Fishes are dying, do I need to re-scape my tank?

[gmrobert]

Hi Guys,

I need your advise on something.

My tetras are dying!!! I had 50 about 3 weeks ago suddenly they suddenly got white spots and Neon Tetra Disease (NTD). Now I'm left with 10 fishes and I foresee that the rest rest with die soon.

I have done all that I can do the treat the white spots and I understand that there is no cure for NTD.

So my question is do I need to re-scape my tank? I'm afraid that if I were to buy new fishes, they will suffer the same fate as the current ones.

What do I do? Hope to hear for you soon.

Cheers,

Gerard

[stormhawk]

If you can, just vacuum your substrate with a gravel vac and do a water change, after you're done with the white spot treatment. You do not have to re-scape the tank. Some batches of Neon Tetras (which I assume are the fish in question) will always come with Plistophora. The white spot happens if they are stressed from the beginning. Further details regarding your setup will be useful.

[gmrobert]

If you can, just vacuum your substrate with a gravel vac and do a water change, after you're done with the white spot treatment. You do not have to re-scape the tank. Some batches of Neon Tetras (which I assume are the fish in question) will always come with Plistophora. The white spot happens if they are stressed from the beginning. Further details regarding your setup will be useful.

What details do you need to know?

[stormhawk]

Age, substrate, water parameters etc.

[gmrobert]

Age, substrate, water parameters etc.

My aquaria is less than a year old and I'm using ADA substrate.

Not very sure on the water parameters. I know my ph is about 6.8, other then that I'm not sure.

[gmrobert]

Age, substrate, water parameters etc.

I just got a test kit. Here goes:
General hardness: about 20ppm (mg/L)
Carbonate hardness: looks like 0ppm (mg/L)
PH: about 6.5
No2 and No3: looks like very close to 0ppm

[stormhawk]

That's very soft water, should be perfect for tetras. How big is the tank?

[gmrobert]

That's very soft water, should be perfect for tetras. How big is the tank?

2 feet. Here is a photo.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1386718579.164794.jpg

[Kiang]

Wow..... Look nice!

Where do you still want to rescape?


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[Kiang]

Why do you*

Apologies for the typo mistakes.


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[gmrobert]

Wow..... Look nice!

Where do you still want to rescape?


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I was just asking if there is a need to rescape because my fishes died due to NTD.

[Kiang]

Oh. Apologies.

I will choose to run a tank without fishes for 1 month and increase the temp to about 30 degree. Let the remaining virus die on its own before adding new fishes.

Side note: Your landscape look very good.


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[stormhawk]

For a 2 ft tank that is just not enough for a school of 50 tetras unless you have excellent filtration. You should never introduce a lot of fish at once, but in stages, so that your biological filter has time to adapt to the increased bioload. Also, if you are using CO2 for this tank, please increase aeration at night as a precaution as often in some cases, the fish die from asphyxiation due to lack of oxygen.

[tetrakid]

Fish-keeping is a demanding undertaking. One must need to be 'married' to the task, performing caretaking routines religiously.

[Redember]

I have that problem too a few weeks back, nearly wiped out my stock of 30 cardinals+neon tetras. Took out bulk of my platy/swordtail stocks as well. I remedied them with the addition of aquarium salt + 5days of 24hrs UV steriliser lamp. The water flow through the UV was purposed slowed down via a Y tap to achieve 100% kill on all organisms plus weekly 50% water change & aquarium glass scrubdown. Couldn't do much gravel vacuuming as the tank is is quite densely planted.

[stormhawk]

You don't need to vacuum the gravel, just have to reduce the detritus that settles in and among the plants, especially on the leaves and the base of the plant. The use of the small air line attached to a firm stick will be very useful, or get a rigid plastic pipe of around 1cm in diameter attached to an appropriate hose to do the job. It's slower than normal siphoning but pretty easy once you get the hang of it.

[leecs]

Introducing big amount of fishes in one go has its risk. First, your tank must have the capacity to handle the bioload of all the fishes. Tetras might be small but their combined waste might be too much for your tanks filtration to handle. I guess you can introduce 20 each time, interspaced by a few weeks, to see if the tank holds up. I know the feeling of losing all the fish in a short time frame. It is usually due to bio overload. Your tank looks very nice. Sometimes, we want instant results but I think in fishkeeping, patience is very important.