need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't helping

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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't helping

by dsipp79

I have a 37 gal eclipse 3 tank, it was going great when I had my 2 kissing gourami's, 2 cory's, whatever the white loach is, and a pleco I'm about to trade cuz he's getting to big.... I bought an indian algae eater from another store and over a couple weeks added 10 zebra danios... I have taken back 2 of them and exchanged them in the time limit and was told it could be my ammonia cuz it was at around 3.5 but now it's down to .25 after adding an ammonia filter pad to the top of my eclipse filter but I've since lost 6 more danios and have notices some lumps on my largest gourami and he's not acting sick but not right.. PH is measuring 7.2 or a little higher, have cut feeding down to once a day... I'm wanting to trade the pleco in for some neon's and get more danios but don't want to lose anymore fish... a couple danios showed signs of flukes and 2 had ick... should I treat for disease before I get more fish and what can I do to make sure I don't lose my gouramis? please help and if you need more info I will be glad to provide and will soon post a picture.... also the algae eater died after showing no signs of sickness but I think maybe him coming from a different store maybe he had something that the rest got... please help so I can get this how I want it... can't put much in till I get rid of the pleco as he's about 7.5 inches long..... but don't want to trade him until I know the fish I add are going to live...


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by dsipp79

it may not have been ick but there was a lot of white on them that looked a lot like it...

also I am waiting for my biowheel to come in that I ordered but they said it won't make much difference but I've been treating it with stess zyme when I do water changes


natalie265
Site Admin
 
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Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by natalie265

No, i definitely would not add any more fish while your current fish are unhealthy. You also shouldn't add more fish while your ammonia is at .25. It should be zero. How long has this tank been up and running?


tinkerterry
 
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:29 pm

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by tinkerterry

I second natalie265, your ammonia level needs to be at 0, especially for Danios who I always found to be highly sensitive to chemical inbalance in the water, is the nitrate level below 20PPM?. Did you recently do a large water change? Has the temperature of the water changed recently as well? If a few of your fish have ick then you should really have separated them from the others and treated them separately. I personally use what is termed a "Medical Tank" which is a small 24 litre tank that I use to separate pregnant or sick fish from the main tank. Also, with regards to additives in the water when you do changes, I personally recommend that you keep in simple and not fall for all the "millions of contradictory recommendations" and just stick to using chlorine remover and bacteria supplement when doing weekly 25% water changes, assuming this is the cycle you follow.


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by dsipp79

I usually do about 15% every 2 weeks... the tap water ammonia is higher than the .25 I'm getting in the tank, its over 1... the 4 danios I have now are doing really well thankfully and I'm not using any chemicals for the ammonia just the filter pad, the guy at the petstore isn't into using chemicals unless you have to. the ick didn't show up until about a day before he died, but the others showed no signs of ick, more like flukes, they got a heavy slime coat then started hanging at the top breathing heavy for awhile, my large gourami has little lumps around hit stomach area which aren't growing anything on the outside, I was considering the tetra treatment that hellps parasites and harmfull bacteria, I'm taking the water up there to get tested all I have is an ammonia test kit and a PH kit but he'll test it free for me, it's really hard to watch it when the fish fight for a couple days to try and live and I have to watch them die... I have a 10 gallon tank I haven't used in a long time but I kind of want to treat most all the fish, the only ones I haven't seen show any signs of weakness or sickness are my cory's the loach, and the pleco... the small gourami has a few lumps but nothing I have left now is acting to much weirder than usual but I dont want to lose anymore so if I move them to another tank should I still treat my main to make sure there's nothing harmfull in it?


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by dsipp79

also when I do a water change all I add is stress coat and stress zyme for the chlorine remover and bacteria.. the tank has been running for like 6 years and I've only lost fish once before when I was younger and changed the PH to fast.. also as far as temp it's been staying at 78 degree's and I haven't seen it change at all.


natalie265
Site Admin
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by natalie265

If my tap water had that much ammonia in it, i would probably use bottled water, both for my fish and for drinking!

When my fish got ick last year, i treated the entire tank, even though a few of the fish were not showing signs of ick, i figured they might have it and it just might not be obvious yet. Also, ick treatment is very safe. Not sure what type of treatment you are using or how safe it is.


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by dsipp79

just checked tap water again.. it's ranging between .25 and .50 and the tank's down to less than .25 finally, going to pet store soon and going to have him test the nitrates and nitrites for me.. when I get home I'll post a picture of how it looks now and one later after I get the fake plants in.... should I get a live plant and if so would one that stays towards the top be best since I plan on getting more danios once the tank is stable? also the water is VERY hard, what's the best thing to do for that?


dsipp79
 
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:23 am

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by dsipp79

just did a 25% water change... ammonia is now at around .15 I would guess, maybe lower and the ph is 6.8, I added plants back in it (not live) and the rest of my decorations, will post pic soon... how long do you think I should wait before taking the pleco in and trading him for my neons and danios and getting a new algae eater... I know i'll never buy one from the store I got the last one at.. oh and I did do an ick treatment about a week ago with something containing victoria green and haven't noticed anymore ick and have only lost that algae eater since...


natalie265
Site Admin
 
Posts: 746
Joined: Sat Nov 01, 2008 9:48 pm

Re: need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't hel

by natalie265

If your ph is 6.8, your water is not hard. Either way, i wouldn't mess with the ph or water hardness.

I found this on another forum: "The ammonia reading you are getting from the tap is probably from the chloramine used to treat the water by the city. Chloramine is a compound chemical made by bonding chlorine and ammonia. Treat the tap water with dechlorinator, stir it well, then test it. See if the level changes. " and here is a link to the entire thread:

http://www.tetra-fish.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9586

need help, fish are dying and pet store advice isn't helping

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