Help Needed With Cardinal's And Rummy's

[Chris_Wood]

Wondering if any one can help as I'm running out of ideas!

I have a heavily planted Juwel Rio 125 which has been set up for several months now with:

modified lighting (ala Jimbo's) consisting of 2x Arcadia Freshwater & 2 x Arcadia Original Tropical tubes
Nutrafin Natural CO2 system
Rena Cor Substrate Heater
Juwel Standard Internal Filter (with Eheim Ehfi Torf Peat & Eheim Substrat Pro, carbon removed)
TetraTec EX600 External Filter (with Eheim Ehfi Torf Peat & Eheim Substrat Pro, carbon removed)
TetraTec HT100 (100W) Heater
Back to Nature 'Rocky Juwel' backgorund - expensive but looks fantastic!

Currently stocked with:
8 Cardinals (very small, good colour)
8 Rummy Noses (large, very good colour)
2 Rams (very small juveniles, that seem slightly shy and odd - always been like that even in LFS)
3 Black Angels (very recent additions, about 3" long at the moment)
4 Panada Corys (all fine)
4 Sterba Corys (all fine)
2 Adolfi Corys (one had barbles missing, but is growing and looks healthy)
1 False Zebra Plec L199 (fine always hiding on his favourate verticle rock)
1 Green Spotted Plec (fine, see him around much more than the L199)
1 Siamese Figher (male, fine)

Water stats are (performing 10 to 25% water changes every other day at the moment):

Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 0
Ph: 7
GH: 5? (drops from Tera Laborette kit)


Right with all of that out of the way here is my problem:

The Cardinals and the Rummy seem to be suffering with fin problems!

They both have had Ich which I have been treating with the King British White Spot Eliminator and it seems to be dying out (have combined this tretment with rasing temp and airation - no other fish affected).

However they also seem to be losing fins, sometime I come back in from work (c. 5PM) and the fins (usually tail) are pale and then they seem to be missing bits to most of the fin. If left it just gets worse by the next morning I have already had 2 cardinals and 2 rummys totally lose a tails and die.

Have I got fin rot?
Is this related to the Ich problem?
Is something nipping/attacking the tetra and what would it be (I know most of you will instantly point at the Angels but they have only jusy gone in and this was happining before their addition)?

Please help as I am loosing tetras almost every other day!

CW

 

[WILDER]

Finrot is common on top of itch, you will need a bacterial med, maybe just add half the dose with the whitespot med for now, increase aeration abit more.

 

[RadaR]

Yeah, I had fin rot and whitespot at the same time too, killed my Female Port Acara
Isn't that alot of fish for a 125 litre?

 

[Chris_Wood]

Thanks RadaR and Wilder for your replies

I will do as suggested and also use a bacterial med.

However, quite a disater when I returned home from work tonight, all cardinals had sucumbe 6 of which were dead and the other two died early this morning

Also two of the rummy noses had died!

All the other rummy noses look OK except two with Ich, will carry on treating and have done a massive 75% water change and cleaned the substrate to try and remove as much of the protozoan as I can.

I agree it is maybe a lot of fish and I am still unsure if there is not a bit of fin nipping going on as a result I will take the Rams, Angles and Plecs back to the LFS tommorow until I cure this problem!

What is a max stocking level for a 125 litre tank with my level of filtration?

Also I have a snady substrate with laterite mixed in (for the plants) and my tank smells! I have some mopani wood in there and this smells so I have removed it. Should a tank smell, do tanks with sandy substrates smell? Can't remember my older gravel tanks smelling like this?

Any info would be gratefully received I getting really down seeing all of these lovely little fish dying!

CW

 

[RadaR]

Ah, that sucks dude.
The main cause of a smelly tank is ammonia.
Ive got a Rio 125 too hehe. So thats 125 cm of fish but I usually say about 30 small fish and then judge how many small fish a medium fish or large fish takes out of your 30.

 

[WILDER]

R.I.P.

 

[Chris_Wood]

Hi Guys,

Update - returned the larger fish to LFS, got credit note and no more missing fins on me rummys!

The mopani wood I had in the tank I think was bad as it really stinks and the quarium is much less smelly now!

Going to see how the rummy's do for the next few weeks, make sure the Ich is completely gone and think about some other fish in a few weeks time.

CW

PS - Guy at the LFS suggested that Protozin was a good treatment for tetras with Ich, any one any opinions on it as I have never used it?

 

[WILDER]

I would be careful with protozin as it can effects neons tetras in a bad way, so i would try half dose first to see how they handle it.

 

[Chris_Wood]

Thanks Wilder!

How is it with Rummys?

And for future reference are angels OK with rummys?

CW

 

[WILDER]

It's more the corys i worried about with being scaless fish, if they cope with the half dose in a day just increase it gradually to the full dose, good luck.

 

[Chris_Wood]

This is weird!

My cories have actually laid eggs whilst the tank is being treated!

Also I am begining to suspect that this is a bad batch of fish from the LFS as I have replaced the cardinals with some from another shop and they seem fine but the replaced rummy's (this is getting expensive!) from the same LFS have started to do the same. How can they look so good in his shop, is he treting the water with antibiotics?

All other fish are fine!

Please advise - just a weak batch?

CW

 

[WILDER]

I find rummy noses are not that hardy, plus lost all mine in a week, alot of fish keepers on here have had no luck with them either.