Sick Parrots

[TopCat]

I am clueless. I have a 30g tank with 3 Parrots left in it. I had these guys for quite some time now and grew rather beautiful. For the past 3 months or so, they've been getting sick, what seems to be Ich. I treat them with Super Ich Cure and they get better but it keeps happening. I changed the water. I cleaned out the Fluval 305. My temperature is at 84 degrees. It's not doing much.

Can excessive algae be causing them to get sick?
When I put the carbon back into the Fluval, the fishes get sick too.

HELP!

 

[KathyC]

If you are treating for ich and they aren't getting better after this amount of time, it may not be ich.
Do you visually see ich on them, if so - can you post a clear pic?

Can you describe how they are acting? Are they eating? Are they sitting on the bottom of the tank? Are they near the top either their nose or tail pointing toward the surface?

Is your water clear or cloudy?

How many fish have you lost already?
Sorry for all of the questions, but they may provide a clue as to what is happening to your fish.

 

[TopCat]

Glad to say that I have not lost any. I will post the pic when I get home. They are laying on the bottom of the tank, near the Fluval filtration suction pipe. They do not eat much or any when they're sick.

My water is clear, but I do see a lot of algae growing on the pipes and decorative plants. I cleaned the pipes but the algae came back real fast.

My next plan is to take them out of the tank, pull out 2 buckets of water from the current tank. Clean out the tank, especially the gravels, then see how they react.

 

[KathyC]

Glad to say that I have not lost any. I will post the pic when I get home. They are laying on the bottom of the tank, near the Fluval filtration suction pipe. They do not eat much or any when they're sick.

My water is clear, but I do see a lot of algae growing on the pipes and decorative plants. I cleaned the pipes but the algae came back real fast.

My next plan is to take them out of the tank, pull out 2 buckets of water from the current tank. Clean out the tank, especially the gravels, then see how they react.

Bad plan If you do that, you will cause the tank to go through a cycle because you have removed too much of the bacteria in the tank, and in this case the new water could be a death sentence for fish already in delicate shape.

The algae issue could be partly due to your light bulbs - how old are they?

Do you usually keep up on water changes - if so, how often & how much?

Can you test the pH pf the tank currently & test the pH of your tap water and post those 2 figures here?

 

[TopCat]

I will just change out about 1/3 of the tank. I still have no carbon in the tank because I was treating the tank with the super ick cure. I'll probably replace everything inside the Fluval 305 with new stuff. I'm not sure how old are my light bulbs but pretty old for sure. I will go buy a new pH tester tomorrow and check the level.

The fishes rub themselves against the pipes right now. One of them have a cloudy eye right now. Please see pictures, not the greatest pics but hard to grab a detailed one with an old phone.

https://plus.google.com/photos/105527090612295286448/albums/5706207169458719361

 

[KathyC]

1 - don't do the water change and the filter cleaning within 4 days of each other (you don't want to kill off too much bacteria at once). Nor should you change all of the medcia in that filter at one time (same reason). one week you change the carbon, one week you change the sponges etc.

2- I don't suggest a water change until you have a kit to measure the pH. The easiest way to kill fish is by doing a water change with a pH swing that is too big! Check both your tap water and the water currently in the tank and please post back here.

3- in the pic the fish look pretty good, no shredded fins, scales look good. I would add carbon back to the filter (rinse well first) and stop treating with the the Super Ich Cure, if it has not worked by now, then your fish likely don't have ich and may have a bacterial issue instead.

Wait in the pH test for any changes other than step # 3 above.

 

[TopCat]

I will follow your guide and report back here after I have the information. Thank you so much for all the advise/help you've given me. Cheers!

 

[richardhmc]

I've had ich twice in my freshwater tanks. I used the salt treatment it really worked well.
It has something to do with raising the temp and adding salt for a period of time.

try going to aquariacentral.com or monsterfishkeepers.com - only freshwater on these sites
they have a sickness section thatll and ich should be stickied on there

 

[TopCat]

I changed 33% of water and put the carbon back in the Fluval. I dropped 3 pills to reduce the algae a bit. The pH level was at bright yellow (6.0 or lower) before the water change. It is still yellow right now (6.0 or lower), after the water change. I will let the system run overnight with the carbon in it and test the water again tomorrow. If the pH does not rise, i'll go buy the pH up thing i guess?


The tap water is 6.8 - 7.0


The fishes are eating and looking good right now.

 

[KathyC]

NO! You need to raise the ph S L O W L Y through water changes. If you can swing it - do a 10% change tomorrow again..then another 10% the next day..it has to be done slowly. I can't stress that strongly enough.

The products that rapidly change pH are awful for your fish and they also don't contain enough buffers and the pH is going to drop again. You don't want to take the fish on a roller coaster ride!

The water parameters didnt falter overnight, so you don't want to try and fix them in a single shot, please be patient so the fish can adjust to the changes :fish:

 

[TopCat]

The pH test shows light green now. The pH level is now better (6.6 - 6.8) since I put the carbon back in, along with the small bag of mixed carbon/ammonia dissolver thing. My fishes are running around alot and appear to be healthy. I did not lose any of my big fishes. It was a Chromis that i lost, from my salt water tank, dad confused me when he called. Thank you all for your help.

 

[KathyC]

The pH test shows light green now. The pH level is now better (6.6 - 6.8) since I put the carbon back in, along with the small bag of mixed carbon/ammonia dissolver thing. My fishes are running around alot and appear to be healthy. I did not lose any of my big fishes. It was a Chromis that i lost, from my salt water tank, dad confused me when he called. Thank you all for your help.

Sorry about your chromis.
Happy the others are doing better
I'd still do the 10% water changes every couple of days (yeah, i know a pain) but you need to get the tank back to the point that you can do a water change without the pH taking a wide swing, so little changes until you get it back to the same pH as your tap

..and do look into changing that light bulb when you get a chance too!

Please do keep us posted!!

 

[Jzhou]

add some crushed coral into your parrot tank. This would help maintain a higher PH. A lot of parrot tanks I've dealt with in the past has developed a bacterial breakout in which the bacteria causes the water to be more acidic. This is somewhat like what happens when bacteria is used to make yogurt. The worse case I saw was when the PH was reading near 4 on a ph monitor, but all fish were still alive. In my experience, parrot fish seems to do better when the water is a little more on the basic side. Their coloring improves and the fish responds better. I think it has something to do with the higher concentration of oxygen in the water since parrots have a hard time breathing on the account that they cant close their mouths. Also make sure it is ich and not velvet since the two looks similar.

 

[TopCat]

My parrots are healthy right now. I brought the PH up by changing water but it kept dropping. I'll change the water more often, a little at a time for now. I am thinking about buying some crushed corals, put it in a bag and place it in the filter. Thanks for all the advice. Feels like my fishes are outgrowing the tank. I'll keep an eye out for a bigger home for them.