Hi, New To All This..

[helen1207]

Hi everyone, im new to all this so forgive me if i dont know what i`m doing yet!
I live in lancashire and used to have a 3ft tropical fish tank about 3-4 years ago.Due to moveing house i dismantled the tank (the local fish shop took back the fish).It seemed so easy..never had any problems with diseases etc so after moving house and finishing all the decorating i decided to get another tank...
This time however i have encountered problems already! I have tried a search and havent come up with any solutions so here goes..
I have an aqua one 20/25 litre tank and got it all set up as instructed. The filter came with it. All seamed good, tank water clear, temp 25 degrees. With advice from our local fish shop a week later i got 5 neon tetras being told i would need a few fish in to start the cycle. After a week i got up in the morning to find them with white fluff growing out of their mouths!! Panic stations so went back to fish shop..they gave me myxazin as it is a bacterial infection. I used this for the 5 days it stated and they seemed better (eating and swiming ok)but the white fluff is still there (not as bad as it was).
They have told me i should do a partial water change and do the treatment again..(i removed the carbon from the filter as instructed)
So basically i would like to know how others have treated this and will the bacteria just take a bit of time to go?
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated..Thanks in advance.
Helen.

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the hobby and the forum! Unfortunately sounds like you have had a bad re introduction to the hobby. By adding the fish into the tank you are in whats called a fish in cycle, the cycle people are refering to is the nitrogen cycle, when a fish poops it creates ammonia and this starts the cycle. The cycle goes like this

Fish poo - ammonia - nitrite - nitrate

Ammonia and nitrite are poisonous to fish and will and can kill them or make them ill (which I imagine has happened here) the best thing you can do right now is daily water changes which on a tank like yours is quite easy to do this way you keep the ammonia and nitrite levels low enough for the fish to survive yet high enough for the bacteria that will process these chemicals to develop. Once these bacteria have developed the tank is cycled and should run with out problems.

The white fluff on the fishes mouth sounds like a neon tetra disease which I believe is not cureable... But post a question in the emergency section or have a google of neon tetra disease and see what it says. I believe that the reason it has happened is that one will have had the disease which will have come from the supplier and then spread it to the rest in the poor water conditions.

Wills

 

[helen1207]

Hi wills, thanks for the reply! I`ve had a look at the symptoms of neon tetra disease and not sure it is that. The colour of the fish is still lovely blue and red?..The white fluff is only on their mouths and on one of them it seams to have almost gone altogether. Ive done a nitrate test (on the day i first noticed the white fluff) and one yesterday and both have come up yellow which i`ve been told is ok? They seem ok in themselves.

 

[Wills]

Nitrate is the last stage of the cycle so possibly wont have started to process at present I would imagine that you will have high ammonia and/or nitrite readings do you have the test kits for this?

 

[helen1207]

Sorry..im not brilliant at spelling! I meant i have done a nitrite test both times they turned yellow. The fish have been in there for 2 weeks. The guy at the fish shop said the reading would go from yellow up to red then back down to yellow when the level would then be ok. Will it have gone past red yet? or maybe not got there yet?

 

[Wills]

which test kit are you reading? is it a strip one or a drip one?

Letting the levels rise like that is going to kill the fish, neon tetras are quite weak fish and could die quite easily its usually recommended that they are only added after six months to a tank.

My advice to keep the cycle going while keeping your fish alive you do daily water changes of about 50% a day and that way it should keep the water at a high enough level of quality for the fishes immune system to fight off the disease they have which could be mouth fungus (if it is that get melafix or primafix both treat this really well)

The advice your shop has given you is that of which we see all to often on this forum. If you keep the fish in the tank as he is describing you will inevitably loose one or more fish. And from his angle this means he makes an other sale - as harsh as it sounds it happens all the time to a lot of people.

Also something to point out in a 25 liter tank your just about fully stocked with 5 neons could probably get an other 2 neons in there and possibly some cherry shrimp but thats once the cycle is sorted.

Wills

 

[helen1207]

Its says on it Tetra test no-2 Nitrite. It has 2 small bottles and you compare the colour to the colour chart. The colour it goes is yellow <0.3 mg/l ? I really dont want to loose any of them but didnt want to stress them out doing a water change too frequently (had no problems at all when i had the other tank?)
The tank is in my kitchen and an not planning to get any more fish in it really (the neons are quite big really) the idea was to get this small tank up and running refreshing my memory of looking after fish correctly then in the future get a bigger tank in the front room. I found the bigger 3ft tank very easy to look after compared to the smaller ones.
They gave me some tonic salt to put in (only very small amount) to help fight the disease which i`ve never heard of so not sure if this should have been added?
So if i do a 50% water change every day..add in my stress coat and stress zyme?? should i continue treating with the myxazin? Also should i put the carbon filter back in?
Sorry for all the questions but i really want to look after them well and obviously dont know as much as i thought i did!..lol

 

[Wills]

If the myxazin is working keep going with it as recommended - personally I prefer to use primafix and melafix as they are just plant extracts rather than chemicals but the waterlife medicines are really good as well. The salt might help as well.

Water changes are not as stressful on the fish as long as the water is added softly there wont be a worry. And high levels of Ammonia and Nitrite which you will experience at some point will be more stressful to them.

Dont worry about re learning the hobby I am like you I came back to the hobby after a break and realised just how little I knew. The advice I give out is basically 75% what I have learnt as rules from this forum and they are just the best ones on the net because so many people have contributed to the guides and ideas. I mean I know for a fact that if I hadnt taken your thread there would be someone else along (i could name names ) that would give you the same advice.

Dont get me wrong a school of tetras in a little tank is awesome but one of the most common problems we get here is people with similar sized tanks to yours with bala sharks, clown loaches and common plecs in them when in reality all of those fish get to over a foot long.... So just wanted to check you understood the guides on stocking etc

Wills

 

[helen1207]

Yes the myxazin seams to have helped but i`ve used it for the 5 days it recommended. The local fish shop said do a partial water change and start the course again for another 5 days?
Yes the tank was only ever going to have a few fish in it, i would prefer to have a few healthy fish than lots of ill ones! . The forum is very good, i`ve been checking out other questions etc..i just wish i had got on here before i bought the neons but i trusted the fish shop (last tank i had the fish were`nt added for a few weeks)plus he told me neons were hardy so they would be ok.