How do I have such bad luck with fish???

Moved a few ottos into my 10gal that is holding my A. Baenchi, and the 20L that I just put the best looking of the males from the 10 couple of days ago, and guess what? ICH!! GAH!!!

make it even worse, I saw tonite that the male that I moved to the 20L was not doing good... very labored breathing, and 3 white spots on its head... not salt-looking like ich, but more like external fungus type stuff... so I start a heavy water change on his tank and ACCIDENTALLY SUCK HIM INTO MY PYTHON! ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?!?!?! Shredded him bad... was dead by the time I got him out. GAH!! just the next episode in a long saga of bad fish luck.

Now all I can do is hope that I can beat out the ich and not loose any of the potential sneaker males i have...*sigh* What does it take to be successful in this hobby? And why is it that the tank I purposely neglect is the one that is doing well????

JasonC said:

And why is it that the tank I purposely neglect is the one that is doing well????

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Sometimes the tank you just throw food into is the one that does the best (as long as its not overstocked). I had a Malawi tank set up once that I never changed the water on, and never cleaned. I only rinsed of the filter cartridge once every month or two. One of those Malawis lived seven years.

Sorry to hear about the sushi though. Had that happen to me once as well.

Lessons learned:

1)Check and match the temperature of the water between the tank you have the fish and the tank you plan to move the fish to. This will minimize the ich issue. I use copper sulfate solution at 0.2 ppm for all external parasitic infection for cichlids. Do not use it with scaleless fish like loaches, eels, elephant noses, knifefish, etc.

2)Pimafix is great for any fungal infection even acute cases that can kill the entire tank in less than 12 hours. I learned this from lossing over 100 D. maculatus and 50 EBR. Also learned that my dehumidifier water is NOT good for fish since it causes fungus infection.

3) A screen for the python would keep fish shredding from happening again.

leisure_man said:

1)Check and match the temperature of the water between the tank you have the fish and the tank you plan to move the fish to. This will minimize the ich issue.

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Yeah.. good call.. probably going to have to be much more careful re: this.

leisure_man said:

2)Pimafix is great for any fungal infection even acute cases that can kill the entire tank in less than 12 hours. I learned this from lossing over 100 D. maculatus and 50 EBR. Also learned that my dehumidifier water is NOT good for fish since it causes fungus infection.

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This is actually what I was getting ready to use on that tank. From past sick fish episodes, I have learned that a heavy water change will always help, and should always be step one. The bottle of Pimafix was my med of choice that I never got to use.

Very frustrating... this hobby definitely teaches you that cutting corners *does not* work. blah.

Also learned that my dehumidifier water is NOT good for fish since it causes fungus infection.

Can you please elaborate. Thanks

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Too bad Jason! Sorry!

The fish hobby definitely has its ups and downs. Try not to get too discouraged. I think the key to ich is to catch as early as you can and stick with your treatment program.

We've all had bad days. Sometimes, unfortunate things just happen, and often due to some level of carelessness on our part.

Heck, man... I once got distracted by my daugther doing a water change on one of my tanks. During the distraction, I failed to pay attention to the water temp being different coming out of the tap... MUCH cooler. It was a large water change too... 50%. Lost every fish in that tank, as they got sick, and died one by one, unable to recover from that boneheaded move on my part.

The fish? Discus. It was NOT a good day.

Don't be discouraged... take it as a lesson learned, even though it hurt to learn it.

-Rich

The Lady is without Guilt

JasonC said:

How do I have such bad luck with fish?

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Probably not a matter of luck, that would be too easy - almost always operator error. Fish are generally pretty tough and can withstand broad range of conditions, but do not respond well to sudden changes, e.g, sudden pH drops, radical temperature changes in either direction, ammonia spikes. Chronic or widespread problems are generally best addressed with extra filtration, and greater attention to water temperature, feeding and diet. Also makes a difference where you get your fish as lots of commercial stock is stressed on arrival and many stores don't exactly pamper their fish.

Dehumidifier water generally passes over copper coils that deposit copper into the water along with lots of dust, mold spores and other airborne particulates and aromatic compounds that are essentially collected from the air and accumulated in the condensate. By virtue of being very damp appliances and spore collectors, dehumidifiers are themselves often 'mold generators'. Us it for houseplants or wash your car with it - just don't drink it or put it in your fishtank.

Avatar said:

Dehumidifier water generally passes over copper coils that deposit copper into the water along with lots of dust, mold spores and other airborne particulates and aromatic compounds that are essentially collected from the air and accumulated in the condensate. By virtue of being very damp appliances and spore collectors, dehumidifiers are themselves often 'mold generators'. Us it for houseplants or wash your car with it - just don't drink it or put it in your fishtank.

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I once tested my dehumidifier water for ammonia. To my surprise, it tested positive.

What Sam writes makes sense, although I've not seen any test results that confirm that copper leaches off the coils or that dust or mold spores are deposited.

My bottom line is the same as Sam's. Don't use it in your tanks.

Thanks for the answer Sam. I heard about the potential copper contamination, but never heard of the mold and air contaminants problem. It makes sense!