 

is there a disease that would kill cichlids and rainbows but not affect clown loaches?

 

The tank is 75 gallons heavily planted with a fx6 for filtration. 

There is about a dozen rainbows

two Angelfish 

4 clown loaches

and A ton of kulhi loaches in there 

Thanks for you help!

[Colu]

White patches can be a sign of columnaris it's a gram negative bacteria that spreads more quickly at higher temperatures and depending on the strain can kill fish in 24hr to a couple of days with the rapid fish loss I would suspect a bacterial infection I would treat with kanaplex and Jungle fungus clear fizz tab's containing nitrofurazone following this treatment plan it's very effective against more severe bacterial infection such as columnaris @Jamo1444

Edited November 12, 2022 by Colu

[nabokovfan87]

Just a note, and I might be wrong but double check it please.

The loaches are going to want cooler temps (70-74) compared to where the tank it at.  This alone introduces stress on the fish.  Depending what species are in question, that could point towards the losses apart from any diseases.

You mentioned that you had removed aragonite and then done a few things and that is probably a pretty massive shift in water parameters.  The acclimation time it would take for the fish to adjust is also probably another contributing factor and the difference in PH (not sure what it was before/after) could also cause stress on certain species, especially something like the loaches.

Not all, but some/most loaches would prefer 6.0-7.0
Rainbowfish: 7.0-8.0 (some will do fine up to 9.0)
African Cichlid: 8.0+

 

[Colu]

On 11/12/2022 at 6:16 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Not all, but some/most loaches would prefer 6.0-7.0

Clown loach do well with pH from 6.5-7.5 and a temperature from 75-82F

[Jamo1444]

On 11/12/2022 at 1:16 AM, nabokovfan87 said:

Just a note, and I might be wrong but double check it please.

The loaches are going to want cooler temps (70-74) compared to where the tank it at.  This alone introduces stress on the fish.  Depending what species are in question, that could point towards the losses apart from any diseases.

You mentioned that you had removed aragonite and then done a few things and that is probably a pretty massive shift in water parameters.  The acclimation time it would take for the fish to adjust is also probably another contributing factor and the difference in PH (not sure what it was before/after) could also cause stress on certain species, especially something like the loaches.

Not all, but some/most loaches would prefer 6.0-7.0
Rainbowfish: 7.0-8.0 (some will do fine up to 9.0)
African Cichlid: 8.0+

 

That’s the confusing part, the clown loaches are fine and they’re the more sensitive fish historically. It is solely effecting the rainbows.