Advice needed - Tropical Aquarium

[betac0de]

My tropical fish are dying, far too many, far too quickly.

I originally has 15 neons / 6 male guppies and 4 female guppies plus two spotted nosed catfish, now all but 4 neons are alive and just 2 male guppies and 3 female guppies + both catfish are fine.

It's really worrying me, the water has an even pH of 7. There are 4 live plants and a strong filter to keep the water clean.

Some of the fish seem to get a light "White" color on their bodies and some of them get tattered tails.

HELP - Am I condemned to fish hell?

 

[Angel Lady]

What is your water readings besides ph (like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate)??? Give us them readings so we will have something to go by..How long has your tank been up and running??? How big is your tank??This will help us find out what is going on with your fish.. OH and welcome to the Forum

 

[betac0de]

What is your water readings besides ph (like ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate)??? Give us them readings so we will have something to go by..How long has your tank been up and running??? How big is your tank??This will help us find out what is going on with your fish.. OH and welcome to the Forum

My tank measurements [75cm long / 30cm wide / 50cm high]

I don't know about "ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate" I think I need to get a kit for that.

The tank has been up and running for over 2 months.

I have a power filter, do I need an undergravel filter?

What should my tank have in the way of filtration and other bits? I'm a complete n00b.


Thanks

 

[steppy104]

if you have a petsmart near you they should give you a free reading if you take a water sample to them....unless thats just my petsmart....but i doubt it.....i think that thats a pretty good source for last minute.....GL!

 

[betac0de]

if you have a petsmart near you they should give you a free reading if you take a water sample to them....unless thats just my petsmart....but i doubt it.....i think that thats a pretty good source for last minute.....GL!

Thanks I'll do that!

But I'm in Australia - however I'm pretty sure my local aquarium store can do me a free reading.

 

[NinjaSmurf]

Um, not to sound morbid, but did you find bodies or are they just disappearing? I don't know what kind of catfish you have but I know a lot of them have a habit of, how should I say this...Inviting the smaller fish as dinner? It might explain the tattered tails.... I could be wrong but that might be it. I hope it isn't though....

 

[Angry_Platy]

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Aussie!!

Do you know anything about cycling??

 

[betac0de]

Welcome to the forum from a fellow Aussie!!

Do you know anything about cycling??

Hi!

I cycle the water in the tank, about 1/3 of it every two weeks. Hope that's correct.

 

[tstenback]

I think that this may help. When you say

Some of the fish seem to get a light "White" color on their bodies and some of them get tattered tails.

do you mean a fuzzy white appearance, slimy white appearance or their color is just faded. A picture may help if you can post one. The tattered fins could be fish nipping or a water quality issue. How often do you clean the gravel and how much do you feed the fish?

 

[wrs]

well one thing about the fish you hgave. neons are really fragail, and the male guppies kill eachother over ther girls because of the number being less. So that minght conribute to it as well.

 

[ger87410]

The guppy male:female ratio is supose to be 1:3 I think. Guppy males don't kill each other if there's a lot of females. I got a 55g with a ton of guppies and I just added black fin sharks. Guppies are disappearing pretty quickly. Anyone say "dinner time"? The very first thing that I would check is the nitrite. Nitrite, ammonia, and nitrate are all rated in parts per million and they should all read 0. Sounds like nitrite poisoning.