Does someone knows something about fish?

[Princesa 0]

Hi!

Since my husband is allergic to dogs and cats, we recently got a big fish tank. He had one whe he was a kid and since long time ago was wishing to have one again. We have a 72 gallons with around 30 fishes. Everything was OK, util he decided that it was time to clean it an change part of the water. It was around one month after we welcome our new pets.

Since we cleaned it, the fish have not been doing well. Two have died so far... and most of the others don't look OK. The two that already died were a young "alga eater" (my husband thinks it was too early to add one of these) and after a long agony... an gouramy!!! ($6 flushed into the toilet ) One of the remaining gouramies goes a lot to the top of the tank and stays there without moving.

The phanton tetras are small fishes and still look OK, but just them. The other tetras have small white spots. From the books we have we know they have white spot desease (Ichthyophthirius) and we are treating them with a medicine that we got at the pet shop. Please give us advice if you know about a good one and what else we can do to save our little friends!!

What to do with the ones that go to the top of the tank? We are not sure what is going on... We put 3 gallons of distilled water when we clean the tank and change around 1/3 of the water. My husband "vacumm" the gravel to remove the dirt, we changed filters and clean with water and a cloth the plastic plants and ornaments... Anyway, the fish dont want to eat. My husband went to the pet store but beside the medicine, he didn't get any other advice.

I was wondering... maybe someone from here has experience and can give us some advice.

Thank you very much in advance. It is really sad to see the fish dying and being unable to help them.

Thanks!

[Aymerlu 3]

Check with your local pet shop. I know the water around here has too mnay chemicals or something in it that always kills my fish so they had me get some sort of drops to put in it. (sorry I don't remember what they were called) Now I just have betas and I used the bottled water. It is possible to have 1 sick fish infect the entire tank of fish.

[PsychoKat 0]

I don't know if this is what your fish have or not but when you mentioned white spots it brought to mind some problems I had years ago when keeping fish with what you mentioned, Ich.

Your local pet shop might be able to help identify what it is. If it is Ich there are treatments you can put in the water to help with it, which it sounds like you are using. You might have to do a complete water change to combat it.

I ended up with the problem after introducing new fish to the tank and from then on would treat the water each time I got new fish

Good luck

Edited March 23, 2006 by PsychoKat

[denali_1963 0]

Also i heard when you have algie eaters they can't really onlone on eating algea you have to buy them some special pellets to eat also which you only give them every once in awhile. We learned that the hard way. My x husbad also used to let the water sit for at least 24 hours before he filled the tank up with it. There is some drops you can add to get rid of ich and also to clarify the water. Fish can really be an expensive hobbie. Good Luck!!!!

[Princesa 0]

THank you very much for your advice!!!

Hey, Psychokat, when you say to treat the water when you add new fish, does it mean to put ich medicine on it? or what do you use to treat it? Thanks again.

And yes, my hubby put the drops to clear the water, and the drops for this and the drops for that... I am wondering if adding all that stuff wouldn't be the problem!!!

[PsychoKat 0]

Hey, Psychokat, when you say to treat the water when you add new fish, does it mean to put ich medicine on it? or what do you use to treat it? Thanks again.

Yeah we would treat the water with the ich medicine each time we added new fish just to be safe.

Edited March 23, 2006 by PsychoKat

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Toilets run ckockwise in the northern hemispere and counter-clockwise is the sorthern. Either way the problem will be solved.

[Vagina Journey 0]

hole in the head, ick etc are both signs of infection...best thing to do is take a water sample to your local shop and have them test it if your just starting out and not knowing your ph balance etc, most pet shops will do it free of charge and then charge you for the products that you will need to fix it, as far as the spots its prolly ick or hole in the head, if you catch it early enough the fish that are left if they are not to bad will be just fine... also make sure you speak with someone that knows fish not just a random sales person in the pet shop... good luck

[ChristinaM 0]

If they're swimming round at the top of the tank, they may also be lacking in the oxygen department. A relatively inexpensive solution is an air-stone and a pump - it makes a lot of difference.

30 fish also sounds like quite a few - even in a 72 gallon tank! A good rule of thumb is to line the fish up along the front in your head, not including their tales, and you shouldn't have more fish in the tank than will fit along it's length. Even if they're small now, they need room to grow! Gourami can get quite big...

Your tank hasn't been set up for terribly long, and you possibly put too many fish in it too quickly. Also, 30% is a large water change. If the tank hasn't cycled fully, changing that much water will step it back in the process and overload your tank with ammonia, nitrates or nitrites - none of which are good!

My suggestion (bear in mind that I haven't seen your tank, and I'm only going on what I know from my experience keeping fish....!) would be to leave your filters alone. Leave the pads in for the time being, let the bacteria culture levels settle. I'd probably do a small water change (maybe 5%) every day for 5 days, go easy on the Ick medicine and get something like Amquel in there (NOT NOT NOT "Stresszyme"!! It coats your fish in slime.). Also some mineral salt and buffer would likely help, but you want to ask a competant fish shop about that, not just the local Pet Quarters!

Good luck! My hubby got gasoline on his hand and put it in our marine tank; killed off our clown fish, the shrimp and a coral. I cried. I know how upsetting it is when your fish die.

Christina

[Princesa 0]

THank you very much for your advice!!

I read on the books that it is good to add non iodine salt to the tank (give them a "bath" they say). So, I did it and my husband went crazy. Also, I change part of the water... not sure what percentage but around 20%

Sorry!! I just read Christina's advice. Did I screw it up?

Let's see what happens!

THanks again,

[Jasman0717 9]

Did you use the tablets to purify the water before you put the fish back in? How about the tempature, what is the tempature of the water? Does any of the fish have little white spots on them? Definitely check with a fish store, they can probably help.

[munchkins 0]

clmarsh seems to have given you sound advice there, we used to keep them and also had a huge tank and when we got too many fish we had problems. I also think that you cleaned them to soon, a month is not long at all and clmarsh is dead right when she says do not clean everything too much, they have to have the bacteria that naturally develops.

if you do not feel you are getting good advice or help from the Pet store,personally I think I would find another. I cannot remember what it was we used to put in as my hubby did most of the cleaning ect but I do know it was some sort of salt special for fish, maybe you could ask regarding that.

Some fish are "community" fish and others are not and if I also remember, I think there are certain types of fish that do not go well with Tetras

Hope you get is sorted