Advice Needed Please

[mark35]

Hi all, newbe here.
My daughter received a tropical tank set up for Christmas, all was going well until tonight. We'd had 3 fish in for 2 weeks. 2 platies and a cat fish, who was swimming upside-down and bumping into things. I have taken this out. The only changes I have made is putting some real plants in. Could this be the cause? Also, I have noTiced that one of the platies has white spots on it's body... I am assuming that this is white spot.

I've raised the temp by 1 degree and will gradually increase this to 28 degrees. The soonest I can get treatment into the tank is tomorrow evening. Is there anything else I can do?

Mark

 

[guppi]

50% Water change, make sure its dechlorinated water.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Hi all, newbe here.
My daughter received a tropical tank set up for Christmas, all was going well until tonight. We'd had 3 fish in for 2 weeks. 2 platies and a cat fish, who was swimming upside-down and bumping into things. I have taken this out. The only changes I have made is putting some real plants in. Could this be the cause? Also, I have noTiced that one of the platies has white spots on it's body... I am assuming that this is white spot.

I've raised the temp by 1 degree and will gradually increase this to 28 degrees. The soonest I can get treatment into the tank is tomorrow evening. Is there anything else I can do?

Mark

It's a common thing at Christmas, new fish tank and the desire to get fish in straight away but as you will hear said in many places on this forum, it's not a good thing.

I'll take it that you got the tank then put the fish in almost immediately. I don't know what size the tank is but I suspect your fish have got away with it for a while until the ammonia built up because the filter has not yet got the bacteria to dispose of it. Because this has caused the fish stress they have probably got Ich, or 'white spot'. To get rid of it you have to treat the water but here you have a problem because to get rid of the ammonia you will have to do big water changes.

This subject has been covered many times on the forum, just put 'cycling' or similar into the search box and you will find out all about how to do it and why you need to.

For now however, you need to raise the temperature, do a lot of water changes and medicate the new water for white spot. If you use medication you must remove any carbon filtration or it will remove the meds. Don't replace any of the other filter media but maintain adequate water flow by gently sqeezeing it out in aquarium water (not tap water) but only if it needs it and I suspect that after such a short time, it won't.

Good luck and I hope it turns out ok.

Martin

 

[CezzaXV]

Some good advice so far, but if you can't get medication in until tomorrow evening, I would turn the temp back down where it was. The reason it is generally advised to turn the temperature up is that it speeds up the life cycle of the parasite. This is a good thing because the meds can only work during a certain period of the life cycle and so it means you get there faster. However, by turning up the temperature without adding any medication, all you're doing is speeding up their life cycle and causing them to breed more quickly.

The "cat fish" (a cory, maybe?) sounds like it had a swim bladder problem. These can sometimes pop out of nowhere without any real explanation as to why.

 

[mark35]

The tank has been set up for 5 weeks and the fish have been in for just over two... thanks for your advise so far.

Mark

 

[CezzaXV]

The tank has been set up for 5 weeks and the fish have been in for just over two... thanks for your advise so far.

Mark

What was it doing in the three weeks before fish? If it was just standing with water in it, I'm afraid that won't have achieved much. It might help you and benefit your fish to read up on cycling, which is breeding bacteria to deal with poisonous ammonia and nitrite. The problem with the catfish and the platies could be ammonia related. Although it's not direct ammonia poisoning, the presence of ammonia in the tank usually causes a reduction in health and the fishes' ability to fight off disease.

 

[mark35]

In the first 3 weeks we added nutra-fin cycle to introduce the bacteria into de-chlorinated water. On Saturday just gone we went to A5 Aquatics and they did a water test for us - ammonia was 0.5, nitrate 0.3, pH 8. We were advised not to add any more fish at this stage and told that real plants might be a good idea. For info the tank is 35 litres.

Mark

 

[CezzaXV]

Not good, your tank will have achieved nothing in the three weeks it was sat there.

I'd recommend you go do some reading on fish-in cycling. As your tank isn't cycled, the ammonia will almost definitely be causing ill health in your fish, and eventually death.

For real plants to remove stuff like that from the water, you really need to have a hell of alot of them and grow them well - not something we'd recommend for a beginner or even a more experienced fishkeeper.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

Some good advice so far, but if you can't get medication in until tomorrow evening, I would turn the temp back down where it was.................However, by turning up the temperature without adding any medication, all you're doing is speeding up their life cycle and causing them to breed more quickly.

This is poor advice cezza for two reasons:

1. Turning the temperature up and then turning it back down again is bad for fish that are already stressed and is likely to exacerbate their problems.
2. Your information about the temperature is plain wrong. Yes it speeds up the life cycle but a rise in temperature alone can kill ich, no meds needed. But, it does have to be high, i.e. 30 or 31C.

 

[Prime Ordeal]

In the first 3 weeks we added nutra-fin cycle to introduce the bacteria into de-chlorinated water. On Saturday just gone we went to A5 Aquatics and they did a water test for us - ammonia was 0.5, nitrate 0.3, pH 8. We were advised not to add any more fish at this stage and told that real plants might be a good idea. For info the tank is 35 litres.

Mark

Hi Mark

As you have fish in the tank you need to be making partial water changes on a regular (daily at least) basis to keep the ammonia, and nitrite when it appears, below 0.25ppm. As you need to check this daily it's imperative that you get yourself a liquid test kit, something like the API master freshwater kit (eBay is cheapest). Your fish's ailments are all caused by the high level of ammonia in the tank.

 

[CezzaXV]

Some good advice so far, but if you can't get medication in until tomorrow evening, I would turn the temp back down where it was.................However, by turning up the temperature without adding any medication, all you're doing is speeding up their life cycle and causing them to breed more quickly.

This is poor advice cezza for two reasons:

1. Turning the temperature up and then turning it back down again is bad for fish that are already stressed and is likely to exacerbate their problems.
2. Your information about the temperature is plain wrong. Yes it speeds up the life cycle but a rise in temperature alone can kill ich, no meds needed. But, it does have to be high, i.e. 30 or 31C.

1. The OP said they'd only turned it up a degree anyway. As long as you're not whacking it up and whacking it down again, it'll be fine. In the wild, water temperature can vary a few degrees depending on outside temperature, night and day etc. My temperature in my tank can swing half a degree either side of what I want it to be, a full degree in effect. In any case, if you let the heater do the work and don't add any hot/cold water yourself, it's not going to be a quick enough change in temp anyway.
2. A temperature that high is not suitable for 95% of tropical fish. It might kill the ich, but it'll also highly stress the fish and make them more susceptible to disease. As you said, we don't want to stress fish that are already stressed and exacerbate their problems.

 

[mark35]

Thanks for the good advice, i'm not a complete novice as i kept fish very successfully when i was a teenager. but i will be sacking the forum off. back to the books for me. boosh.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Thanks for the good advice, i'm not a complete novice as i kept fish very successfully when i was a teenager. but i will be sacking the forum off. back to the books for me. boosh.

I have absolutely no idea what you just said.

 

[ShinySideUp]

Thanks for the good advice, i'm not a complete novice as i kept fish very successfully when i was a teenager. but i will be sacking the forum off. back to the books for me. boosh.

For someone who is not a complete novice, this poster has asked some very novice questions -- and his fish are dying; let's hope he can read.

 

[f111shy]

Could the cat fish that is swimming upside down be, an actual upside down catfish ? I know it's silly to ask but I'm just checking all the possibilities