Fish Dying And Snail Problems

[Dean_W]

I am posting here for my dad, his tropical fish tank has been running for around a year now. I want to take over the running of it as he has to much of a relaxed approach towards the tank upkeep. To start with my dad brought some black molles, swardtails neon tetras and a cat fish. With the tank set up with sand, plants and some wood (believe its drift wood) we introduced the fish. Now the black molleys decided to mate and we ended up with over 50 small fish in the tank. Some of the fish started to dye due to fin rot i believe and this was cured. To prevent the black molleys reproducing even more the bloke at the fish shop told my dad to buy an angel fish. over the past 6 months the number of fish has been declining and now we are left with 6. While the fish have been declining the amount of snails has increased. It looks as though the bottom of the fish have been ripped apart when they die, i dont know if this is due to other fish picking at them or due to whatever condition they have.

Sorry for the long story but i thought as much detail as possible is better than nothing. Now does anyone know what would be the cause of the snail increase and the fish dying?

 

[always4lora]

which fish have you get left now then? rippied apart is either going to be fish picking on it or the other fish eating it when it's dead i would of thought .

 

[Dean_W]

currently have the catfish, 2 neon tetra's, angel fish and i dont know what the other to are called (sorry my knowledge is limited at the moment) I have a picture though:

 

[snakequeen]

snail increase is usually cos of overfeeding fish so they reproduce quicker

 

[Dean_W]

they usually get 3 small feeds a day.

To solve my problems are there and kits you would recommend to test the water is ok. Or would it be best to start a fresh so i know everything is ok then once the tank is running properly i could introduce more fish.

 

[kenny fish fanatic]

they usually get 3 small feeds a day.

To solve my problems are there and kits you would recommend to test the water is ok. Or would it be best to start a fresh so i know everything is ok then once the tank is running properly i could introduce more fish.

hi i would do a water change,and as another person says start from scratch,cant stand snails there on the plants and they take some getting shot of,i will only plant my tank up with plastic plants,one of the best ways to sort the snails out is to put a couple of pakistani loaches,in they eat them,,good luck,

 

[always4lora]

i brought an API Master test kit from pet's at home it was £26 and is really accurate , looks a bit daunting with all the bottles of liquids but it's fairly easy to use. i feed mine once a day and they seem fine , most tubs of food say 2-3 times a day but this is only so that you run out and buy more...

 

[Dean_W]

I will purchase one of these kits and see what the water is like and post up results.

Am i right in thinking there are good snails for the aqurium and bad snails?

Here are a few other pictures of the tank:

Taken today, its due a 10% change tomorrow.

 

[rabbut]

Right, hold off the waterchanges for the time being. The decline in fish numbers and reportedly scketchy maintanance schedual lead me to suspect OTS (Old Tank Symdrome) where the pH falls, and nitrate rises suddenly. Waterchanges at this point could easily stress and kill the fish, by toxic shocking them, unless they are done savvily (probibly more to come on that in a later post)

That looks one monster common plec (catfish). What size is he at now?

A plec of that size in the there puts a massive load on the tank, so unless you have been doing 50% weely waterchanges or more on the system, there will almost certainly be an issue with sudden waterchanges.

Can you please get hold of a liquid drop based test kit, and test for Ammonia, NitrIte, nitrAte and pH?

What is the recent maintanance done on the tank (if known)?

I notice the inlet and outlet sets of a Rena Exturnal filter there. What model do you have? If you don't know, how many media baskets are inside the see-through filter case?

What media is in the filter? If you don't know, could you post some photos of it?

The tank has a good scape to it, so that does not need any real work, unless you want to tweek things. Once you have given the above information, we can better help you The unidentifyed fish you have are, I think, Bosmani Rainbows. Deffinately a rainbow of some form, but not 100% on the Basmani colour form. They are cracking fish when coloured up, but once you have the tank sorted out, they will need a bigger group to feel secure and show their true potential beauty

HTH
Rabbut

 

[always4lora]

there snails that are alright for aquarium and will help clean it and stuff , there's some that are pests. there some in the species topic on this website that will ahve more information on them . Whats the dark bit's on the bottom of the tank?

The tank looks well laid out i like it

 

[Dean_W]

That looks one monster common plec (catfish). What size is he at now?

The catfish is around about 10 inches in length, he seems to have stopped growing for around 2 months now.

Can you please get hold of a liquid drop based test kit, and test for Ammonia, NitrIte, nitrAte and pH?

I will go to the local aquarium tomorrow and obtain a kit to test these.

What is the recent maintanance done on the tank (if known)?

Up till now my dad has done 10% weekly and then on the forth week done a 50% water change.

I notice the inlet and outlet sets of a Rena Exturnal filter there. What model do you have? If you don't know, how many media baskets are inside the see-through filter case?

it is the rena filstar xp2

What media is in the filter? If you don't know, could you post some photos of it?

im not sure what filters it has in there, but i will be able to obtain pictures tomorrow for you. If i remember correctly its the same media as what comes standard.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[pooloflight]

That looks one monster common plec (catfish). What size is he at now?

The catfish is around about 10 inches in length, he seems to have stopped growing for around 2 months now.

Can you please get hold of a liquid drop based test kit, and test for Ammonia, NitrIte, nitrAte and pH?

I will go to the local aquarium tomorrow and obtain a kit to test these.

What is the recent maintanance done on the tank (if known)?

Up till now my dad has done 10% weekly and then on the forth week done a 50% water change.

I notice the inlet and outlet sets of a Rena Exturnal filter there. What model do you have? If you don't know, how many media baskets are inside the see-through filter case?

it is the rena filstar xp2

What media is in the filter? If you don't know, could you post some photos of it?

im not sure what filters it has in there, but i will be able to obtain pictures tomorrow for you. If i remember correctly its the same media as what comes standard.

Many thanks for your help.

hi clown loaches , will get rid of your snails as well, also you can buy snail eating snails,

there snails that are alright for aquarium and will help clean it and stuff , there's some that are pests. there some in the species topic on this website that will ahve more information on them . Whats the dark bit's on the bottom of the tank?

The tank looks well laid out i like it

clown loaches will get rid of your snails for you, also snail eating snails

 

[Corleone]

One thing about assassin snails, they'll turn to scavenging after they finish with your snails. They breed slower than most pest snails, but they'll still feed on the same things sustaining the pests, so you might end up with an infestation of expensive snails. At least you could try selling them then. They're an interesting and ironic solution to snails, but they can end up being too ironic if you don't want them anymore.

Clown loaches are quite big - judging from the thread, I'd strongly advise against adding any fish to the tank right now, you've got some good guidance, get things squared away first, the snails can be handled later. In the mean time, snail traps can thin them out (I like lettuce in a jar, just leave it in overnight and in the morning, throw away any snails left on it).

 

[Dean_W]

Today i have tested for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite and the ph levels. All are at an acceptable level apart from the nitrate which was in the 100mg/l bracket, The booklet recommended regular water changes to help reduce this. It also suggested to test the tap water, which came out at an acceptable level (50mg/l). So would water changes with the introduction of tap safe help solve this problem?

 

[minxfishy]

When you start the water changes I would do so at small amounts. What were the ammonia and nitrIte levels at?

The rainbow looks like a Melanotaenia lacustris (Lake Katubu/turquoise rainbow) to me although to be honest he doesnt look in good shape to me.