First timer here!

[Friesenfamily]

Hi all! Very happy to be part of this group! After reading a ton of posts, I'm still lost so hopefully someone can help me asap.

We don't have test strips so we will be getting them today, but we live out of the city so if there's a chance we need anything else, id like to get it in the same trip.

We have a 55g tank with a carbon filter purchased before christmas. We set it up in the garage and let it cycle with a betta in it...fish store said that would be best but it looks like that was wrong...anyway, it cycled for 4-5 weeks before we moved it to the living room christmas eve. About the 29th, we took our kids to pick out fish. We introduced a rainbow shark, a pleco, 2 black snails, 2 F & 1 M platy, a black balloon Molly, a dalmation Molly, and 5 little guys who are kind of yellowy with black stripes lengthwise (I can't think of the name...theyre schooling fish..). And of course our betta already in there.
A week later (so 2 months ago) our 2yo dumped the entire container of betta food into the tank. We scooped out everything we could immediately and changed about 75% of the water the next day. The water was cloudy 2 days after so we did about 50% water change and got 2 yellow snails.
Then we found one of the little ones (can't think of the name) dead but we still don't think anything of it because the fish store dropped one while putting them in the bags to take home...guessing it was him.
About a month ago, 2 of our platys had babies. There's about 3 that survived that we can tell.
About a week and a half ago, one of the snails eggs hatched (there were 4 "nests" total, just up out of the water on the side of the tank). From what we can tell, about 4 weren't eaten.
About 2 days after that, we noticed our betta, the most energetic and acknowledges us the most of all the fish, was kind of floating on his side, and was floating upwards like he couldn't keep himself down. He'd hang out under weed leaves or in rock holes so he wouldn't float to the top. Then the next day we noticed the balloon Molly was acting the same. I assumed (from forums) that it was something with the gasses in their bellies (fish bladder?) so we did a 35% water change the next day (it's not easy doing this with 3 kids under 2 plus older!). Betta stopped floating sideways and was able to keep himself down but then his fins started looking like they're stuck together, his color is faded (no gold or white that I can tell), but now he's not eating and likes to stay near the tube to the filter or just hangs out on the bottom. Since that helped betta but didn't help molly, I assumed it was definitely the gas in Molly so I gave her a salt bath where I moved her to a container of tank water with Epsom salts for 15 mins then another container with a tiny bit of Epsom to reaclimate her for 5mins. When I put her back in the tank, she was able to make it to the bottom by swimming fiercely (which she couldn't do for the days prior) but would still float back up again like a helium balloon. She was wanting to eat again and was a lot more energetic but still stuck fully upside down.
So now I have a betta that does swim around, but not often, does not eat as much as he used to, and has clumpy/stringy fins. Plus a balloon Molly who is fully stuck upside down and currently cannot even make it near the bottom when she tries. She still eats when she can get a hold of food, and I did try peas but she wouldn't touch them.
Is there any ideas that anyone can give me in regards to the problem...or problems? Every post I've read fits the situation but doesn't...
Please no judgement here...we have been extremely busy since Christmas and are finally slowing down enough to warrant a drive to the city for everything that will hopefully help our kids fish.

 

[Friesenfamily]

I just read this over and we actually had 2M and 1F Platy, so when I found out that was pretty stressful, we got another F. So now there are 4 platys.
Also, when I did that last water change recently that seemed to help the betta, one of the little fish that I can't remember the name of died. He was fine until I started taking out water. He died while I was putting water in. Like half hour from when I noticed he was just not moving much to when he was floating around.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum dont worry about judgement it will never be intended here, fishkeeping is a tough hobby to get right first time and Im more than sure that we have all made similar mistakes at some point, I know I have. And you have dealt with some of them perfectly, especially after the tub of food went in!

So just to confirm the fish you have in there at the moment are

1 male Betta
1 Rainbow Shark,
1 Pleco (do you know which type?)
1 Black Balloon Molly
1 Dalmation Molly
4 Platies
5 'little guys who are kind of yellowy with black stripes' (these could be a couple of species, are they thin like a pencil or kind of diamond shaped? If they are thin they could be a type of Pencil Fish or Annostomus, if they are diamond shaped they could be Tiger Barbs or Ruby Barbs?)
2 black snails

Then one of your main issues seems to be with fish struggling with their ability to swim, you are right it sounds like a swim bladder issue. The easeist way to fix this is to add some cooked peas to the tank for them to eat, just cook up a few frozen peas, take the shells off and chop them up for the fish to eat, let them cool first though. Over night you should notice a difference. It is great that you have worked out the Epsom Salt bath though! Thats a great first step especially since it has got the fish back to eating.

One issue that could be causing the problems for your Betta though, is that they often do not do well in big tanks. Due to their elaborate fins they struggle in the currents of a big tank and it just exhausts them, when you say was hanging near the filter pipe it could be because thats where the current is pushing him and when he is on his side it is just because after a couple of weeks like this he is just worn out. Bettas generally do much better in small tanks somewhere between 5 and 10 gallons with a gentle filter.

It would be really great if you could get a water test kit soon as this will help inform you what you need to do. If you can get this one these are the the most accurate https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000255NCI/?tag= most people on this forum use this so we are all talking the same language in terms of the measurements used.

I am a bit concerned that having had the Betta in the tank for a few weeks and then adding a lot more fish could have caused a situation where your filter could not cope with the amount of ammonia produced by the fish. The bacteria in the filter would only have been enough to handle the waste produced by the Betta, so when you add more fish in it takes a while to add in and when you added most of your fish together it could have reduced the water quality. When the water quality goes bad this is often when you get problems, such as the swim bladder issues you have been experiencing.

One tip for the future as well, it is always really important to research and plan the fish you are going to add to a tank. Talking to people on forums is a great start and there are a lot of other websites out there with great profiles on different fish, one of my favourites is Seriously Fish. I say this because I am worried that your Pleco may outgrow your tank, both in terms of size and the amount of waste they produce, if you can work out which species this is there are some options that would be ok though. I would suspect it will be a Common Pleco which can reach around a foot in size, though some species like Bristlenose, Bulldog or Clown Plecos all stay much smaller, generally under 6 inches.

I hope this has helped
Wills

 

[Byron]

I second Wills info. Please do not acquire any more fish until we have collectively sorted everything out. We need those water tests. And some others.

Water has a hardness level, caused by the amount of dissolved minerals especially calcium and magnesium. We measure this as general or total hardness, GH. Fish have very specific requirements when it comes to GH. If you are on municipal water (not a private well), check with your water authority, on their website or call them, and find out the GH. Also the pH and KH (carbonate hardness, also called Alkalinity). There is no need for a GH or KH test kit if you can find out these numbers. [It is worth having a pH test, the one in the API Master Combo kit will do this.]

Once we have the water dealt with, we can suggest suitable fish. Some of those you mention will not be suitable together, but we can deal wiith this later.

Welcome to TFF.

Byron.

 

[Friesenfamily]

I'm not sure why I wasn't alerted of these replies!...

1 betta
4 small fish with stripes (trying to attach picture)
2 black snails
2 huge yellow snails (added them after food was dumped in and they got really big really fast)
1 pleco (no I don't remember the type and can't find the receipt! Will try to get a picture of him but the research on types to put in was done with the pet store associates so I'm hoping they steered us in the right direction)
4 platys (PLUS 3 babies who are just starting to frequently come out of the weeds in the last few days)
1 balloon Molly
1 dalmation Molly
1 rainbow shark

Got a kit the day I posted this. These were the results:
Nitrate 160
Nitrite 0
Ph 7-7.5
Kh 40
Gh 120
So went back to the store the next day and got a vacuum cleaner for rocks and tetra brand Easy Balance to reduce nitrates. Cleaned the rocks and since it takes out water, it turned into 70% water change. Then we put in the nitrate reducer and stress coat.
Next day did another strip test:
Nitrate 20
Nitrite 0
Ph 7-7.5
Kh 240
Gh 180

Other than the kh and gh, current issues are:
Balloon Molly still upside down and bloated. Will not eat peas and can't just put them in the tank for her to maybe eat an hour later because she can't swim to the bottom. Took her out and put her in a shallow long bucket where she could swim to the bottom and wouldn't touch the peas. She seems much better after every salt bath but I don't know how often I can do them and if I can do them longer or with more salt or if there's something else that will help her.
Betta out and about as usual now. I'm unsure if the size of the tank is the issue as he has always seemed to love it...going from one end to the other, playing in weeds and rocks etc. Just when the nitrates were so high and right after I took care of his fish bladder issue, did he stick by the filter or hide. Not anymore though. But his fins are still stringy (will try to get a pic..its not the easiest to do lol).
Last current issue is that one female Platy is hiding. Started a day before we checked the water specs (might have forgotten to put it in original post). She stayed hidden to the point I had to search thinking she was dead. No swimming sideways. No symptoms except the split in her tail. As of today she is lively and swims around but does hang out on the bottom a lot. Currently thinking I don't have enough female platys so shes stressed. 2 F and 2M. The males chase them ALL day so maybe combined with the high nitrate...

Just tested the levels right now:
Nitrate 20-40
Nitrite 0
Ph 7-7.5
Kh 80
Gh 180

So I don't know why all the fluctuation but I will definitely be going to get a new pillow filter this week. Just hard to find for this tank.

 

[Friesenfamily]

Well I can't post any photos or videos because it won't let me access my gallery and when i try to take one to post directly, it says it's too large. Can't find the thread for how to upload a photo either. Any other way I can do this? Or can someone "tag" me in the thread that tells me what to do?

 

[Byron]

I will not delve much into disease/illness issues as that is not an area where I have much experience, and guessing is no good. There are some other things that stand out though.

First, these water readings. Which test kit do you have? And do you have an ammonia test?

These are tests of the tank water, presumably. Can you also test the source (tap) water on its own, especially for nitrate, GH, KH and pH? For pH,out-gas the CO2; you can do this by letting a glass of water sit 24 hours, but for now you can place a small amount of tap water in a sealed jar or something and shake it very briskly for a few minutes, then test.

The GH is too low (on the soft side) for livebearers, particularly mollies. This may be a major issue with them. Do not consider acquiring any livebearers in future, as they will not be healthy and probably die. Mollies, platy, swordtail, guppy, endler are all livebearers.

The extreme nitrate fluctuation needs to be pinned down. Adding chemical preparations is not the best way to deal with this, and unless you have nitrate in the source water (the tap water tests will tell us this) not the way to go at all. Water changes, keeping the fish load within reason, not overfeeding, filter and substrate cleaning...these are the ways to keep nitrates low if they are occurring within the tank and not from the source water.

We need to ID the fish, On photos, you can down-size your photos on your PC, which should allow you to upload them here. I am not much with PC technical issues, but this may help.

 

[Friesenfamily]

 

[Byron]

The image doesn't show. Might be best to PM a moderator for assistance in uploading images.