Need help with diagnosis...

[pacifictide]

Hi. Thanks for looking! I'm hoping someone can help me figure out what's wrong with my fish and hopefully offer some advice on how to treat them!

About 10 days ago, I purchased a Dojo loach and 2 Angels from a LFS. The Dojo was not looking very good from the very beginning, sulked around, laid on his side a lot, didn't eat much (if at all) and finally died after about 2 days. The angels seemed to be doing great though. Yesterday, I found a Rummy Nose caught in the filter intake (which I thought was strange) who died about an hour after I got him loose. Today, I noticed a rummy nose that is not schooling, having trouble swimming, breathing very fast, and his back/middle section is discoloured (off-white instead of silver). Upon closer inspection, quite a few of my Rummy Nose have a strange streaked discolouration in varying degrees on different areas of their bodies. Last but not least, I found one white spot on the front fin of one of the Angels but he is acting normally otherwise. Based on the white spot I am wondering if it could be Ick but I'm not sure what's up with the Tetras as they definitely don't have "spots"...

Please help!

[effox]

We'll need your water parameters. When my fish got Ick, it started with a single white spot on the tail as well. It could be multiple issues at once based on what your said.

Cheeas,
Chris

[pacifictide]

We'll need your water parameters. When my fish got Ick, it started with a single white spot on the tail as well. It could be multiple issues at once based on what your said.

Cheeas,
Chris

Ok thanks Chris. Here are the water parameters:

Temp: 78
PH: 8
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 40ppm

I do regular 50% water changes once a week. 2 weeks is the longest I've ever left it. I'm actually surprised the Nitrates are so high as the last water change was exactly a week ago. The LFS also tested my water 2 days ago when I returned the loach and they said it was good. Anyway, I'm guessing that the high Nitrates must be due to increasing the fish load recently and possible over-feeding by my child. I'll definitely do a water change right away. Could this explain the rummy nose symptoms? All the other fish seem fine.

As for the suspected Ick, should I wait to see if it spreads (to confirm that the diagnosis is correct) or treat it right away? What is the best product to use?

[BelieveInBlue]

How big is this tank? 40ppm nitrates isn't high; it's tolerable for most fish. My guess would be that whatever you have came on the fish you bought, as you didn't quarentine before adding them to the tank, or you didn't QT properly. White discolouration could be some kind of bacterial infection, or perhaps an ulcer; it could be NTD, but true NTD takes a long time to take affect, and is viral, so it's not likely, though it may be false NTD. Are the white patches fuzzy? Or are they sunken in/showing redish colouration in the middle?

a couple pictures would help the diagnosis, since it would help eliminate a few possibilities.

[Rastapus]

Sounds like Columnaris to me. It is sometimes termed false neon tetra disease. It is an aggressive bacterial infection that can unfortunately wipe out an aquarium rather quickly but will not necessarily affect every fish the same way.
It can be treated with several different antibacterial options but unfortunately tends to be very resistant to treatment these days. It is most common on Tetras and Livebearers such as Guppies and Platys. It could have been introduced by the loach, being scaleless they are more susceptible to that sort of infection.

[Rastapus]

Just one other point, Columnaris is probably the most common and challenging bacterial infection arriving on fish now. It is one of the main causes of Guppy mortality and has led to the newest permit needs from CFIA. Because of this bacteria mainly, CFIA now requires import permits to import Guppies among other species into Canada. Good times, like dealing with livestock was not hard enough already.

[Luke78]

Nitrate 40ppm? thats too high for a freshwater community setup.Two reasons you mentioned already, could be the cause of this.Continue with the water changes you do, and ease up on the feeding until the numbers drop down.Skipping a day or two during the week is fine with your stock,unless you have other intentions with them(breeding,moving them around,raising fry etc).High nitrates have huge effects on livestock(digestive track,lack of oxygen).

[pacifictide]

Wow. Haven't logged on in quite a while and I guess I don't get notifications for new posts so just saw the most "recent" comments now. Thanks everyone for your input and Rastapus, I think you were right. I quarantined all of the sick fish and lost a total of 6 of 12 Rummy Nose Tetras. The rest were either not affected or recovered. That was over a year ago and they are doing just great now. Haven't lost any fish since.