HELP woke to dead loaches and sick discus

[leanne31]

I woke this morning to find a dead flying fox catfish, 1 dead clown loach, 1 clown loach upside down well on its way to dying and another looking real sick, I turned my light on and none of my discus came out when I took a closer look they were all a bit dark and lost their red eyes. I spoke to my sister Karen (Kaza) and she says its probably from me putting a new canister filter in and I didnt know I had to wash it out I just tipped in the round balls in the bottom and switched it on. My worse one is a blue turk which has a sore on his head where it looks like hes scraped it on something but the rest are just dark and sitting in a group in the corner.
I have done a 50% wc added some cycle and a extra airstone. Ive disconnected the canister antil I can fully scrub it and just have the original filter going does anyone know if theres anything else I can do to get them back on the road to recovery I was thinking maybe some stress coat or something like that I hope they dont die thanks guys

Leanne

[kkiu]

That would probably be the problem. Generally i just give all new equipment/media a thorough rinsing in tap water.

Im not sure on this, but them losing their red eyes is because they were sleeping.

perhaps add some carbon to the tank if you can. In case there were some chemicals in the new canister and its media

[leanne31]

I was just watching my blue turk which is the worse one and he was swimming as I was getting the dead fish out and it looked like he was not seeing straight he was bumping into things that explains his sore head.

Leanne

[kalebjarrod]

50% water changes daily with water of the same temp

add some salt and dim the lights, temp to 30-31

they should be alright, let them settle a little more, then clean your filter and try again

[Merrilyn]

Sorry to hear that, just when things were going so well. Do another 50% water change, and another later this afternoon. Some stress cote in the water will help, as will a little salt to prevent the sores on the turk becoming infected.

That's rotten luck Leanne.

[leanne31]

I did do a 50% wc this morning I'll do another this afternoon I havent connected the canister back up yet I thought i might take all those round balls out and add some carbon for now and when better put them back in. I have some slight improvement though my clown loach has turned right way up and got a bit of colour back not a hell of a big change from the discus though> I just cleaned out my internal filter and it was slimey and had white powder in it so I say the culprit was the balls in the canister, I'll know next time to wash thoroughly. I did add some epsom salt to help with stress at half a tbs per 40 ltrs do u think thats enough
Havent lost any discus cross fingers but I hope Im though the worse of it they arent gulping at the surface anymore and breathing looks back to normal. My poor kids didnt even get to take any lunch to school this morning as I was busy doing my tank think I better take them some now If anyone can think of anything else I can do please let me know.

[Kaza]

Leanne how are the fish?

[leanne31]

I totally washed out all filters and added carbon to the canister. I've done another 50% wc and put double dose of geo liquid in the water. They have improved they're not hiding as much, still a tad dark and the turks have there bars up but there eyes are back to the normal red colour. They did eat a small amount of black worm before so they're feeling a bit better but still not 100% my rm has lost just about all its colour though but hopefully in the next few days they should all be back to normal. I was very weary about plugging the filter back in I hope its alright now I dont want to re poison them.

Leanne

[Kaza]

You will be fine now, turn the canister back on as long as it is totally cleaned out. With all the water changes and cleaning going on, watch out for any ammonia spikes, so feed sparingly for a few days.

[leanne31]

I turned the filter back on this afternoon and so far so good. They still not eating but dont really expect them to at the moment as they poo is running out like water. They are swimming to the side of the tank to greet me again which is a good sign and Karen the pigeon blood I told you about that wasnt breathing out of one gill is better it must of been blocked from all the white sludge stuff from the filter. I've checked my ammonia and nitrite they are both 0 and my nitrates on 5 so thats all good hope they better by morning.

Leanne