Hi Guys! Hope everyone is well
I just wanted to share this one as i found it a bit strange. I was chatting to a guy last night on fb who was in a bit of a panic about his fish dying off. He firstly asked for treatment for swim bladder so i asked if he was sure it was swim bladder - the symptoms certainly didn't support that at all when he told me. The fish he had were discus, angels, kribs, cats and plecs and the symptoms he told me about when i questioned him about things were swollen bellies which were getting red and the fish were at the surface.
I asked about water conditions and he said he had ro water and nothing was showing up on the tests. He had lost quite a few fish extremely quickly - he said one the the angels seemed fine one minute then went up to the surface turned over and died.
He did buy some new fish yesterday - some of these died but also some of the ones that he already had in the tank. I checked if he added the fish bag water, checked the filter, the temperature, any other new ornaments or stones and nothing. I did suggest it might be the difference in water conditions esp if going from tap water to ro but he said he got the new fish off a mate and they had been kept in ro water there. Also didn't explain the other fish dying off and struggling at the surface either.
The only thing i could think of was some kind of poisoning - its the only thing i could think of that would affect so many fish so quickly. Advised to do 50% water change from height to add oxygen to the tank and after checking what fish he had suggested adding a little salt to the water as i have found this a good overall therapeutic treatment that avoids adding unknown chemicals to the water.
When i got up this morning he said the fish were looking a lot better
Thankfully the advice i gave helped but i'm always a bit worried something like this would only be a temporary solution. Hopefully i will get to talk to him a bit more to get to the bottom of the problem and help him avoid it again. There are some other questions i'd like to ask - my brain wasn't working too sharply at 3am LOL but glad i was able to suggest something that proved useful. I will ask him for clearer water test measurements etc and see what comes up - thought it was an interesting one though and not come across anything this quick and widespread before.
Anyone had any similar issues or anything you think i have missed guys? Would be good to try and thrash it out with you all
