Emergency To Me :(

[saraslim75]

Here's the long and short of it. Got my son a 10 gallon fish tank for his birthday in May, cycled it for a week, and then got three fancy guppies. I test the water regularly and do water changes. About 4 weeks ago I started an algea bloom and took out the rocks and washed them. Around two weeks ago, I tested the water everything was good and we went to get a couple more fish. We got an algea eater and an eel loach. We woke up this morning and one of the guppies has died, the other two are not looking good. Not sure what to do Who knew you could get attached to fish??? Any suggestions or opinions are welcome. Thanks in advance.

Sara

 

[saraslim75]

Also have to add, that I started feeding freeze dried blood worms 2 weeks ago too, prior to getting the new fish. Which they went crazy over! Just tested the water and here are the results

.3 Ammonia
0 Nitrite
75 Hardness
0 Chlorine
120 Alkalinitity
PH of 7
10 Nitrate

Sorry, new to maintaining a tank. Thanks again

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Are you testing the water with test strips or liquid test kits? Strips can give very inaccurate readings.

How did you cycle the tank for a week? "Fishlesss cycling" (where you maintain 2-5ppm of ammonia) would normally take 30+ days, my gut feeling from the information supplied so far is you are in a "fish in cycling" situation, which involves ~50% water changes every couple of days and being ready to do massive (~95%) changes if bad daily test results are obtained from a liquid test kit.

What are these "Eel Loach" and "algae eater" you bought recently? Pangio doriae and Gyrinocheilus aymonieri? The latter grows far too big (~40cm) for your tank and need well chosen tankmates, they tend to rasp on the flanks of tankmates. I worry your "Eel Loach" might be a Weather Loach, which again grow far too big (~25cm) for your tank and need 5-foot tanks with at least 5 "friends" (they are very social creatures). The sooner you can get photos of these two fish and upload them to a site like Imageshack to them embed them in this thread, the better.

An established 10g tank is only suitable for a handful of fish that stay small even when adult size, for example 5 or 6 male Guppies. Small volume tanks can very quickly turn into a toxic soup, as there is so little water to dilute ammonia and nitrite.

In the meantime, I would personally do a ~95% water change ASAP, removing all but enough water to cover the fish on the tank floor and then replacing with similar temp dechlorinated water.

 

[saraslim75]

Okay, yes it was a "fishless" cycle. Doing the water testing with strips. Would the results be really that different than what I actually posted?

Here is what the Eel loach looks like, although it is not striped http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4959

And here is what the algea eater looks like http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile47_comment.html

Also the loach has been hiding in the ship and other decorations I have in the tank since putting him in, I barely see him come out.

This is what I get for going to Pet Smart! Not smart at all

 

[fluttermoth]

Okay, yes it was a "fishless" cycle. Doing the water testing with strips. Would the results be really that different than what I actually posted?

What ppm of ammonia did you cycle with? Test strips can be very inaccurate, so you can't really be sure what's going on there. If the tank was properly cycled you shouldn't be seeing any ammonia. Test strips very rarely give a false positive (false negatives are more common), so you probably do have ammonia present, which is a worry. Ammonia is very toxic to fish and could well be the cause of your problems..

Here is what the Eel loach looks like, although it is not striped http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=4959

Kuhli loaches need a sand substrate and to be kept in groups of at least six, or they'll feel too scared to come out and eat. There are a few different species, not all have stripes.

And here is what the algea eater looks like http/badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile47_comment.html

Ok, I'm afraid that needs to go; they grow to around a foot long and get quite aggressive towards other fish as they get bigger.

Also the loach has been hiding in the ship and other decorations I have in the tank since putting him in, I barely see him come out.

Yes, he'll be feeling scared because he's on his own, as I said above

This is what I get for going to Pet Smart! Not smart at all

Well, we can't 'name and shame' shops on here, for legal reasons, but it's best to do your own research anyway; it's very easy to ask on here

Get some big water changes done to get the ammonia down, and try and invest in a good liquid or tablet based test kit ASAP