Hi, I'm new here.
- Thread starter Bowero
- Start date
Welcome to the forum!
SAChichlidLover
Fishaholic
Hiya! Welcome to the forums!
If you need any help whatsoever we are always here so please don't be afraid to ask and always happy to help!
Thank you all for the warm welcome. I've joined this forum to get some answers as to why I lost some fish over the past week or so. I'll have to post about this later today or this evening as I actually have to go into work today for the first time in a while! Is there a certain place to post about issues such as fish disease?
I'll be on later and will be able to post photos if necessary.
Thank you.
I'll be on later and will be able to post photos if necessary.
Thank you.
UnknownFishies
Fish Addict
Welcome 
Feel free to ask any questions!
Feel free to ask any questions!
Retired Viking
Fish Connoisseur
Welcome to the forum 
PlasticGalaxy
Fish Gatherer
Welcome to the forum! Feel free to ask anything!
Ok, I will try to give a quick overview of what I would like to know. Basically, I would like your opinions on what killed my (actually my kids') fish.
A little background - My son and daughter "won" a goldfish each at a church fundraiser. I thought, no big deal, I had fish as a kid. We'll just swing by Petsmart on the way home and get a small tank for them. Well, long story short, bought a small tank and then found out that goldfish are pretty dirty fish and need more space so went back and bought a bigger tank after a few weeks. I ended up with a 38-40 gal tank...sorry, I don't remember the exact volume. Anyway, I said I'd make this short. We had those two goldfish in there for 2+ years. Over that time, we added other fish. I know it is not necessarily a good idea to mix goldfish with tropical fish, but I did my best to choose fish that would be ok with a bit cooler tank than most tropicals. I really did try to do research on the fish I put in there to make sure they were at least not completely incompatible with goldfish. I had 3-4 bloodfin tetra and a couple zebra danios. Added a couple cory cats and a couple snails to help do cleanup. Ok, so everything was great for those 2 years or so. I did water tests and partial water changes every week or at least every other week and kept a bag and bio bag in my filter system. I toyed with real plants a couple times, but found that goldfish like to destroy them...so I just ended up with fake plants and decorations. Oh, I had a sand substrate and a couple bubbler features.
Ok, here is where the trouble came in... I always wanted a pleco as I know they are good at glass cleaning. So I went to a local store that I had not been to before. I found out that the rubber lip pleco does not get enormous like some other varieties so I picked one up along with another small algae eating fish called a garra spilota. I admit, I had not done much looking into the garra as far as compatibility, etc. But was interested in something that would eat algae. Brought them both home, floated them in the bags for at least an hour. I transferred them to a small container with my aquarium water in it and then introduced them to the tank. So, everything seemed fine for a week or so. Nothing picked on them and they didn't seem to bother anybody. The garra is a fairly aggressive little guy, but I never witnessed him tormenting any other fish. Around the 2 week mark I realized I didn't see the pleco much at all, must be shy. It was then that I noticed my goldfish acting a bit strange. They had some redish color in their fins and the fins were being kept close to their bodies. I also noticed some random red spots on them and what looked like some whitish mucus coming off from around their gills and mouths and scales in general, almost like they were shedding. I even saw a whole scale in the sand and the bottom at one point. Anyway, they hung out low in the tank and were really lethargic. Did not seem to be too interested in food either. I thought at first it could be amonia poisoning. I checked it with my test kit and then had it checked at two local shops. Nothing wrong with the water. Then I noticed some white spots on their fins and body. I knew this was probably ick. I treated the tank immediately with anti-ick tablets and raised water temp and increased the bubble supply. Asked around about what was going on with the color change and spots and overall behavior. Was suggested that they had a bacterial infection, so treated the tank for that. Then, they developed some darker spots on mainly their tail area, not necessarily fins, but the body/tail area. So I inquired several places about that and was told to try an antifungal as the black marks could be fungal infection. Treated the tank for that too. Woke up one morning last week and found the pleco and the two corys dead on the bottom. After removing them, discovered a tetra on the filter tube, also dead. A couple nights later, as I was heading to bed, I found one of the goldfish up by the filter. Took him out and noted that the other one was really not looking well at all. When I checked on the tank in the morning, the other goldfish was dead on the bottom of the tank.
Really a sad week for us. These fish, especially the two goldfish, were my kids' first pets. I really don't want to go through something like this again. We still have a few tetras and two danios left, as well as the nerite snails (2) and the garra (who is isolated in a smaller tank for now).
Did the new fish bring some parasite to the tank? Are there types of algae (I have noticed a more aggressive algae in the tank since the new fish) that are deadly to fish? If anyone has any idea of what they think happened, please share with me. I am also happy to clarify anything on here that I left out or may have not made sense.
Thank you,
Bowero
A little background - My son and daughter "won" a goldfish each at a church fundraiser. I thought, no big deal, I had fish as a kid. We'll just swing by Petsmart on the way home and get a small tank for them. Well, long story short, bought a small tank and then found out that goldfish are pretty dirty fish and need more space so went back and bought a bigger tank after a few weeks. I ended up with a 38-40 gal tank...sorry, I don't remember the exact volume. Anyway, I said I'd make this short. We had those two goldfish in there for 2+ years. Over that time, we added other fish. I know it is not necessarily a good idea to mix goldfish with tropical fish, but I did my best to choose fish that would be ok with a bit cooler tank than most tropicals. I really did try to do research on the fish I put in there to make sure they were at least not completely incompatible with goldfish. I had 3-4 bloodfin tetra and a couple zebra danios. Added a couple cory cats and a couple snails to help do cleanup. Ok, so everything was great for those 2 years or so. I did water tests and partial water changes every week or at least every other week and kept a bag and bio bag in my filter system. I toyed with real plants a couple times, but found that goldfish like to destroy them...so I just ended up with fake plants and decorations. Oh, I had a sand substrate and a couple bubbler features.
Ok, here is where the trouble came in... I always wanted a pleco as I know they are good at glass cleaning. So I went to a local store that I had not been to before. I found out that the rubber lip pleco does not get enormous like some other varieties so I picked one up along with another small algae eating fish called a garra spilota. I admit, I had not done much looking into the garra as far as compatibility, etc. But was interested in something that would eat algae. Brought them both home, floated them in the bags for at least an hour. I transferred them to a small container with my aquarium water in it and then introduced them to the tank. So, everything seemed fine for a week or so. Nothing picked on them and they didn't seem to bother anybody. The garra is a fairly aggressive little guy, but I never witnessed him tormenting any other fish. Around the 2 week mark I realized I didn't see the pleco much at all, must be shy. It was then that I noticed my goldfish acting a bit strange. They had some redish color in their fins and the fins were being kept close to their bodies. I also noticed some random red spots on them and what looked like some whitish mucus coming off from around their gills and mouths and scales in general, almost like they were shedding. I even saw a whole scale in the sand and the bottom at one point. Anyway, they hung out low in the tank and were really lethargic. Did not seem to be too interested in food either. I thought at first it could be amonia poisoning. I checked it with my test kit and then had it checked at two local shops. Nothing wrong with the water. Then I noticed some white spots on their fins and body. I knew this was probably ick. I treated the tank immediately with anti-ick tablets and raised water temp and increased the bubble supply. Asked around about what was going on with the color change and spots and overall behavior. Was suggested that they had a bacterial infection, so treated the tank for that. Then, they developed some darker spots on mainly their tail area, not necessarily fins, but the body/tail area. So I inquired several places about that and was told to try an antifungal as the black marks could be fungal infection. Treated the tank for that too. Woke up one morning last week and found the pleco and the two corys dead on the bottom. After removing them, discovered a tetra on the filter tube, also dead. A couple nights later, as I was heading to bed, I found one of the goldfish up by the filter. Took him out and noted that the other one was really not looking well at all. When I checked on the tank in the morning, the other goldfish was dead on the bottom of the tank.
Really a sad week for us. These fish, especially the two goldfish, were my kids' first pets. I really don't want to go through something like this again. We still have a few tetras and two danios left, as well as the nerite snails (2) and the garra (who is isolated in a smaller tank for now).
Did the new fish bring some parasite to the tank? Are there types of algae (I have noticed a more aggressive algae in the tank since the new fish) that are deadly to fish? If anyone has any idea of what they think happened, please share with me. I am also happy to clarify anything on here that I left out or may have not made sense.
Thank you,
Bowero
Attachments
Clamped fin, red in the fins and white stuff sloughing off the body (excess mucous) is normally caused by poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or really low pH for goldfish).
Black patches on the body and black in the fins is bruising or chemical burns, usually chemical burns.
The red dots on the goldfish is blood and either from an external protozoan or something latching onto the fish and biting it. They don't look like an external protozoan infection so maybe a suckermouth catfish was latching onto the goldfish at night.
The red spots on the Corydoras could be bacterial or poor water quality.
I would say there is/ was an issue with the tank water and a combination of a chemical/ drug cocktail that killed them.
----------------------
Did you do a big water change between treatments or using different chemicals?
How much water do you normally change when you clean the tank?
Do you normally gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
What sort of filter do you have on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?
Do you replace the filter media/ materials when you clean the filter?
Were you adding bottom feeding pellets to the tank for all the catfish?
If yes, what were you feeding them and how much did you give them?
Did you feed them each night?
Did they eat it all?
Do you have driftwood and algae in the tank for the suckermouth catfish?
What are the last 2 pictures for? (the barrel and a rock?)
----------------------
Goldfish are mostly vegetarian and need plant matter in their diet. That is why they destroy plants in tanks. They need the plants to help their digestion.
Duckweed is a small floating plant that goldfish love. You can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container and bring some in each week to put in the tank for the fish to eat. You can also grow it in aquariums but some people don't like it because it spreads rapidly and can get sucked into power filters.
----------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water. More oxygen is also beneficial to sick fish and fish recovering from a disease or when a tank wipes out.
Don't use medications unless you know what is wrong with the fish. Improper use and mis-use of chemicals and anti-biotics causes drug resitance in the disease organisms. Chemicals and medications also harm the fish to some degree. If used at the correct dose, the disease organisms die and the fish survive. If you overdose, you kill the disease organisms and the fish.
Don't add any fish for a month.
Black patches on the body and black in the fins is bruising or chemical burns, usually chemical burns.
The red dots on the goldfish is blood and either from an external protozoan or something latching onto the fish and biting it. They don't look like an external protozoan infection so maybe a suckermouth catfish was latching onto the goldfish at night.
The red spots on the Corydoras could be bacterial or poor water quality.
I would say there is/ was an issue with the tank water and a combination of a chemical/ drug cocktail that killed them.
----------------------
Did you do a big water change between treatments or using different chemicals?
How much water do you normally change when you clean the tank?
Do you normally gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change?
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank?
What sort of filter do you have on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?
Do you replace the filter media/ materials when you clean the filter?
Were you adding bottom feeding pellets to the tank for all the catfish?
If yes, what were you feeding them and how much did you give them?
Did you feed them each night?
Did they eat it all?
Do you have driftwood and algae in the tank for the suckermouth catfish?
What are the last 2 pictures for? (the barrel and a rock?)
----------------------
Goldfish are mostly vegetarian and need plant matter in their diet. That is why they destroy plants in tanks. They need the plants to help their digestion.
Duckweed is a small floating plant that goldfish love. You can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container and bring some in each week to put in the tank for the fish to eat. You can also grow it in aquariums but some people don't like it because it spreads rapidly and can get sucked into power filters.
----------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water. More oxygen is also beneficial to sick fish and fish recovering from a disease or when a tank wipes out.
Don't use medications unless you know what is wrong with the fish. Improper use and mis-use of chemicals and anti-biotics causes drug resitance in the disease organisms. Chemicals and medications also harm the fish to some degree. If used at the correct dose, the disease organisms die and the fish survive. If you overdose, you kill the disease organisms and the fish.
Don't add any fish for a month.
Thank you for your detailed response. I'll try to answer your questions as thoroughly as possible.
Clamped fin, red in the fins and white stuff sloughing off the body (excess mucous) is normally caused by poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or really low pH for goldfish). I did check all the things mentioned here. All were pretty much zero. I had 2 pet shops check it multiple times as well as using my own test strips. I also have one of those ammonia alert dots on the side of the tank although I don't know how accurate they are. It has never shown any trace of ammonia. As for pH being low for goldfish, how low is that?
Black patches on the body and black in the fins is bruising or chemical burns, usually chemical burns. Same as above.
The red dots on the goldfish is blood and either from an external protozoan or something latching onto the fish and biting it. They don't look like an external protozoan infection so maybe a suckermouth catfish was latching onto the goldfish at night. I wondered about this... I read that your typical pleco (sorry, don't know the correct term, but the ones you see everywhere that get to over a foot long) will suck on the goldfish slime coat and hurt them. I read that the rubber lipped and bristle nosed pleco were safe for having with gold fish as they did not do this. Perhaps that is not true. I can't imagine it being able to get them as they were quite large compared to him and pretty feisty. Seems like it would not be a fair fight, but maybe he did that while they slept or something? The spots seemed to still be getting worse even after the pleco had died, so I'm not sure. Maybe it opened them up for other types of infection and such.
The red spots on the Corydoras could be bacterial or poor water quality. Seems like a lot of this could be from bad water quality, but why did all the tests show things were fine?
I would say there is/ was an issue with the tank water and a combination of a chemical/ drug cocktail that killed them. I was told that the ick treatment as well as bacterial treatments would not harm the fish. I guess it is similar to chemotherapy, you hope to kill the bad stuff before you kill the host...?
----------------------
Did you do a big water change between treatments or using different chemicals? I did a water change, but would not say it was a BIG change.
How much water do you normally change when you clean the tank? I change about 10% every week when I would clean it.
Do you normally gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change? I have sand, but yes, I use the suction to clean at the same time as I remove water. If further cleaning is required, I have a recirculating vacuum with a sock to catch the bad stuff. I am considering changing from sand to gravel. Seems easier to vacuum as the gravel does not get sucked up like the sand does.
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank? I add the stress coat treatment in the prescribed quantity but admittedly, after I add the water.
What sort of filter do you have on the tank? I have an Aquaclear 50 on it.
How often and how do you clean the filter? I'd say every other vacuuming.
Do you replace the filter media/ materials when you clean the filter? The Aquaclear has a sponge, charcoal bag and bio pellet bag. I had not changed the charcoal in a while and don't always put the bio bag in. Seem to get lots of algae with it. Was experimenting whether I would see less after cleanings if left it out.
Were you adding bottom feeding pellets to the tank for all the catfish? Yes, I have been giving them sinking food. Honestly, the goldfish would snap it up if they see it.
If yes, what were you feeding them and how much did you give them? Wardley shrimp pellets for the cats. I would try to get them to sink before the goldfish saw them and ate them. Sometimes it would take a few before the goldfish got full and didn't go after them. I would always try to leave 2-3 on the floor for the catfish.
Did you feed them each night? I was, yes. I think it was too much after reviewing some articles on how much fish actually need to survive. I may have been adding too much junk to the tank.
Did they eat it all? Usually, yes. Although, sometimes the goldfish would eat one of the large pellets and regurgitate a bunch of it...so I bet there were a lot of fine particles that remained.
Do you have driftwood and algae in the tank for the suckermouth catfish? I bought a piece of driftwood for the suckermouth when I bought him. I had not gotten through the whole soak for 2 weeks and boil it process when this all happened. It's still in a bucket in my garage.... As for algae, yes, there is a bunch on the walls and decor now....seems to have gotten worse since these new fish arrived.
What are the last 2 pictures for? (the barrel and a rock?) This was just to show the algae growth. It has not been like that on the decorations until the last 2-3 weeks.
----------------------
Goldfish are mostly vegetarian and need plant matter in their diet. That is why they destroy plants in tanks. They need the plants to help their digestion.
Duckweed is a small floating plant that goldfish love. You can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container and bring some in each week to put in the tank for the fish to eat. You can also grow it in aquariums but some people don't like it because it spreads rapidly and can get sucked into power filters.
----------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. I am considering putting the remaining fish in my small aquarium over the weekend and giving the large tank and decorations and sand a good cleaning. Basically starting over. Maybe keep the filter sponge and some tank water in a bucket to help start back up?
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank. How is this accomplished? Chemicals? Or time standing?
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens. I have read recently about rinsing the filter it with tank water. I did not know that previously. Will do that from now on.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water. More oxygen is also beneficial to sick fish and fish recovering from a disease or when a tank wipes out. I have the air bubbles cranked up more than they used to be. I read this and was aware of it.
Don't use medications unless you know what is wrong with the fish. Improper use and mis-use of chemicals and anti-biotics causes drug resitance in the disease organisms. Chemicals and medications also harm the fish to some degree. If used at the correct dose, the disease organisms die and the fish survive. If you overdose, you kill the disease organisms and the fish. Yes, I understand. They went down hill so fast, I was just grasping at straws trying to reverse it. Nothing seemed to slow it or fix it.
Don't add any fish for a month. Not going to be adding for quite some time. Was not sure I wanted to continue to keep fish, but I don't like giving up. I'm going to go straight tropical this time. I think the goldfish are a special breed and best not to mix with other fish.
I appreciate the time you put in to trying to figure this out. I want the best for my fish and don't want something like this to happen again.
Thanks.
Clamped fin, red in the fins and white stuff sloughing off the body (excess mucous) is normally caused by poor water quality (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate or really low pH for goldfish). I did check all the things mentioned here. All were pretty much zero. I had 2 pet shops check it multiple times as well as using my own test strips. I also have one of those ammonia alert dots on the side of the tank although I don't know how accurate they are. It has never shown any trace of ammonia. As for pH being low for goldfish, how low is that?
Black patches on the body and black in the fins is bruising or chemical burns, usually chemical burns. Same as above.
The red dots on the goldfish is blood and either from an external protozoan or something latching onto the fish and biting it. They don't look like an external protozoan infection so maybe a suckermouth catfish was latching onto the goldfish at night. I wondered about this... I read that your typical pleco (sorry, don't know the correct term, but the ones you see everywhere that get to over a foot long) will suck on the goldfish slime coat and hurt them. I read that the rubber lipped and bristle nosed pleco were safe for having with gold fish as they did not do this. Perhaps that is not true. I can't imagine it being able to get them as they were quite large compared to him and pretty feisty. Seems like it would not be a fair fight, but maybe he did that while they slept or something? The spots seemed to still be getting worse even after the pleco had died, so I'm not sure. Maybe it opened them up for other types of infection and such.
The red spots on the Corydoras could be bacterial or poor water quality. Seems like a lot of this could be from bad water quality, but why did all the tests show things were fine?
I would say there is/ was an issue with the tank water and a combination of a chemical/ drug cocktail that killed them. I was told that the ick treatment as well as bacterial treatments would not harm the fish. I guess it is similar to chemotherapy, you hope to kill the bad stuff before you kill the host...?
----------------------
Did you do a big water change between treatments or using different chemicals? I did a water change, but would not say it was a BIG change.
How much water do you normally change when you clean the tank? I change about 10% every week when I would clean it.
Do you normally gravel clean the substrate when you do a water change? I have sand, but yes, I use the suction to clean at the same time as I remove water. If further cleaning is required, I have a recirculating vacuum with a sock to catch the bad stuff. I am considering changing from sand to gravel. Seems easier to vacuum as the gravel does not get sucked up like the sand does.
Do you dechlorinate the new water before adding it to the tank? I add the stress coat treatment in the prescribed quantity but admittedly, after I add the water.
What sort of filter do you have on the tank? I have an Aquaclear 50 on it.
How often and how do you clean the filter? I'd say every other vacuuming.
Do you replace the filter media/ materials when you clean the filter? The Aquaclear has a sponge, charcoal bag and bio pellet bag. I had not changed the charcoal in a while and don't always put the bio bag in. Seem to get lots of algae with it. Was experimenting whether I would see less after cleanings if left it out.
Were you adding bottom feeding pellets to the tank for all the catfish? Yes, I have been giving them sinking food. Honestly, the goldfish would snap it up if they see it.
If yes, what were you feeding them and how much did you give them? Wardley shrimp pellets for the cats. I would try to get them to sink before the goldfish saw them and ate them. Sometimes it would take a few before the goldfish got full and didn't go after them. I would always try to leave 2-3 on the floor for the catfish.
Did you feed them each night? I was, yes. I think it was too much after reviewing some articles on how much fish actually need to survive. I may have been adding too much junk to the tank.
Did they eat it all? Usually, yes. Although, sometimes the goldfish would eat one of the large pellets and regurgitate a bunch of it...so I bet there were a lot of fine particles that remained.
Do you have driftwood and algae in the tank for the suckermouth catfish? I bought a piece of driftwood for the suckermouth when I bought him. I had not gotten through the whole soak for 2 weeks and boil it process when this all happened. It's still in a bucket in my garage.... As for algae, yes, there is a bunch on the walls and decor now....seems to have gotten worse since these new fish arrived.
What are the last 2 pictures for? (the barrel and a rock?) This was just to show the algae growth. It has not been like that on the decorations until the last 2-3 weeks.
----------------------
Goldfish are mostly vegetarian and need plant matter in their diet. That is why they destroy plants in tanks. They need the plants to help their digestion.
Duckweed is a small floating plant that goldfish love. You can grow Duckweed outside in a pond or plastic container and bring some in each week to put in the tank for the fish to eat. You can also grow it in aquariums but some people don't like it because it spreads rapidly and can get sucked into power filters.
----------------------
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.
Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. I am considering putting the remaining fish in my small aquarium over the weekend and giving the large tank and decorations and sand a good cleaning. Basically starting over. Maybe keep the filter sponge and some tank water in a bucket to help start back up?
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank. How is this accomplished? Chemicals? Or time standing?
Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens. I have read recently about rinsing the filter it with tank water. I did not know that previously. Will do that from now on.
Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using salt or medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water. More oxygen is also beneficial to sick fish and fish recovering from a disease or when a tank wipes out. I have the air bubbles cranked up more than they used to be. I read this and was aware of it.
Don't use medications unless you know what is wrong with the fish. Improper use and mis-use of chemicals and anti-biotics causes drug resitance in the disease organisms. Chemicals and medications also harm the fish to some degree. If used at the correct dose, the disease organisms die and the fish survive. If you overdose, you kill the disease organisms and the fish. Yes, I understand. They went down hill so fast, I was just grasping at straws trying to reverse it. Nothing seemed to slow it or fix it.
Don't add any fish for a month. Not going to be adding for quite some time. Was not sure I wanted to continue to keep fish, but I don't like giving up. I'm going to go straight tropical this time. I think the goldfish are a special breed and best not to mix with other fish.
I appreciate the time you put in to trying to figure this out. I want the best for my fish and don't want something like this to happen again.
Thanks.
Goldfish need a pH above 7.0. If it goes down to 6.5 or lower, it causes them to stress and produce excess mucous that looks like white skin peeling off them. It's just mucous but is an indication that there is something in the water that is stressing them out.
-------------------
The black on the fins could be chemical burns from mixing medications or overdosing the medications.
If you ever have to treat with chemicals, do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean before adding any new chemicals. If possible do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a day for a couple of days before adding new medications because it will remove most of the old chemicals and make it safer for the fish. Sometimes you need to get new medications in straight away, in which case just do it once and then add the new chemicals.
You can add some carbon to the filter after the water change to help remove residual medications.
-------------------
Sometimes the small suckermouth catfish will latch onto big fish at night when the big fish is asleep. They don't always latch on to them expecting food, and quite often they think it's a lock or something else. Then they graze on it and can do damage.
If the goldfish is sick then the suckermouth catfish will usually latch onto the fish and start eating it. But so do most other fish.
Big fish are more likely to be latched onto by a suckermouth catfish than small fish because it's easier for the catfish to see and grab onto the bigger fish.
-------------------
On their own, most fish medications are reasonably safe for fish as long as you don't overdose them. However, if you mix chemicals then it is really easy to poison the fish.
Most medications are not designed to be used with other medications and whenever you add any medication, it is borderline as to the damage it does to the fish. They usually have just enough medication to kill disease organisms and hopefully not too much that it kills the fish.
If you have one medication in the water and add a second medication, you usually wipe out the tank. This is why you need to do a huge water change and gravel clean before using another medication. You need to get rid of as much of the old chemical as possible so you don't get a mixture of poisons in the water.
A lot of fish medications contain highly toxic chemicals. Formaldehyde/ Formalin is found in lots of liquid medications and it is a preservative used to pickle people and animals so they last forever. The same medication might contain Malachite Green, which is carcinogenic, and copper. These 3 substances are poisonous on their own but when combined together are even more toxic. Then if you add another chemical or medication in there, you poison the fish.
Most chemicals are also more toxic to catfish, loaches and eels. Sometimes you treat the tank and kill the catfish but because they normally hide, nobody notices for a few days. By that time there is an ammonia reading and the fish suffer from a combination of ammonia and chemical poisoning.
-------------------
WATER CHANGES
With water changes, you want to do around 50-75% each week or every 2 weeks. Small water changes leave lots of bad stuff behind, which builds up over time and can cause problems.
You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.
Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.
If you do a 10% water change each week you leave behind 90% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.
Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and harmful micro-organisms, and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.
-------------------
GRAVEL CLEANERS
The gravel cleaners with the sock aren't the best. You are better off just using your normal gravel cleaner and removing the dirty water along with the gunk. If you can't clean the entire substrate one week, just do half that week and the other half the following week.
If the sand gets sucked up, just kink the gravel cleaner hose a bit and it will reduce the flow and the sand should stay in the tank.
-------------------
WATER CONDITIONER/ DECHLORINATOR
With water conditioners/ dechlorinators, you want to use them in a bucket of tap water before adding that water to the tank. If possible, fill up a bucket with tap water and add the dechlorinator. You add enough to treat that bucket of water. Then aerate the water and dechlorinator for at least 5 (preferably 30+) minutes. This allows the dechlorinator to come into contact with all of the chlorine/ chloramine molecules in that water and neutralise them.
If you only have chlorine in your water supply, then aerating the water for 24 hours should remove the chlorine and you won't normally need to add a dechlorinator unless you want to use tap water straight away, or if the water company adds extra chlorine. They usually add extra chlorine after doing work on the pipes or it there is a lot of rain or a sudden heat wave.
If you have chloramine in the water supply, then you will need to use a dechlorinator that neutralises chlorine and converts the ammonia into a less harmful ammonium. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia and does not come out of water with aeration. It needs a dechlorinator.
If you contact your water supply company by telephone or look on their website, they should tell you if they add chlorine or chloramine. They will also have the pH, GH and KH of the water, which is helpful when choosing fish.
----------
Tap water is under pressure and the dissolved gasses sometimes get pushed out of the water and you can have an improper balance of Oxygen (O2), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and Nitrogen (N) gas in the water. If this happens, it can harm the fish. Aerating the water for 30 minutes allows the dissolved gasses in the water to stabilise at normal levels and this is better for the fish.
If you have a couple of decent sized buckets, you can fill them with water, add dechlorinator and aerate it while you gravel clean and drain the tank. Then just use that water to fill the tank.
-------------------
AQUACLEAR FILTER
AquaClear Filters have a bag of carbon (black granules), ceramic spheres and a sponge. You don't need carbon in a filter unless you have heavy metals or chemicals in the water. If you do use carbon, it should be replaced every couple of weeks because it becomes full and stops working pretty quickly. However, if you don't have heavy metals or chemicals in the water, you don't need carbon. You can buy Activated Carbon in big bags online or at pet shops and put some in a mesh bag and put that in your filter if you want to use it.
Carbon will remove aquarium plant fertiliser and medications used to treat fish. If you had good carbon while using medications, the carbon would have removed a lot of the medication and prevented it from working.
Carbon can be used to remove fish medications before treating with another medication, however a large water change is more effective and quicker.
Re: your filter. I would have the ceramic beads and 2 sponges, or 3 sponges and no beads. Sponges hold beneficial filter bacteria and they trap gunk. Sponges last for 10+ years and you simply squeeze them out in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.
-------------------
Unfortunately when you feed fish, goldfish and other big fish will sometimes grab a heap of food and swim around for a bit before spitting it out. You have mentioned this with your fish. The uneaten food can cause ammonia problems within a few hours of being spat out and this can become a catalyst for problems.
-------------------
DRIFTWOOD
You don't have to boil driftwood. You can rinse it off with tap water then put it in a bucket of tap water and leave it there until it sinks. Then rinse it again and put it in the tank.
You can change the water in the bucket each week and if you get mozzie larvae in the container, scoop them out and feed them to your fish.
-------------------
If you only have a few fish left, put them in the smaller tank with the established filter. Then strip the big tank down and wash it out with tap water. You can change the sand to gravel if you like but get small gravel that is smooth so it's easier on the catfish. Then set the tank up, fill it with tap water and dechlorinate it. Aerate it for a few days and then move the fish and filter back into that tank.
-------------------
The black on the fins could be chemical burns from mixing medications or overdosing the medications.
If you ever have to treat with chemicals, do a 75-80% water change and gravel clean before adding any new chemicals. If possible do a 75% water change and gravel clean once a day for a couple of days before adding new medications because it will remove most of the old chemicals and make it safer for the fish. Sometimes you need to get new medications in straight away, in which case just do it once and then add the new chemicals.
You can add some carbon to the filter after the water change to help remove residual medications.
-------------------
Sometimes the small suckermouth catfish will latch onto big fish at night when the big fish is asleep. They don't always latch on to them expecting food, and quite often they think it's a lock or something else. Then they graze on it and can do damage.
If the goldfish is sick then the suckermouth catfish will usually latch onto the fish and start eating it. But so do most other fish.
Big fish are more likely to be latched onto by a suckermouth catfish than small fish because it's easier for the catfish to see and grab onto the bigger fish.
-------------------
On their own, most fish medications are reasonably safe for fish as long as you don't overdose them. However, if you mix chemicals then it is really easy to poison the fish.
Most medications are not designed to be used with other medications and whenever you add any medication, it is borderline as to the damage it does to the fish. They usually have just enough medication to kill disease organisms and hopefully not too much that it kills the fish.
If you have one medication in the water and add a second medication, you usually wipe out the tank. This is why you need to do a huge water change and gravel clean before using another medication. You need to get rid of as much of the old chemical as possible so you don't get a mixture of poisons in the water.
A lot of fish medications contain highly toxic chemicals. Formaldehyde/ Formalin is found in lots of liquid medications and it is a preservative used to pickle people and animals so they last forever. The same medication might contain Malachite Green, which is carcinogenic, and copper. These 3 substances are poisonous on their own but when combined together are even more toxic. Then if you add another chemical or medication in there, you poison the fish.
Most chemicals are also more toxic to catfish, loaches and eels. Sometimes you treat the tank and kill the catfish but because they normally hide, nobody notices for a few days. By that time there is an ammonia reading and the fish suffer from a combination of ammonia and chemical poisoning.
-------------------
WATER CHANGES
With water changes, you want to do around 50-75% each week or every 2 weeks. Small water changes leave lots of bad stuff behind, which builds up over time and can cause problems.
You do water changes for 2 main reasons.
1) to reduce nutrients like ammonia, nitrite & nitrate.
2) to dilute disease organisms in the water.
Fish live in a soup of microscopic organisms including bacteria, fungus, viruses, protozoans, worms, flukes and various other things that make your skin crawl. Doing a big water change and gravel cleaning the substrate on a regular basis will dilute these organisms and reduce their numbers in the water, thus making it a safer and healthier environment for the fish.
If you do a 10% water change each week you leave behind 90% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 25% water change each week you leave behind 75% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 50% water change each week you leave behind 50% of the bad stuff in the water.
If you do a 75% water change each week you leave behind 25% of the bad stuff in the water.
Fish live in their own waste. Their tank and filter is full of fish poop. The water they breath is filtered through fish poop. Cleaning filters, gravel and doing big regular water changes, removes a lot of this poop and harmful micro-organisms, and makes the environment cleaner and healthier for the fish.
-------------------
GRAVEL CLEANERS
The gravel cleaners with the sock aren't the best. You are better off just using your normal gravel cleaner and removing the dirty water along with the gunk. If you can't clean the entire substrate one week, just do half that week and the other half the following week.
If the sand gets sucked up, just kink the gravel cleaner hose a bit and it will reduce the flow and the sand should stay in the tank.
-------------------
WATER CONDITIONER/ DECHLORINATOR
With water conditioners/ dechlorinators, you want to use them in a bucket of tap water before adding that water to the tank. If possible, fill up a bucket with tap water and add the dechlorinator. You add enough to treat that bucket of water. Then aerate the water and dechlorinator for at least 5 (preferably 30+) minutes. This allows the dechlorinator to come into contact with all of the chlorine/ chloramine molecules in that water and neutralise them.
If you only have chlorine in your water supply, then aerating the water for 24 hours should remove the chlorine and you won't normally need to add a dechlorinator unless you want to use tap water straight away, or if the water company adds extra chlorine. They usually add extra chlorine after doing work on the pipes or it there is a lot of rain or a sudden heat wave.
If you have chloramine in the water supply, then you will need to use a dechlorinator that neutralises chlorine and converts the ammonia into a less harmful ammonium. Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia and does not come out of water with aeration. It needs a dechlorinator.
If you contact your water supply company by telephone or look on their website, they should tell you if they add chlorine or chloramine. They will also have the pH, GH and KH of the water, which is helpful when choosing fish.
----------
Tap water is under pressure and the dissolved gasses sometimes get pushed out of the water and you can have an improper balance of Oxygen (O2), Carbon Dioxide (CO2), and Nitrogen (N) gas in the water. If this happens, it can harm the fish. Aerating the water for 30 minutes allows the dissolved gasses in the water to stabilise at normal levels and this is better for the fish.
If you have a couple of decent sized buckets, you can fill them with water, add dechlorinator and aerate it while you gravel clean and drain the tank. Then just use that water to fill the tank.
-------------------
AQUACLEAR FILTER
AquaClear Filters have a bag of carbon (black granules), ceramic spheres and a sponge. You don't need carbon in a filter unless you have heavy metals or chemicals in the water. If you do use carbon, it should be replaced every couple of weeks because it becomes full and stops working pretty quickly. However, if you don't have heavy metals or chemicals in the water, you don't need carbon. You can buy Activated Carbon in big bags online or at pet shops and put some in a mesh bag and put that in your filter if you want to use it.
Carbon will remove aquarium plant fertiliser and medications used to treat fish. If you had good carbon while using medications, the carbon would have removed a lot of the medication and prevented it from working.
Carbon can be used to remove fish medications before treating with another medication, however a large water change is more effective and quicker.
Re: your filter. I would have the ceramic beads and 2 sponges, or 3 sponges and no beads. Sponges hold beneficial filter bacteria and they trap gunk. Sponges last for 10+ years and you simply squeeze them out in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.
-------------------
Unfortunately when you feed fish, goldfish and other big fish will sometimes grab a heap of food and swim around for a bit before spitting it out. You have mentioned this with your fish. The uneaten food can cause ammonia problems within a few hours of being spat out and this can become a catalyst for problems.
-------------------
DRIFTWOOD
You don't have to boil driftwood. You can rinse it off with tap water then put it in a bucket of tap water and leave it there until it sinks. Then rinse it again and put it in the tank.
You can change the water in the bucket each week and if you get mozzie larvae in the container, scoop them out and feed them to your fish.
-------------------
If you only have a few fish left, put them in the smaller tank with the established filter. Then strip the big tank down and wash it out with tap water. You can change the sand to gravel if you like but get small gravel that is smooth so it's easier on the catfish. Then set the tank up, fill it with tap water and dechlorinate it. Aerate it for a few days and then move the fish and filter back into that tank.
Welcome to the forum!
Sorry to hear about your fish. Hopefully you can figure out what the issue is and prevent it from happening in the future!
Sorry to hear about your fish. Hopefully you can figure out what the issue is and prevent it from happening in the future!
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