Jump to content

Rasbora white spots? Mass die off. Treating KanaPlex.


Ric
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hello everyone, 

I am seeking any advice pertaining to a massive Rasbora die off in my 29Gal tank.

My water parameters are: 76.5 degrees F, 0 ppm ammonia, PH: 7.4-7.8,  0 Nitrite, and 10ppm Nitrate. 

Food once a day:

Sera San nature color flakes, live black worms (for the baddis),

Some additive foods every other day (pick one):  baby brine shrimp, blood worms and frozen brine shrimp 

I dose my tank with Seachem Florish Excel (1cap/day) and Seachem Florish (1 cap/ week).


Symptoms: 

-white fins (different for each fish some dorsal some one side some tail etc.) 

-white spots on the sides of body

-eyes popping off on the dead fish

-isolation, and occasional belly up, then they flip back to normal and continue swimming

-flicking against leaves, wood and walls

Back story: About 3 weeks ago I was at a boring point with my tank.  Went to the store and wanted to change things up a bit, guy at the store suggested 3 pea puffers and 3 scarlet badis... for a community tank (horrible idea in hindsight) I added the fish to my heavily planted tank comprised of (a lot of guppies 20+, 5 juli corys, 3 brocci corys, 15 harlequins, 13 neon tetras, 4 otosinclus cats, 5 amano shrimp, and 2 nitrite snails, and a lot of pest snails) the idea was to have the pea puffers and baddis feed on the pest snails, and help keep the guppies under control. 
 

Everything seemed great for the next week. Then I went on a 6 day vacation. Came home to 5 dead Rasboras all with bite wounds, and 1 dead guppy. The Rasboras that remained seemed very stressed, some bite wounds and fin rot, and white patches... I immediately did a 90% water change, returned the pea puffers in exchange for 3 more harlequins (13 total now) then did a 50% water change the following day.  
 

Went to work the 3rd day from being home and after work found 2 more dead Rasboras (not the new ones). Did a massive internet search to find that it could be bacteria Columnaris. Went to the local fish store to ask their suggestion; they recommended seachem kanaplex treatment + mixing it into the frozen brine shrimp food. 
 

In all 9 fish have died... 8 harlequins and 1 guppy (likely from birth while on vacation).

The seachem kanaplex treatment says to stop after 3 treatments...the third treatment was 24hrs ago...so now I don't know wether or not to do a water change or to keep the treatment going...?  Last night I finally got some aquarium salt to supplement the treatment but came home to another dead one today. 
 
I am down to 5 harlequins and 3 of which have white spots still...


Will all my fish die from this? Am I treating properly? 

Also, will the aquarium salt kill off my plants?

Im stressed, my fish are stressed, if someone could help that would be great. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to hear about your losses. It sounds like the fish got hungry and aggressive while you were gone, and those injuries and stress led to infections. That and/or the new fish brought some disease with them. Silly fish store owner recommending puffers!

I agree that it might be best to try ich-x or something that would help with fungus or parasites. I don’t see any white spots in the pictures, but white spots sound like they could be ich.

I also wonder if your tank is maybe overstocked? It sounds like you keep everything nice and clean, but if the fish are stressed that can weaken their immune systems as well. It isn’t something you need to change necessarily, it just means you have a more fragile system.

In terms of salt harming your plants, it really depends on the plants. The water sprite in my quarantine tank has survived salt up to 2 Tbsp per 5 gallons.

Keep us updated! Rooting for your rasboras!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...