# The Case of the Missing Fish: A treatment journal



## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

Well, it's happening again. I'm mysteriously losing fish. No symptoms, nothing weird with the water, but none the less, i spontaneously lost several fish in a period of a few days.

I'm going to use some of the levamisole a board member prepared for me some time ago. It's not been refrigerated, however, it's been several months since the medication was initially prepared and I wonder if it's possible for it to go bad.

I've had some luck in the past. To paraphrase Rick James, levamisole is a helluva drug. 

I was constantly losing cories and a few live bearers. One treatment of the levamisole and all my troubles were solved. But this time it's my harlequin rasboras, which were huge, healthy and king of the tanks. I've never lost one before. Now i've lost three in two days.

As far as targeting whatever's causing these deaths, i'm really taking a stab in the dark here. However, I'm no longer interested in spending thirty dollars on meds to treat twenty dollars worth of fish (and probably failing anyways.) But I know I'll continue to sporadically lose fish unless treated. 

So, I begin treatment today.

Tank: 20 gal community, planted, 14 hour light cycle (trying to grow algae)
Params: 77f, 7.5ph, ammonia et al - 0, 0, 0
Recent deaths: 3 healthy harlequin rasboras, showing no symptoms, within two days.
Treatment:

Day 1:
6:30pm
Lights go off for 24 hours. approx 1.5 ml levamisole dosed. 

fingers crossed.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

If stored in the dark and without refrigeration, the Levamisole you have should be good until well into 2010.

Good luck with the treatment. Hopefully it nips your problem. I have a shat load of different meds lying around. If you want to take a stab at other meds, pm me, you know where to find me.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

ameekplec. said:


> If stored in the dark and without refrigeration, the Levamisole you have should be good until well into 2010.


For those wondering, that's approx. 2 years.

Thanks for the offer. I'll keep you in the loop.


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## Riceburner (Mar 14, 2008)

Good luck. I've had an albino Tiger Barb disappear on me recently. I don't suspect anything as all else seems normal.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

Day 2

24 Lights out ends. Lights pop on and......there's a dead body. gudamnit. another harly down, two to go. 

another dosage due in a week. They're going to get a deep gravel vac tonight, as per the instructions for using the levy (as i now affectionately refer to levamisole).


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## breeze905 (Feb 1, 2009)

i hope all goes well.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

Well, whatever I did, it was too late. Not an hour after my last post I lost another rasbora. the next day, another. the whole school was wiped out in a week. there's, like, a fraking HOLE in my tank where they used to be. i'm seriously miffed. 

another dose of the levamisole last night just to follow through with treatment.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Is there any other livestock in the tank? Could it be heavy metals or another pollutant? That is instead of bacterial or parasitical. 

It's odd that it would target only one species of fish.


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

there are other fish, yes. it's a community tank with a school of cardinal tetras, some swordtails and cories mostly. no others have shown any problems.

There's definitely no metal/plastic in my tank, and i'd be damned if i could think of any sort of pollutant that's made it's way into my tank...

could an overdose of Prime lead to anything like this? i'd doubt it, but i'm not sure. 

The one species of fish thing is what gets me too. Did i pick up some sort of species specific ailment? gah.


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## Shattered (Feb 13, 2008)

Prime might be the cause, but if I remember right it's safe even up to 5x overdose.

My sugestion would be to keep a log of everything you do to the tank for the next little while. Be as specific as you can, maybe a spreadsheet to mark feeding/cleaning etc..

So to sum up, the first time it happened it was species specific, and the second time as well. From what you commented it sounds like something was added to the tank to throw the parameters out of whack making the water lethal to one species.

I know sounds like a long shot... but I would like to find the source of the problem before it resurfaces.

edit: Great infor on Levamisole: Loaches.com - Levamisole


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

yeah, I hear you. That's a good idea. Thanks for the help, all.


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## bouyobouy (Apr 9, 2009)

may sound dumb but did you know how old your fish were?


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## twoheadedfish (May 10, 2008)

yeah. i briefly considered that they may have died of old age - but they were less than a year old.


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