At the end of my tether :(

[-Clairey-]

Hi All,

Sorry to just barge in on your forum with my problems (I'm on several other non-fish-related forums and I know how annoying it gets when people just dump a load of questions and expect answers) but I really am at the end of my tether and could do with some advice!

I'm relatively new to this fish-keeping malarkey - my friend bought me a tank and some fish for my birthday back in november and up until recently I thought I was doing ok comsidering I was kinda thrown in at the deep end with no knowledge what so ever! (no pun intended )

Vital stats are:
NH3: 0.6
NO3: 5
NO2: 0.1
PH: 7
The water here is fairly chalky, but i take water from a filter tap and add aquarium water conditioner.
Temp: 26-28 C
Water and filter appear clean and are not smelly.

20-25% water changes every three to four weeks

40L tank - its one of the "Via Aqua" types with the built in filter and light in the lid

Contents: 4 weeks ago there were 7 platies, 3 neons and 4 cory's, now there's 5 platies, 3 neons and 3 corys. All the fish in the tank have been there for at least three months and have been fine until recently.


Basically, my problem is this - about 4 weeks ago I noticed that one of my larger platies had the first signs of fin rot, so i treated the tank with anti-fin rot medicine as directed on the bottle. It said to treat it once, leave it to work for a week, then replace 30% of the water and treat again, which I did. By this time, my other large platy started to show signs of fin rot too. Unfortunately, I then had to leave my fish in my dad's care for three weeks while I was away in the US, but my dad kept fish years ago so is fairly clued-up.

I got back yesterday and my dad told me that three of my fish had died while I was away - the first platy that got fin rot, plus another platy and a cory which had both always been really healthy before and had showed no signs of illness.

Now the second large platy which showed signs of fin rot is looking very ill and hiding away at the bottom of the tank as is another of my cory's.

While I was away, my dad treated the tank with the anti-fin rot medicine twice and swapped the filter for one which created less turbulance as he said they seemed to be hiding under the rocks and plants to get away from the splash, but this had never been a problem before.

All of my platies have very enlarged bellies which originally i put down to pregnancy, but no babies have appeared - could this be some kind of internal infection which has lowered their immunity to other problems (ie, the fin rot)?

When I bought my 4 cory's about three months ago, two of them had no eyes - i called the shop and they said that it was probably the result of a past internal illness and nothing to worry about... I'm a newbie at this game - was I right to believe them?

Any advice anyone can offer would be much appreciated - even if it's something along the lines of "You fool, you shouldn't have done that..." I've tried eveything I can think of and for a while it seemed that I'd sorted out all my newbie issues... but apparently not!

Thanks in advance, C x

 

[ferrikins]

from what I can make out from the quick read through I did.

It sounds like your tank is re cycling, when you dad replaced the filter did he also put a bran new filter pad in. if he did your filter is going to have to cycle all over again.

Fin rot is normaly due to bad water, and my the wast amount to start with was to much for you fist filter, and the ammonia backed up abit, coursing the fin fot. You did'nt say how big the tank is??

I hope that makes sence, if it does'nt I hope someone can exsplain better than me.

 

[sunflower]

Ontop of what ferrikins has just advised I would definately recommend more frequent water changes. The amount you are changing is fine however it should be once a week not once every 3 or 4 weeks.

This will help keep the nitrates down in the tank and improve the quality.

Hope this helps!

 

[-Clairey-]

Thanks both - I did say that tank is 40L in size - does that change anything?

I used to change 20% of water once a week when I first got the tank, but I had permanently high nitrate readings - my LFS reccommended changing 20% every three to four weeks, which I did and the readings went down.

I've never had any problems with the filter before - its always done a perfectly good job - dad only changed it because the fish were trying to get out of the splash. He used filter medium from the existing filter, so in theory it shouldnt be cycling.

Any advice on what I can do to stop the remaining ones dying?

Its starting to get to the point where I'm considering giving up and getting some less pretty, but hardy goldfish!

 

[Tolak]

It is possible that the eyeless corys were still carrying some sort of disease, add that on top of the water quality issues, and you have some sick fish.

A cycled tank has no ammonia or nitrites. These can lower a fish's resistance, letting an opportunistic bacteria or virus do it's thing.

What is the name of the medication you used?

Tolak

 

[-Clairey-]

I always use the same brand of all the water treatments just in case certain brands arent compatible - its called Interpet.

The water conditioner is Interpet Fresh Start and the medication is Interpet Anti-fungus and fin rot

 

[sunflower]

That's quite bizarre advice since regular partial water changes are supposed to lower nitrites and nitrates etc

It certianly does sound like that tank is going through another cycle

I would do small regular water changes (every couple of days) until things stabilise.

 

[ferrikins]

40lt, erm whats that about 10g.

so I'd say your stocking level is ok. The high nitrAte at the begining would have been the cycling, and the nitrate going down would just be your tank settling.

As other have said you water change's will be why your water cem is off. If your dad used the same media, then you should be fine on that front. On the nitrAte mine is alway 10 in one tank and 20 in the other, not had any deaths for months.

What's you water temp??

 

[-Clairey-]

Ok, I'll give it a go - I just feel really bad that these poor little guys are suffering and nothing I do seems to help! How will replacing water affect the anti fin rot medication? will i need to add more to the water i replace? if so, do i just dose for the new water I'm adding or dose for the whole tank? (ie, if the dose is 40ml of medication per 40 litres of water for example and I change 10 litres, do i add 10 ml of treatment or 40ml?)

I'm planning to take a water sample to the LFS tomorrow to get them to test it in case I'm doing something wrong with the DIY tests I've got. Will let you know what they say. Fingers crossed eh?

 

[Danny - the lost soul---]

I would have to agree, water changes should be done alittle more frequent . Though if the tank has proper filtration it may be able to go alitlle longer in some casses. Thus depending on the load the filtration is taking.

Now, after you treated the tank for the fin rot. You say you did a water change right?
Was the filter or filter media cleaned at the same time ?
Hopefully not because if so you threw off the tanks chemistry. If this was done you will have to wait it out and let the tank reastablish itself.
Now, if the filter was not changed chances are there is either a bacterial infection or a fungal infection secondary to the fin rot. What other signs are the fish showing? With platies fin rot is common. In most casses brought in or introduced by new fish, poor water quality. fin nipping can also bring fin rot on if again the water chemistry is off.

As for the cories with no eyes. poor things Sounds like the pet store clerk really knows his fish. An intestinal problem wil not IMO and experience will NOT cause eyes to be missing. This was probably a genetic problem or it can go back to the breeding.

I would not add anything else to the tank NOR change any water or filter media.
Between the medication and the water change you lost alot of much needed bacteria which was disrupted with the chemical and water change. Also cut back on the feedings till water quality starts to show signs of improvement.

Think I got it all
Danny
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[-Clairey-]

I didnt wash the filter medium after treating with the anti- fin rot but i did take out the carbon layer as directed on the medication instructions

My filter has five different layers of filter medium and when I clean them, I tend to clean only one or two layers at a time so I dont wash away all the bacteria - is this the right thing to do or is this a complete waste of time?

As for other signs - cant really think of anything more than I said in my original post... now obvious signs of fin rot on two of them, all exept a couple of the healtiest looking platies and the neons are loitering at the bottom of the tank under the rocks/plants, the remaining cory with no eyes (and now signs of fin rot) is a darker colour and larger than the other two, but he's been like that for a while and all the platties have big bellies.

Thank you all for your help - it really is much appreciated!

 

[sunflower]

Do you wash the filter sponges in your tank water?

That's the best thing to do. Every now and again when you do a water change, rinse the sponges out in the tank water you have just removed.

Also, if you are replacing the sponges at any time, replace no more than about 50% with brand new sponges. That makes sure you still retain some original bacteria and don't send your tank into another cycle.

 

[-Clairey-]

Rightio - we're all still alive... although a cory and two platies are looking decidedly ropey!

I took a pot of water to the LFS this morning to get it tested and the results were as follows:

NH4: 0
NO2: 0.5
NO3: 40
PH: 7.5
GH: 12
KH: 6

The guys' advice was to do a 20% water change and reduce the amount of food i give them to help lower the Nitrite. He also said that the water was very hard and might want to consider doing something about that. I'm going to take another test in next weekend to see whats what - for the sake of the £3 it costs I'd rather know that it's being done properly instead of me trying to judge it on a colour chart!

I'll also take in a sample of water from home as well - the tap nearest my room comes straight from the mains, but the kitchen sink has a water filter fitted to it - I'll take a sample from each to see if one is better than the other.

The LFS also reccommended MelaFix Antibacterial Remedy to sort out the fin rot and any possible internal infections (I described the bloated bellies and compared them to the platies that had in the shop - he said he couldnt really tell without looking, but it's certainly not normal, so the anti-bacterial treatment should help).

So, I'm now off to change 20% of the water and add a dose of this treatment... kill or cure i suppose!