Need some help figuring out this

[Steve]

I need your guy's help trying to figure out what is causing an issue in one of my tanks. I'll tryin' provide as much info as I can. First off I have lost 3 fish in the past 3 months in my 75g peacock & hap tank. The tank is 75g with an FX5 filter, about 15 fish, weekly water changes, Nitrate usually never gets over 40ppm before a WC. Diet/feeding use to be Plecocaine pellets and veggie styx, but I just recently switched over to mostly Ken's flakes (about 2 weeks ago made the switch). Mainly that is just to make sure this isn't a nutrition/bloat issue was the reason for the change.

This is the latest fish I lost this morning. I noticed she was breathing harder about 2 days ago and stopped eating. Also noticed a white "tuft" on her tail and side which just all the sudden showed up a couple days ago. Then just over night last night her belly was swollen this morning. She was in real bad shape so I had to put her down this morning. Here's a couple pics of her. The first two I lost a couple months ago had the same belly issue, but not the white tuft issue.

Does this seem like some sort of intestinal parasite issue? Bloat? Something else?

I just ordered some Metro off ebay a few mins ago to have on hand in case any other fish show signs soon. I think I may just treat the whole tank with metro when it gets here just to be on the safe side.

[Steve]

 for some reason the pics are not showing. Give me a few mins to reup them.

[Steve]

[Gorackk]

Does the Plecocaine pellets have bloodworms in it. looked the food up but couldnt find what is in it.

[Steve]

That I am not sure of if it does or not.

[danielratti]

The white tuffs would be more than likely columaris and it can kill in 24 hours.  As from the weird issue with the stomach you would have to give more info about the parameters of your water

[Steve]

Amm-0
Ni-0
Na- never gets over 40ppm (75% WC's every 7-9 days)
Ph- 7.8 after water change (out of tap PH) drops to about7.2 to 7.4 by the end of the 7-9 days before a WC
Temp - I keep it about 82F
Treatment- PRIME
No buffers or anything like that use

[jkeeler]

Does the Plecocaine pellets have bloodworms in it. looked the food up but couldnt find what is in it.

Source: http://www.fishforums.com/forum/neptune-aquatics/26124-plecocaine.html

here is the complete breakdown of components and nutritional values..and , yes ; it does have a vitamin B-12 supplement.........

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS
CRUDE PROTEIN (MIN) 50.0000%
CRUDE FAT (MIN) 17.0000%
CRUDE FIBER (MAX) 3.0000%
CALCIUM (CA) (MIN) 1.5500%
CALCIUM (CA) (MAX) 2.0500%
PHOSPHORUS (P) (MIN) 1.2500%
SODIUM (NA) (MIN) .0500%
SODIUM (NA) (MAX) .5000%

INGREDIENTS
FISH MEAL, WHEAT FLOUR, SPRAY DRIED ANIMAL BLOOD CELLS, FISH OIL, FISH OIL
(LS), BREWERS DRIED YEAST, BETAINE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, LECITHIN,
CHOLINE CHLORIDE, L-ASCORBYL-2-POLYPHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE,
DL-METHIONINE, MENADIONE SODIUM BISULFITE COMPLEX, THIAMINE MONONITRATE,
BIOTIN, FOLIC ACID, CHOLECALCIFEROL, RIBOFLAVIN, DL-ALPHA TOCOPHERYL ACETATE,
VITAMIN A ACETATE, ETHOXYQUIN (A PRESERVATIVE), ZINC OXIDE, VITAMIN B-12
SUPPLEMENT, MANGANOUS OXIDE, FERROUS CARBONATE, COPPER SULFATE, ZINC SULFATE,
CALCIUM IODATE, CALCIUM CARBONATE, COBALT CARBONATE.

[Steve]

Been looking for that but could not find it, thanks John.

[mibwb]

What? you think the cocaine is killing them?

[danielratti]

If they are still dying after he switched food I would think that would not be the issue. How often are you vacuuming your substrate and have you added any fish before this started?

[fisher11]

i found this site i hope it helps http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html

[Ava333]

The link posted above is a good one. I've used it before. That being said, I'll get to my question. Is there any way to keep your Nitrates under 20 ppm in between WC? After running into problems, I traced my issues back to Nitrates. Research suggests that prolonged exposure to even slightly higher nitrate levels can cause a fish's immune system to weaken. My problem started with weird random twitching (Edit: weird random head twitching with mouth closed) then progressed to a soar and then bloat. (So not EXACTLY the same as your issue.)  Now, I've managed to keep the levels under 20 ppm (under 10 if I can help it) and my fish seem much healthier. Different websites post different numbers for what is an acceptable level. I'm still sorta new to Africans so it doesn't take much to make me over-worry. I might be way off base. Was just thinking it might help your fish's immune system keep diseases at bay.

[Maize-N-Blue-D]

Steve, please provide a list of the fish in the tank?  A phenomenon I found in all my tanks was the dominant fish will eventually murder all the rest of the fish in the tank over time.  Not sure but those might be battle scars from aggression. I may be wrong on this but it is something I experienced in all my tanks....Especially my 180 all male show tank...I finally had to remove / sell the aggressor to slow down the killings... Another thing you can do is change around your decorations periodically.  This will also help cut down territorial aggression as well.   

[Steve]

My problem started with weird random twitching then progressed to a soar and then bloat. (So not EXACTLY the same as your issue.)  Now, I've managed to keep the levels under 20 ppm (under 10 if I can help it) and my fish seem much healthier

Actually that is one thing I have noticed myself and wondered about. I have in fact seen a couple of fish twitch their head oddly every once in a while. Not sure how else to get the Na down to under 20ppm because I already have an FX5 on a 75g tank, there's about 15 cichlids and 4 plecos plus one catfish in it so it's not really over stocked at all. And I vacuum the sand every water change.

I'll tryin put a list of stock up when I get a chance, but since I moved the bleekeri & zebra out a couple weeks ago there is pretty much zero aggression in that tank now.