# HELP - restarting tank after disease outbreak



## FOR SALE (Mar 17, 2008)

Hi everyone,

I had about 15 yellow labs that all just died this past week after a disease spread through the tank. It was 'ick' i believe. Anyways, all the fish are dead, removed, and i took out about 75% of the tank water. All thats left is my pleco. 

Now my question is, when i put new fish in the tank, will the disease be gone, or can it still be in the water?

do i need to remove all water, let the tank dry out, then put new water?? or can i leave the water in and just wait some time before introducing new fish.

It would be easier if i dont have to drain the tank b/c then i dont have to catch and find temp. home for my 7 inch pleco.

thanks everyone in advance for the help

Darryl


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

Okay... first off if you had Ick in your tank then the pl*co would have it as well. Ick will cover every fish in a tank. 

My first question would be did you treat the tank during the outbreak of whatever it was? If not, then yes you have a very good chance of whatever was in there to still be there. 

If you did treat it for Ick and it was something else then there is still a good chance that it is still intere as well. 

How is your pl*co doing? Is it still energetic, hiding, listless?

The activity level of the pl*co would be a decent indicator of the water's viability as well as the tank.


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

In terms of aquatic diseases, many times, the pathogens that cause the illness are always present in some amount, but usually your fish are healthy enough that they can fight it off and prevent breakouts. So, to completely rid it is very difficult without killing all of the pathogen both water-borne and in the host fish.

My first inclination would be to follow KnaveTO's advice and observe the plec to determine the health of your tank.
Second, if you're not sure what was in the tank, I might suggest running a UV sterilizer for a few weeks to keep pathogen numbers down. I wouldn't recommend using any medication willy-nilly without knowing what was causing the problems in the first case, as that usually just creates more problems by stressing the fish further.
In the mean time, I wouldn't suggest a tear down or anything like that. But I'd hold off of new fish for a while yet.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Assuming your pleco is ok with it (others can pinch in here), you can raise the temperature on your tank to 80+ for a week and that should destroy the "active" ick - if there is any.

After that, I would suggest if you are adding more fish to add them slowly, as you may have to bump up the bacteria level in your filter again, otherwise it might be close to cycling your tank again.

As mentioned, I have always found that diseases like ick usually go hand-in-hand with things like water quality. Ick is usually ALWAYS there, but you often find it hits hard when the fish's immune systems are not functioning to their fullest (old fish often get hit by these diseases first).

So...what is your filtration, temperature and what were you feeding them?

On top of that, you should look at your water in general and test for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, pH, gH, kH, etc. etc. etc. to see if there were any underlying water quality issues that sparked the outbreak.

Mind you, it may be late for that now since obviously the aquarium has a much lower bioload now...


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## KnaveTO (May 13, 2007)

Actually, Ick is not always present in the aquarium, that is one of those common aquarium myths. If it was always present we would always be battling it. Other pathogens are continously present but not ick. What you think could have been ick could have also been Velvet or some other disease. However if your pleco does not seem to have it and is healthy then I wouldn't worry about tearing down your tank and giving it a good go-over. 

Begin by slowly introduciong some new fish over the next while. Remember that plecos are waste machines so your bio-filter should have a pretty good colony established so it will handle more than a newer filter would that is for sure. 

If you are going the african cichlid route again I would take this opportunity to aquascape your tank to the exact standard you want while there is only the plec in the tank. You have an opportunity that most of us do not have as we usually have too many plants and fish to move to scape the tank to just what we want... lol

The rest I will not repeat as it has been stated here already. Get yourself those test kits and start going forward again. OH!!! This time... if you don't already have one... get yourself a small quarantine tank to prevent ythis from happening again.


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## FOR SALE (Mar 17, 2008)

wow thanks everyone for the help.

my pleco still seems fine.. so perhaps it wasnt ick???

who knows,,, but i will leave the tank with only him for a few weeks, monitor his behavior.. then i will slowly add fish back to the tank.

i really loved the yellow labs because of there bright colors, and also because they multiplied easily and quickly.

does anyone have any recommendations on another cichlid that is similar on how easily it breeds and its hardiness??? i like nice bright colors.... doesnt have to be yellow though.


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