HELP! is my tropical tank diseased or something?
October 4, 2008 by admin
Filed under Questions and Answers
heARTist asked:
I have (or i should say i HAD) 5 danios and 3 platies in my tropical tank. I feed them everyday, but you know, i dont like COUNT my fish to make sure they’re all still there.. but today i noticed that one of my platies (the red and black one.. VERY DISTINCT to me, as i only had ONE red and black fish) was missing. I figured he was sleeping in the rocks or behind my little ceramic statue thing, but when i started vaccuuming out my tank, i found his dead little body just sitting on the bottom. The weird part was.. he was completely WHITE. Like there was no color in him at ALL. and he had no eyes. I’m assuming the other fish pecked out his eyes after he died, but with the color thing kind of has me freaking out. It’s not like Ick where it’s a white COATING.. it’s like all his color just drained out. Is this just because maybe he was dead for a few days in my tank and he kind of rotted? Or does it sound like a disease?
none of the other fish seem to be ill.. no signs of flopsy or popeye or ick or anything… Rufio (the dead fish in question) is the only one that has died or is sick.
well i was thinking it was probably logical that the missing fish eyes thing was because of the fish pecking at the dead one AFTER it died. And if it was TB or ANY bacterial disease, wouldnt ALL the fish have it? And this might sound horribly stupid, but is it the same TB that people get? IF it is TB, could someone who touched the fish water get it?
also, there were no ulcers on the fish OR on any of the live ones. And the filter is AMAZING on my fish tank.. and i keep it realllly clean and make sure all the ammonia/ph/nitrate/nitrite levels are good.
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I have (or i should say i HAD) 5 danios and 3 platies in my tropical tank. I feed them everyday, but you know, i dont like COUNT my fish to make sure they’re all still there.. but today i noticed that one of my platies (the red and black one.. VERY DISTINCT to me, as i only had ONE red and black fish) was missing. I figured he was sleeping in the rocks or behind my little ceramic statue thing, but when i started vaccuuming out my tank, i found his dead little body just sitting on the bottom. The weird part was.. he was completely WHITE. Like there was no color in him at ALL. and he had no eyes. I’m assuming the other fish pecked out his eyes after he died, but with the color thing kind of has me freaking out. It’s not like Ick where it’s a white COATING.. it’s like all his color just drained out. Is this just because maybe he was dead for a few days in my tank and he kind of rotted? Or does it sound like a disease?
none of the other fish seem to be ill.. no signs of flopsy or popeye or ick or anything… Rufio (the dead fish in question) is the only one that has died or is sick.
well i was thinking it was probably logical that the missing fish eyes thing was because of the fish pecking at the dead one AFTER it died. And if it was TB or ANY bacterial disease, wouldnt ALL the fish have it? And this might sound horribly stupid, but is it the same TB that people get? IF it is TB, could someone who touched the fish water get it?
also, there were no ulcers on the fish OR on any of the live ones. And the filter is AMAZING on my fish tank.. and i keep it realllly clean and make sure all the ammonia/ph/nitrate/nitrite levels are good.
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Mokey41 on Mon, 6th Oct 2008 5:55 am
Most fish turn white when they die after a bit. He was probably dead for a day or so before you found him.
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vedder918792002 on Wed, 8th Oct 2008 6:20 am
It wasn’t very long ago I had a nasty Ich outbreak in my fishtank, which spurred me in buying a little reference book for fish, fish compatibility, and diseases. Though to me it kind of sounds like your fish were decomposing your dead fish, I did come across something interesting.
Tuberculosis
Symptons: Fin deterioration, a paling of body color, clamped fins, excessive weight loss, ulcers and pop-eye
Cause: a highly conagious bacterial disease caused by poor infiltration or overcrowding.
treatment: at this time there is no known effective treatment for TB, and in our opinion it is not worth risking your own health, or the health of your family to try to treat the infected fish. Use strict care when handling the infected fish. Do not leave the TB infected fish int he aquarium, because the tank mates will likely eat it and become infected themself.
Other diseases in the book described white, colored patches, similar to ich, but this was the only disease that described your particular symptoms. You may want to do the usual PH, ammonia, nitrate-nitrite checks just to ensure it wasn’t something silly. Good Luck with your tank!