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The Nymph's Spring (EA900)
- Thread starter shangman
- Start date
I'm definitely in.
The Miniaturist
Member
I'd contribute. Not sure how as I don't have an online account but I can always send a brown envelope in the post? I'm sure everyone wants to know what this disease/bacteria is as it has taken hold so rapidly.
KirstyF
Member
I could put some in too. 👍
😭😭😭 You are all so lovely I am literally crying!!! This past month has been so awful and I'm so glad to be part of this community that is so engaging and supportive. @Hufsa @Karmicnull @John q @Wookii @tacy k @The Miniaturist @KirstyF ! I really didn't expect this 🥰 Even just a little bit is so useful.
Honestly it's been like COMICALLY grim at my house the past few weeks. As you guys know we had to put down our beloved cat which I shared here cos this is a pets kinda place, and then my tank went downhill. Last week my partner's dad died of a heart attack suddenly, and just yesterday one of my mum's closest old friends died of pancreatic cancer that she was diagnosed with only 2 weeks ago. It feels a bit like our house is cursed it all happening at once tbh. I know that the fishtank does not compare to people, it has felt quite selfish for me to be so upset about the tank but it just even more enhances the awfulness of everything. I feel like at least I can try and do something about the fish tank and be a bit proactive, cos it's hard to know what to do in times like these! Plus the bit of money I used to have for aquariums is much lower due to living costs and inbetween work. I am stuck at home job hunting (this in itself is grim lmao) so I have a lot of time to watch the tank and obsess about it.
I really so much appreciate you guys helping out!! I really want to know what it is that the fish have. As much as symptoms line up with TB in my mind, they are generic enough and wide enough that it could be all sorts of things, I just don't have the experience to help.
I suppose every tank is an experiment and this tank is just a different experiment than I thought it would be, with each tank I start it thinking I know it all before realising I know nothing!
This is a great way to do it, low effort but really useful. Tbh this is what I love about lowtech nano tanks, they can be really easy and really nice too.
I'm glad, I think when you are setting up your big tank soon it would be 100% worth it to use one of your current ones as a quarantine tank for the new fish. My first pencilfish had symptoms after about a month in the tank, dicrossus began a week or two after that. I think I will quarantine for 8 weeks, apparently the tb can be slow acting and I'm now paranoid about it, but a month - 6 weeks catch a lot. It seems like 2 weeks isn't enough to know. Some fish are more susceptible than others I have read, including gourami, rainbowfish and cichlids.
When I first emailed I asked about the cost of a fish tb test, they replied saying they I needed a £35 25 minute chat first to help diagnostics and didn't tell me the price of a test. I know that's not that much but my panic brain started to worry about how that could be just the beginning of an excursion I couldn't afford when they didn't just tell me straight up. I am assuming it will be about £100 for the test. Whenever we went to the vets for the cats it was always about £100 lol. Not too sure though, maybe the vet will have other ideas and want to test for several things. I will email the vet tomorrow morning about the consultation and see what they say and report back.
I think having a diagnosis will really help to understand where to go from here.
Honestly it's been like COMICALLY grim at my house the past few weeks. As you guys know we had to put down our beloved cat which I shared here cos this is a pets kinda place, and then my tank went downhill. Last week my partner's dad died of a heart attack suddenly, and just yesterday one of my mum's closest old friends died of pancreatic cancer that she was diagnosed with only 2 weeks ago. It feels a bit like our house is cursed it all happening at once tbh. I know that the fishtank does not compare to people, it has felt quite selfish for me to be so upset about the tank but it just even more enhances the awfulness of everything. I feel like at least I can try and do something about the fish tank and be a bit proactive, cos it's hard to know what to do in times like these! Plus the bit of money I used to have for aquariums is much lower due to living costs and inbetween work. I am stuck at home job hunting (this in itself is grim lmao) so I have a lot of time to watch the tank and obsess about it.
I really so much appreciate you guys helping out!! I really want to know what it is that the fish have. As much as symptoms line up with TB in my mind, they are generic enough and wide enough that it could be all sorts of things, I just don't have the experience to help.
I have pushed it tbh, my stocking would be fine in this tank except that I probably have 15 kuhli loaches living in the caves underneath it all. 5 full sized ones, 10 small matchstick sized. At least, I might do, I never see more than 2 (one big and one small) and never see them out with lights on, so there could be just those 2 left. In my old tank I thought they'd all died, but when I took it apart they were all there and all very fat, so it's possible either way, I added the extras so I might see them more often but it didn't work! I definitely couldn't get them out or know without taking apart the whole tank. Though the fish were all so small that it never seemed overstocked at all, the volume of them wasn't much so I thought it was fine compared to the safety they felt for their numbers. In my fishkeeping, I see many of my flaws laid bare.
I suppose every tank is an experiment and this tank is just a different experiment than I thought it would be, with each tank I start it thinking I know it all before realising I know nothing!
This is a great way to do it, low effort but really useful. Tbh this is what I love about lowtech nano tanks, they can be really easy and really nice too.
I'm glad, I think when you are setting up your big tank soon it would be 100% worth it to use one of your current ones as a quarantine tank for the new fish. My first pencilfish had symptoms after about a month in the tank, dicrossus began a week or two after that. I think I will quarantine for 8 weeks, apparently the tb can be slow acting and I'm now paranoid about it, but a month - 6 weeks catch a lot. It seems like 2 weeks isn't enough to know. Some fish are more susceptible than others I have read, including gourami, rainbowfish and cichlids.
When I first emailed I asked about the cost of a fish tb test, they replied saying they I needed a £35 25 minute chat first to help diagnostics and didn't tell me the price of a test. I know that's not that much but my panic brain started to worry about how that could be just the beginning of an excursion I couldn't afford when they didn't just tell me straight up. I am assuming it will be about £100 for the test. Whenever we went to the vets for the cats it was always about £100 lol. Not too sure though, maybe the vet will have other ideas and want to test for several things. I will email the vet tomorrow morning about the consultation and see what they say and report back.
I think having a diagnosis will really help to understand where to go from here.
John q
Member
General rule of thumb is 2 to 3 weeks, 4 if you really want to play it safe.
From what I've read on Mycobacteriosis, which isn't a lot, the suggestion is it can some times lay dormant in fish for a number of weeks or even months, so whilst a 2~3 week quarantine "should" rule out most diseases its not a cast iron guarantee that it will keep you safe from tb.
Sometimes as a community we can try and pull together and do some good. I'm sure you'd do the same if the shoe was on the other foot mate.
Get back to us on the proposed vets fees and I'm sure between us we can lessen the blow a bit.
aec34
Member
This. 👆
Wookii
Member
Call me an old sceptic, I know we all love the good work Vets do, but that does sound like a classic cash extraction exercise!
Put your foot down, explain you are an experienced fish keeper, and simply want a Yes/No confirmation of fish TB.
PARAGUAY
Member
Your local Pets@Home possibly could recommend one locally. When my daughter took a cagebird in they did have a specialist vet but gave her a couple nearest. Worth a try
MirandaB
Member
I don't know of anyone who might be able to do it unfortunately but I'm more than happy to chip in for the test too 
I've emailed the first vet again and they have said they can just do the TB test, and that it will cost £115 + postage costs to get 3 small fish to them to test. They said that the 25 mins call was just to hear more about the tank and the problems as there is a lot about fish TB online. I mean it totally is possible that that's not the problem!
Edit: whoops accidentally posted this too early without responding to everything
Edit: whoops accidentally posted this too early without responding to everything
John q
Member
Right yes, do you reckon paypal would work for the majority? I know @The Miniaturist will most likely need another option. I will send @shangman a PM to discuss our options
John q
Member
Works for me 👍
Wookii
Member
Hmm, that's a bit of a pain then - ultimately on reading this thread, its the TB we want to avoid isn't it? Looks like 8 weeks would be the most comprehensive option.
Do most people treat quarantined fish for worms and flukes etc as standard?
I quarantine for 3 weeks
I deworm every fish that I get, I normally follow this up with a course of Melafix - now, it's obviously not essential, but it's done no harm - that I can tell.
Iridovirus is a real f***** too.
I deworm every fish that I get, I normally follow this up with a course of Melafix - now, it's obviously not essential, but it's done no harm - that I can tell.
Iridovirus is a real f***** too.
The Miniaturist
Member
When I think of the times I've simply acclimated fish & put them in the tank.....
I have had the odd fish become deformed & die, or maybe one unexpectedly go with minimal symptoms other than looking a bit "off colour" but nothing ever seems to have been passed on to the other fish.
I consider myself extremely lucky. 🍀
Serious consideration will be given to a long-term quarantine tank but I'm not planning any new purchases at the moment.
I have had the odd fish become deformed & die, or maybe one unexpectedly go with minimal symptoms other than looking a bit "off colour" but nothing ever seems to have been passed on to the other fish.
I consider myself extremely lucky. 🍀
Serious consideration will be given to a long-term quarantine tank but I'm not planning any new purchases at the moment.
This is why this place is the best place! I really appreciate it so much <3 You are right I certainly would help if someone else had a similar crisis, once I finally get a new job I'll be able to contribute in kind
Yes I certainly won't be making this mistake again 🙃 it is a comfort to know that I'm not alone though, it's really easy to get in a guilty spiral about it and think I'm the worst person in the world.
I would like to know more about quarantining best practice, what do you worm with? I feel like if I'm gonna do it I might as well treat for everything I can!
It seems so! I will definitely be doing 8 weeks. Of course the other good thing to do according to Diana Walstad to have a UV steriliser on the tank. That way, even if infected fish do go in the tank, any disease they release into the water can be killed before affecting other fish. And several other sources have implied that it's good in the quarantine tank too which makes sense. At some point I'll go back and record all the sources on fish TB that I've found in case it's useful, and maybe just write up a new thread on it here so people can search for it really easily.
TBH I do look back and wonder if the tank had this before I got the pencils & dicrossus, and they as new fish were just more susceptable. I will never completely know which fish brought it in, like you I have had a fish die here and there every month or two. Usually it's just one of a group within 2 weeks of me getting them so I don't think about it much.
I used to think of quarantining as a burden, something I knew I should do but seemed like such a hassle, and I convinced myself it was better because it's good to get the fish in a nice new home that is bigger, filled with plants to make them safe, better water etc. I think as fish are so easy to buy it's easy to think frivolously about it, it's easy to let the exciting fish madness take over in a fishshop because they are so captivating. But I have come to love and respect this tank and my fish so much, I have realised that adding new creatures shouldn't be frivolous and that strict quarantining is my way of showing my love and respect for what I already have. I all endangered my fish and let this happen to them, if I had quarantined it would not have been this way. So I'm coming to view quarantining as a way of respecting and cherishing what I already have and understanding that it needs to be protected.
Too much wanting, not enough gratitude!
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