Fish Flashing....not Ick?

[hage0245]

Tank size: 55 gallon
pH: 8.0
ammonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate: ~15 ppm
kH: ?
gH: ?
tank temp: 76 F
Filtration: A Penguin Biowheel 200 and a Top Fin 60 Power Filter
Volume and frequency of water changes: 15 gallons weekly


This is my first post, so bear with me and thanks in advance for any advice.

My 55 tropical freshwater has been set up for about 2 years and mainly consists of about 25 platies (all of which came from one male and two females, and I'm planning on donating the males to the LFS to avoid non-stop breeding), 5 neon tetras, one bristlenose pleco, one albino cory, a few fake plants, two amazon swords, and one potted plant I can't find the name for.

About a month ago, my girlfriend told me she really wanted a goldfish. I researched for days about adding a goldfish to a tropical freshwater tank, and everything I read told me not to do it, especially because of the amount of waste they produce which can raise ammonia levels and the fact that they are cold water fish. The ammonia levels I was not concerned about since I do weekly water changes and one goldfish could not spike ammonia levels that much. My LFS only stocks goldfish as feeders and I knew that Petco had a variety of them, so with reluctance, we went to check it out. Apparently, they keep their goldfish at 82 degrees. So we (she) decided to get a fantail. Also while there I got some dechlorinator (De-Chlor) which I had never used before but decided to buy based on everyone on the internet claiming it was a necessity.

After a week of everything going fine it was belly-up. That's what I get for shopping at Petco and not trusting hundreds of articles. The next day I did a water change with the new decholinator. Later that day about 7 or 8 of my fish started flashing and I thought the goldfish might have brought in some ick. The next day I started ick treatment with Aquari-Sol because it is safe for sensitive fish and I read that it barely damages plants. After two days my fish weren't flashing but I continued treatment for a full week because of the life cycle of ich. Today, after the full week of treatment, I did a water change with the dechlorinator and the fish started flashing again!

So after all this, was the addition of the dechlorinator enough to disturb my fish and cause them to flash? I called my LFS and they said no, but it seems weird that they haven't flashed for five days and the minute I add water with the chemical they flash. They said that the "stress of a water change" could cause this, but I do water changes every week and this has never happened before.

Sorry for the long post, but I just really wanted to give all the info that led me to posting. I look forward to any responses. Thanks!

 

[hage0245]

"The Friendliest Fish Forum Around"

Thanks for the help. Real friendly.

 

[WILDER]

When keeping goldfish you have to double the filteration.
The filter you have would of been fine if you didn't have any other fish.

I would buy a 100 gallon filter.

What test kit are you using?

How long did you climatise the gold fish for?

Look for theses signs.
Flicking and rubbing, darting, excess mucas, erratic swimming, laboured breathing, red sores of the fish.
Yellow spots, gold dusting,rusty coloured varnish, white talc dusting, white spots, bluish greyish film on the fish, greyish film on the fish.
Do the fish swim in a jerky movement.

A change of declirnator can also make fish flick and rub.
Can you list the ingredients.

Sorry that no one's answered your post.
Welcome to the board.

 

[hage0245]

Thank you very much for the reply, it just seemed like everyone else's questions were getting answered by numerous people, even posts that were submitted later than mine.

I believe the filtration will be fine now, especially since the goldfish has since died and just this weekend I donated 7 adult male platies to my LFS. But if for some reason I try a goldfish again, which is doubtful, I will definitely double the filtration.

I did not acclimate the goldfish for that long because I had just bought a 10 gallon hospital tank about 3 days prior to buying the fish and it wasn't set up yet. I just floated the fish for about 15-20 minutes, which I know is not the best way to introduce a new fish.

There is no list of ingredients on the dechlorinator, but it's called "DeCHLOR" and it's made by a company called Weco. Nothing on the internet could lead me towards finding the ingredients either, but several aquarium discussion boards say it's probably just sodium thiosulfate, similar to all other dechlorinators.

I am using an "API Freshwater Master Test Kit" and test weekly.

The fish haven't flashed since the water change and don't show any of the signs you listed. I believe it may have been caused by a combination of a new, possibly infected fish, the waste it produced, the new dechlorinator, and a little overstocking. Since the goldfish died and I donated the male platies that were the most aggressive towards each other and the females, the remaining ones seem much more relaxed. I am going to do a water change with the DeChlor within the next couple days, so if they flash I can probably deduce that the flashing is being caused by the new chemical. I'll update after that.

Thanks again for the response.

 

[JoshuaA]

Sorry to hear about the loss!

Sometimes it happens on these forums, if people don't feel like they can't answer the questions asked properly they'd rather not reply at all than provide false and inaccurate data. Hence why I won't be able to put much into this.

However from my experiences using dechlorinaters the best that seems to be on the market is "Seachem Prime" I was advised to get it shortly after joining this board and I proceeded to do so, the treatment is super concentrated and 5ml will treat 200L of water. You can add up to 5x the stated amount as long as your temperature is within the guideline stated. It will detoxify Ammonia and somehow Nitrite!

I've done a few 100% water changes with this product and well it doesn't hurt to see me put 1.5x the stated amount into the tank. Where as Nutrafin Aquaplus pretty much emptied the £10 bottle within 2/3 weeks of intense water changes.

Edit: I couldn't work out whether you meant you only JUST started using a dechlorinator either. Which if you have been letting the chlorine "gas off" then you may not have had any problems however Chlorine can be very problematic for fish burning their gills and high concentrations just out right killing them. It apparently takes 24 hours for most if not all chlorine to "gas off" if left out in a bowl or even in your tank.

 

[WILDER]

Bless Him.
R.I.P.

If anymore problems get back to the board.
Good Luck.