For the mods, I wasn't sure if I should post this in the emergency section or general discussion. I figured discussion because that is where most of the members hang out. If you want to move it to the emergency section then go for it.
If anybody wants to help in the emergency/ disease section of the forum, it would be appreciated. You don't have to know anything about diseases to help. But if you see a thread and someone is asking for help, and they haven't provided much information or any clear pictures of the fish, post a response and ask them for some info and pictures. It means they can start providing some clues as to what is going on and I don't have to ask them for that info when I eventually get online. If they are providing information and taking pictures, it helps relieve some of the stress they are under because they feel like they are doing something to help, and they are.
Some basic questions to ask include:
How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level?
I ask this because a lot of fish health issues are directly caused by poor water quality. Poor water quality will cause fish to produce excess mucous on their body and fins and this can appear as a cream or white film over part or all of their body or fins. If a tank is newly set up, chances are it has ammonia or nitrite problems and doing big (75-80%) daily water changes will usually fix the problem.
Make sure you specify to dechlorinate any new water before it's added to the tank. Sick fish do not need to be exposed to chlorinated water and the chlorine/ chloramine can harm the sick fish and make the problem worse.
If anybody wants to help in the emergency/ disease section of the forum, it would be appreciated. You don't have to know anything about diseases to help. But if you see a thread and someone is asking for help, and they haven't provided much information or any clear pictures of the fish, post a response and ask them for some info and pictures. It means they can start providing some clues as to what is going on and I don't have to ask them for that info when I eventually get online. If they are providing information and taking pictures, it helps relieve some of the stress they are under because they feel like they are doing something to help, and they are.
Some basic questions to ask include:
How long has the tank been set up for?
What is the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate level?
I ask this because a lot of fish health issues are directly caused by poor water quality. Poor water quality will cause fish to produce excess mucous on their body and fins and this can appear as a cream or white film over part or all of their body or fins. If a tank is newly set up, chances are it has ammonia or nitrite problems and doing big (75-80%) daily water changes will usually fix the problem.
Make sure you specify to dechlorinate any new water before it's added to the tank. Sick fish do not need to be exposed to chlorinated water and the chlorine/ chloramine can harm the sick fish and make the problem worse.
Find out what the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels are. If the tank has 5ppm of ammonia and has been set up for a week, the most likely cause of any sick/ dead fish is ammonia poisoning and doing big daily water changes will fix it.
------------------------
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often do they clean the filter?
How do they clean the filter?
A dirty filter can hold harmful microscopic organisms that can make fish sick. All the aquarium water goes through the filter and if the filter is dirty, the tank water will be dirty. In addition to this, if people have a filter that contains pads/ cartridges and they replace these pads every couple of weeks (as directed by the filter instructions), they will be getting rid of the beneficial filter bacteria and causing the tank to cycle again.
If this is the case, you can advise people on how to clean a filter without replacing the pads/ cartridges, and you can suggest they add sponges to the filter so when the pads do eventually get thrown out, some filter bacteria remains on the sponges.
If they have an external power filter, you can suggest they get a round/ cylindrical sponge with a hole through the centre (made for some brands of internal power filter) and put it on the intake strainer of the filter. These cylindrical sponges hold beneficial filter bacteria and also stop small fish and sick fish from being drawn into the filter.
------------------------
How often do they do water changes?
How much water do they change?
Do they gravel clean the substrate when they do a water change?
How often are they feeding the fish?
These are linked to poor water quality and quite often people that are new to fish keeping don't know about the filtration cycle and they feed the fish several times a day. They put lots of food in the tank and don't do any water changes for a couple of weeks. The ammonia level goes up and the fish become lethargic and sit on the bottom, they stop feeding, the water smells bad, the fish gets a white film over its body, and the tail starts to fall apart. These are all symptoms of ammonia poisoning and regularly associated with a new tank that is getting too much food and not enough water changes.
The best thing to do under these circumstances is reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week and do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least 2 weeks. The less food going into the tank the less ammonia produced. The big daily water changes will dilute any ammonia in the water. Gravel cleaning the substrate will remove uneaten food and fish waste, which cause ammonia levels to rise.
Lack of water changes can cause nitrate levels to go up and high levels of nitrate will stress and kill fish. The pH can also drop and become very acidic. Acid water will stress fish like livebearers, goldfish and rainbowfish and can cause excess mucous to appear on their body and fins. Acid water and high nitrates can cause fish to become nervous and skittish and dash about the tank if they are startled.
Lack of water changes can allow disease organisms to build up to high levels and affect the fish. Protozoan infections are common in tanks that don't get regular water changes or gravel cleans, or have a dirty filter.
------------------------
Has anything new been added to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
I ask this question because new fish that have been added to the tank in the last couple of weeks can introduce diseases. If the new fish only has a single whitespot parasite on its body, this one parasite can develop into hundreds over a course of 1-2 weeks. The same deal with other types of protozoan or bacterial infections. If a fish has a small number of parasites or disease organisms on its body and is put into an established tank, it can take a week or more before the disease appears on the other fish and they start to show symptoms.
Finding out the history of the tank (what fish, plants, snails, shrimp, etc) have been added to the tank in the last few weeks can help you identify if the problem was brought in by a new fish, or it was already in the tank.
Diseases will regularly be brought in with new fish, plants and shrimp, or the water they are transported in. Whereas poor water quality is usually a major factor in tanks that have been set up for a long time and nothing new has been added in the last few months.
------------------------
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.
Ask for pictures of the sick fish if they haven't provided any.
I'm sure most of you have heard the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". When it comes to identifying diseases, a picture can tell you exactly what the problem is without any words.
Ask for a picture of the sick fish that clearly shows the problem. If they post a picture showing a small portion of the fish (head only), ask them for a few more pictures that show the entire fish. It's a lot easier to identify diseases on fish when you can see the entire fish.
If the images are blurry, ask them to take a few more and check them on their computer before posting them. Blurry images are not useful and the fish can die because the disease cannot be identified due to a blurry picture.
------------------------
Video, Video, Video
If a fish is having trouble swimming, or if it's acting strangely, ask for a short 30 second video showing the symptoms. A video showing unusual behaviour can provide more information than a description and still photograph.
Ask for pictures and video if it is something weird. Most people have access to a mobile phone and can take photographs and video.
If the pictures are too big to post on the forum, get them to reduce the resolution on the camera and take some more. If the video is too big for this website, get them to post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can go to YouTube to view it.
------------------------
What other fishes are in the tank?
Some species of fish get along and some don't. If someone adds a long finned Betta to a tank containing serape and black widow/ skirt tetras, and the Bettas tail gets shredded, knowing what fish are in the tank can help you identify what caused the damage.
Similarly if someone adds a dwarf gourami to a tank and it gets killed within a few hours of being put in the tank, ask what other fish are in there. Chances are there is another gourami or Betta in the tank that considered the new fish as an intruder and tried to chase it out of its territory. The new gourami had nowhere to go and couldn't run/ swim away, and was killed for being an intruder.
------------------------
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply.
I regularly ask this question when dealing with livebearers, rainbowfishes, goldfish and African Rift Lake cichlids. These fishes come from hard water and if the GH and pH are too low, the fish regularly have problems.
Livebearers have lots of issues when kept in soft water with a GH below 150ppm, or a pH below 7.0. There are numerous threads on this forum and other forums with people struggling to keep mollies alive for more than a few weeks. Most of the time the fish are being kept in soft water and they really struggle in that. Mollies will thrive in marine tanks but struggle in tanks with soft water or acid water.
African Rift Lake cichlids can die if the GH or pH of the water is too low. The African Rift Lakes have hard water with a pH above 7.0. The lowest GH in these lakes is around 250ppm and it goes up to 400ppm+ in Lake Tanganyika. The pH starts at about 7.6 for some lakes and goes up to 8.5+ in Lake Tanganyika.
Rainbowfish and goldfish can live in soft water but do better in hard water with a GH above 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.
People don't have to own a GH or KH test kit and I don't recommend buying them because they only get used a couple of times a year. People can usually obtain the GH and KH of their water from their water supply company's website or by telephoning them. Or they can take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
------------------------
If you aren't sure what the problem is and the people asking for help have provided a lot of information, get them to wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge and then do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. This will help to dilute disease organisms in the water and reduce any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that might be causing the problem. If there is a poison in the tank, the water change will help to dilute that too.
If they have lost fish in the last couple of days, get them to do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. Again, this helps to dilute disease organisms and reduce any ammonia that might be produced by the dead fish.
If they have lost fish, tell them not to get more until the problem is identified and resolved. Adding new fish to a tank with poor water quality or diseases in, will simply make the problem worse.
You can refer people to the following link and get them to copy & paste it into their post. Then they can answer the questions that are asked in it.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/start-here-with-your-emergency.422952/
You can also refer people to the following link about what to do if your fish gets sick.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/
And if nothing else, just say "Hi and welcome, and someone should be along shortly to help". That way the person asking for help doesn't think they are being ignored or there is nobody on the forum. Obviously we don't need everyone saying this, but one person can.
------------------------
What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often do they clean the filter?
How do they clean the filter?
A dirty filter can hold harmful microscopic organisms that can make fish sick. All the aquarium water goes through the filter and if the filter is dirty, the tank water will be dirty. In addition to this, if people have a filter that contains pads/ cartridges and they replace these pads every couple of weeks (as directed by the filter instructions), they will be getting rid of the beneficial filter bacteria and causing the tank to cycle again.
If this is the case, you can advise people on how to clean a filter without replacing the pads/ cartridges, and you can suggest they add sponges to the filter so when the pads do eventually get thrown out, some filter bacteria remains on the sponges.
If they have an external power filter, you can suggest they get a round/ cylindrical sponge with a hole through the centre (made for some brands of internal power filter) and put it on the intake strainer of the filter. These cylindrical sponges hold beneficial filter bacteria and also stop small fish and sick fish from being drawn into the filter.
------------------------
How often do they do water changes?
How much water do they change?
Do they gravel clean the substrate when they do a water change?
How often are they feeding the fish?
These are linked to poor water quality and quite often people that are new to fish keeping don't know about the filtration cycle and they feed the fish several times a day. They put lots of food in the tank and don't do any water changes for a couple of weeks. The ammonia level goes up and the fish become lethargic and sit on the bottom, they stop feeding, the water smells bad, the fish gets a white film over its body, and the tail starts to fall apart. These are all symptoms of ammonia poisoning and regularly associated with a new tank that is getting too much food and not enough water changes.
The best thing to do under these circumstances is reduce feeding to 2-3 times a week and do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for at least 2 weeks. The less food going into the tank the less ammonia produced. The big daily water changes will dilute any ammonia in the water. Gravel cleaning the substrate will remove uneaten food and fish waste, which cause ammonia levels to rise.
Lack of water changes can cause nitrate levels to go up and high levels of nitrate will stress and kill fish. The pH can also drop and become very acidic. Acid water will stress fish like livebearers, goldfish and rainbowfish and can cause excess mucous to appear on their body and fins. Acid water and high nitrates can cause fish to become nervous and skittish and dash about the tank if they are startled.
Lack of water changes can allow disease organisms to build up to high levels and affect the fish. Protozoan infections are common in tanks that don't get regular water changes or gravel cleans, or have a dirty filter.
------------------------
Has anything new been added to the tank in the 2 weeks before this started?
I ask this question because new fish that have been added to the tank in the last couple of weeks can introduce diseases. If the new fish only has a single whitespot parasite on its body, this one parasite can develop into hundreds over a course of 1-2 weeks. The same deal with other types of protozoan or bacterial infections. If a fish has a small number of parasites or disease organisms on its body and is put into an established tank, it can take a week or more before the disease appears on the other fish and they start to show symptoms.
Finding out the history of the tank (what fish, plants, snails, shrimp, etc) have been added to the tank in the last few weeks can help you identify if the problem was brought in by a new fish, or it was already in the tank.
Diseases will regularly be brought in with new fish, plants and shrimp, or the water they are transported in. Whereas poor water quality is usually a major factor in tanks that have been set up for a long time and nothing new has been added in the last few months.
------------------------
Pictures, Pictures, Pictures.
Ask for pictures of the sick fish if they haven't provided any.
I'm sure most of you have heard the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". When it comes to identifying diseases, a picture can tell you exactly what the problem is without any words.
Ask for a picture of the sick fish that clearly shows the problem. If they post a picture showing a small portion of the fish (head only), ask them for a few more pictures that show the entire fish. It's a lot easier to identify diseases on fish when you can see the entire fish.
If the images are blurry, ask them to take a few more and check them on their computer before posting them. Blurry images are not useful and the fish can die because the disease cannot be identified due to a blurry picture.
------------------------
Video, Video, Video
If a fish is having trouble swimming, or if it's acting strangely, ask for a short 30 second video showing the symptoms. A video showing unusual behaviour can provide more information than a description and still photograph.
Ask for pictures and video if it is something weird. Most people have access to a mobile phone and can take photographs and video.
If the pictures are too big to post on the forum, get them to reduce the resolution on the camera and take some more. If the video is too big for this website, get them to post it on YouTube and copy & paste the link here. We can go to YouTube to view it.
------------------------
What other fishes are in the tank?
Some species of fish get along and some don't. If someone adds a long finned Betta to a tank containing serape and black widow/ skirt tetras, and the Bettas tail gets shredded, knowing what fish are in the tank can help you identify what caused the damage.
Similarly if someone adds a dwarf gourami to a tank and it gets killed within a few hours of being put in the tank, ask what other fish are in there. Chances are there is another gourami or Betta in the tank that considered the new fish as an intruder and tried to chase it out of its territory. The new gourami had nowhere to go and couldn't run/ swim away, and was killed for being an intruder.
------------------------
What is the GH (general hardness), KH (carbonate hardness) and pH of your water supply.
I regularly ask this question when dealing with livebearers, rainbowfishes, goldfish and African Rift Lake cichlids. These fishes come from hard water and if the GH and pH are too low, the fish regularly have problems.
Livebearers have lots of issues when kept in soft water with a GH below 150ppm, or a pH below 7.0. There are numerous threads on this forum and other forums with people struggling to keep mollies alive for more than a few weeks. Most of the time the fish are being kept in soft water and they really struggle in that. Mollies will thrive in marine tanks but struggle in tanks with soft water or acid water.
African Rift Lake cichlids can die if the GH or pH of the water is too low. The African Rift Lakes have hard water with a pH above 7.0. The lowest GH in these lakes is around 250ppm and it goes up to 400ppm+ in Lake Tanganyika. The pH starts at about 7.6 for some lakes and goes up to 8.5+ in Lake Tanganyika.
Rainbowfish and goldfish can live in soft water but do better in hard water with a GH above 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.
People don't have to own a GH or KH test kit and I don't recommend buying them because they only get used a couple of times a year. People can usually obtain the GH and KH of their water from their water supply company's website or by telephoning them. Or they can take a glass full of tap water to the local pet shop and get them to test it. Write the results down (in numbers) when they do the tests. And ask them what the results are in (eg: ppm, dGH, or something else).
------------------------
If you aren't sure what the problem is and the people asking for help have provided a lot of information, get them to wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge and then do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. This will help to dilute disease organisms in the water and reduce any ammonia, nitrite or nitrate that might be causing the problem. If there is a poison in the tank, the water change will help to dilute that too.
If they have lost fish in the last couple of days, get them to do a big water change and gravel clean the substrate. Again, this helps to dilute disease organisms and reduce any ammonia that might be produced by the dead fish.
If they have lost fish, tell them not to get more until the problem is identified and resolved. Adding new fish to a tank with poor water quality or diseases in, will simply make the problem worse.
You can refer people to the following link and get them to copy & paste it into their post. Then they can answer the questions that are asked in it.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/start-here-with-your-emergency.422952/
You can also refer people to the following link about what to do if your fish gets sick.
https://www.fishforums.net/threads/what-to-do-if-your-fish-gets-sick.450268/
And if nothing else, just say "Hi and welcome, and someone should be along shortly to help". That way the person asking for help doesn't think they are being ignored or there is nobody on the forum. Obviously we don't need everyone saying this, but one person can.
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