Help - Tank Disaster And Poor Fishies

[LadyFox]

Hi there

To start from the beginning, a long time ago i used to keep freshwater fish, i bred some of these (livebearers and Angels and Plecos) and had a nice set up. A few months ago i inherited a tank from someone who didnt want theirs. Inhabitants include Angels, Clown Loaches, Platys and Tetras. All in not very good condition but i thought i could turn this around with my previous experience in fish husbandry.

In short, i dont know whats going wrong - but it is.

One of the loaches seems to have fin rot, the Angels fins are tatty as are a few neons and basically all are not a picture of health.

I have been vaccuming the gravrl and changing 40% of the water each week - i thought this would turn things around but it hasnt.

I have not had a change to test the water yet, i need to buy the kits still, so its possible the tank re-cycled as it was moved to mine, i'm not sure of the pH but i used to live in an area with liquid rock and had breeding fish so didnt think that was so much of an issue.

I appreciate i need the Ammonium and Nirtate/Nitrite levels, but does anyone have any ideas on why im failing miserably? Im feeding TetraMin food - granules and flake - do i need something else?

These fish were in a grotty tank and i thought id be able to save them, i feel awful now as it doesnt look like i am. I had thought of meds or salt to help the fish along, but wasnt sure what to do as i have not have clown loaches before - can anyone advise on that score?

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks!

 

[BigIan]

what size is the tank?

salt is a n no with the loaches.

and get a test kit, it`s the best weapon you have in keeping fish healthy

 

[Miss Wiggle]

your quite right moving the tank could have caused it to cycle, test readings would confirm this.

a rapid change in water conditions (even if it's for the better) could actually make the fish ill. They get so used to bad conditions the shock of decent water can kill them. So while you do need to improve things, you need to do it slowly.

if they have fin rot then you can treat with melafix but you should check your water stats first, if the tank is cycling then adding an antibacterial med could do more harm than good.

the fish could also just have been so poorly looked after that they won't recover. sadly sometimes too much damage has been done. Things like high nitrate levels can cause permanent respiratory problems which can make a fish prone to disease.

don't add salt with the loaches, but melafix should be fine.

Your first stop has to be a test kit, get your results over a few days and you can go from there.

Take your time and be patient though, it may be a while before you see improvements but I'm sure your doing good for the fish.

good luck

 

[LadyFox]

Thanks both!

The tank is 40 gallon. I'll get the test kits tomorrow, i'm hoping its cycling as at least that will give me a reason for their health issues.

Is Melafix ok for Clown Loaches then? If so, i'll grab some of that. Would i use a half dose? I thought that scaleless fishies should have a lesser dose? Or is this an old wives tale?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Thanks both!

The tank is 40 gallon. I'll get the test kits tomorrow, i'm hoping its cycling as at least that will give me a reason for their health issues.

Is Melafix ok for Clown Loaches then? If so, i'll grab some of that. Would i use a half dose? I thought that scaleless fishies should have a lesser dose? Or is this an old wives tale?

no scaless fish do need a lesser dose of many medications. I don't think melafix is one of them though, by all means ask others to back me up but i've used it with cory's, catfish and plecs before with no problems.

 

[BigIan]

also how many fish are iun the tank as if the tank has been poorly looked after it may well have been poorly stocked...

salt and some of the harsher meds such as malachite green are harmfull to scaleless fish and some inverts, so always read the label, melafix and pima fix however are two great little meds i would never be without as you can treat anything with them they may not be the strongest meds but if you catch a disease early you`ll be able to cure it with either of these two,
but you must test your water regularly, other wise the cause of the disease will crop up again and again

 

[LadyFox]

Hi all

Thanks for your help so far.

Did the water tests last night, the test kits i bought were not as good as ones i have used before, these were tablets you place in a vial ... anyway, pH 8.5, Ammonia 0-0.2, Nitrite 0

Now, the chart for the Ammonia test said 'yellow' was 0-0.2' other colours ranged from orange to green. Personally i am not convinced, but if thats what it says ...

Anyway, put the dose of Melafix in after removing the carbon and doing a 25% water change. One of my platies died a few hours later, i will admit to crying as i feel that it was my fault. The platy seemed fine before and was one fish not to have symptoms of fin rot. I was told that Melafix would be fine for tank wide treatment as its not a real strong med. I feel awful. All other fish alive and well this morning.

I'll keep up with the Melafix and do a water change after a week - fingers crossed!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Hi all

Thanks for your help so far.

Did the water tests last night, the test kits i bought were not as good as ones i have used before, these were tablets you place in a vial ... anyway, pH 8.5, Ammonia 0-0.2, Nitrite 0

Now, the chart for the Ammonia test said 'yellow' was 0-0.2' other colours ranged from orange to green. Personally i am not convinced, but if thats what it says ...

Anyway, put the dose of Melafix in after removing the carbon and doing a 25% water change. One of my platies died a few hours later, i will admit to crying as i feel that it was my fault. The platy seemed fine before and was one fish not to have symptoms of fin rot. I was told that Melafix would be fine for tank wide treatment as its not a real strong med. I feel awful. All other fish alive and well this morning.

I'll keep up with the Melafix and do a water change after a week - fingers crossed!

yeah the tablet's aren't great, but if you can't get anything else then such is life.

your ph is a little high, it should be closer to 7.5 or lower. i would look at getting something to reduce that as this could be what is stressing out the fish. there are chemicals like the 'proper ph' range which will do it for you, or you can look at more natural alternatives like adding a layer of peat to your filter. test your ph in your tap water, if it's vey high you'll need to find a more permanent solution. Getting an RO unit is great for this and will give you very very good quality water for your fish. anyway you can find out more about that later you need to address the water in the tank as your first point of call.

i wouldn't worry about the tiny amonia reading... probably a dodgy reading from the test kit, do the test again, if it consistently comes up with a reading then maybe take a sample of water to your fish shop and ask them to test it to get confirmation.

melafix shouldn't do any harm to a platy, don't worry about having killed it with that. my guess is it was just so stressed and poorly before it was going to die anyway.

please don't get upset and disheartened your obviously doing everything you can for them, I'll give you all the help I can in getting this sorted, feel free to pm me if you want a chat or anymore help.

where you removed the carbon from your filter, add some peat into that compartment this will naturally bring the ph down, this combined with the melafix should hopefully get conditions back to normal and healthy for the fish.

best of luck