I Am Having Absolutely No Success With My Tanks...

[fry_forever!]

Hi. Don't worry, I'm not going to start a rant -- I will try my best not to!

Anyhow, I have 3 aquariums -- a 20 gallon, a 10 gallon and a 2.5 gallon. I use the 20 gallon for my adult livebearers and corys, and the 10 and 2.5 gallon for raising babies. Well, umm.... I can't seem to keep a fish alive for more than a week now....

My 20 gallon had been set up for 2 years, and I wasn't very educated then. I didn't know why my fish were rubbing against the ground, and I didn't know about the nitrogen cycle. (Or very little, anyway...) Back then, my fish seemed to pop out babies like there was no tomorrow, and they barely ever died. I cleaned the tank once every 2 months, and barely cleaned it when I got to it.

I started learning slowly but surely about proper fish care, and as soon as I bought a test kit, and an aquarium vacuum and found out what ich was, my tanks went downhill fast. I started siphoning 20-25% of the water every week or so, and now I test every week. There are no ammonia's or nitrites, 10-20ppm nitrate and 7.5 ph in all my tanks, and it's holding steady. I'm not using those dipping test strips either -- I'm using the water test kit with the test tubes.

Despite all the hard work I'm putting into all my tanks now, my fish are dying, getting extremely serious cases of ich, and never having babies. I don't know what to do anymore! I was just trying to improve my care for my fish, and then they started doing horrible! This "bad luck" has been going on for almost a year now, and I am so sick and tired of it that I am thinking about giving up fishkeeping, even though it is my favourite thing in the world!

Even if you can't give me advice, I would even appreciate some "Don't worry, don't give up!" or, "You'll have good luck soon!" .

Sorry I'm being so miserable... it's just... I improved my fishs' living conditions, and now they are doing horrible, and I don't think I can start taking less care of them again! I just want them to be healthy again, and I just want them to start having babies! Especially my mollies!

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[fatheadminnow]

Sorry to hear this, not so good news.

Please don't give up, everyone hits a speed bump in his or hers life. If it is just a moment long, or years long, there is always another side to the speed bump.

Its just a matter of time until you get over it!

Hang in there!

Have you ever treated any of your tanks for ich before?

-FHM

 

[kevinthecow]

): Very sorry, just don't give up. Hey, if you give up you won't achieve anything, will you? I mean, how many people can say they were successful with raising fry?

Also, I've always thought having uncommon pet's encourage me, or getting a larger stock would too. Like, I use to have those regular ordinary tropical fish tanks that were stocked with colours and colours. But now, when people walk into my house, they'll see the tropicals, AND a crayfish! Hopefully soon we'll get those fire bellied toads, eh?

Good luck in near future, hope my little story is a boost.

 

[Colin_T]

can you give us some info on the fish when they look healthy and when they are dieing/ dead? (ie: are they floating aorund, sinking to the bottom, clamped fins, cloudy eyes, grey film over the body, etc). A picture of the fish would also help.

how often do you feed the fish?
how do you clean the filter/s and how often do you clean them?
do you use a dechlorinating agent to remove chlorine/ chloramine in the tap water, and do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?
do you have a fish only bucket for water changes or do you grab any bucket from the laundry?
have you added anything to the tank, plants, fish or chemcials/ medications?
do you have anything on your hands before you work in the tanks, ie: moisturising cream, grease, oil, paint, etc?
do you use any hair spray, perfume, deodorant, paint or smoke in the room with the fish?

 

[rewlyn]

Hi. Don't worry, I'm not going to start a rant -- I will try my best not to!

Anyhow, I have 3 aquariums -- a 20 gallon, a 10 gallon and a 2.5 gallon. I use the 20 gallon for my adult livebearers and corys, and the 10 and 2.5 gallon for raising babies. Well, umm.... I can't seem to keep a fish alive for more than a week now....

My 20 gallon had been set up for 2 years, and I wasn't very educated then. I didn't know why my fish were rubbing against the ground, and I didn't know about the nitrogen cycle. (Or very little, anyway...) Back then, my fish seemed to pop out babies like there was no tomorrow, and they barely ever died. I cleaned the tank once every 2 months, and barely cleaned it when I got to it.

I started learning slowly but surely about proper fish care, and as soon as I bought a test kit, and an aquarium vacuum and found out what ich was, my tanks went downhill fast. I started siphoning 20-25% of the water every week or so, and now I test every week. There are no ammonia's or nitrites, 10-20ppm nitrate and 7.5 ph in all my tanks, and it's holding steady. I'm not using those dipping test strips either -- I'm using the water test kit with the test tubes.

Despite all the hard work I'm putting into all my tanks now, my fish are dying, getting extremely serious cases of ich, and never having babies. I don't know what to do anymore! I was just trying to improve my care for my fish, and then they started doing horrible! This "bad luck" has been going on for almost a year now, and I am so sick and tired of it that I am thinking about giving up fishkeeping, even though it is my favourite thing in the world!

Even if you can't give me advice, I would even appreciate some "Don't worry, don't give up!" or, "You'll have good luck soon!" .

Sorry I'm being so miserable... it's just... I improved my fishs' living conditions, and now they are doing horrible, and I don't think I can start taking less care of them again! I just want them to be healthy again, and I just want them to start having babies! Especially my mollies!

Thanks in advance for any help!

not good mate, but there is a light at the end this i know personaly and currently

going through some major headaches and if you want to check out the

"ammonia levels high" by rewlyn(me) in the "new to the hobby" forum

and please dont give up you will get there

 

[JustKia]

Is it defintely ich that you have in your tank?
Are they all guppies or mollies or...?
Have they cross bred? Inter-bred?
Do you use aquarium salt?

If you give up now you'll never figure out why this is happening or how to fix it, then you'll always wonder what if.
So hang in there, double check your water stats, make sure you are really dealing with ich, then try another method to treat it.
What methods have you tried so far? How long did you try each method for? What happened when you tried each method?

 

[england]

can you give us some info on the fish when they look healthy and when they are dieing/ dead? (ie: are they floating aorund, sinking to the bottom, clamped fins, cloudy eyes, grey film over the body, etc). A picture of the fish would also help.

how often do you feed the fish?
how do you clean the filter/s and how often do you clean them?
do you use a dechlorinating agent to remove chlorine/ chloramine in the tap water, and do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?
do you have a fish only bucket for water changes or do you grab any bucket from the laundry?
have you added anything to the tank, plants, fish or chemcials/ medications?
do you have anything on your hands before you work in the tanks, ie: moisturising cream, grease, oil, paint, etc?
do you use any hair spray, perfume, deodorant, paint or smoke in the room with the fish?

as said :stupid:
don't give up yet, once everything come's under control it will be plain sailing
do you clean your filter with tank water?

 

[Tory]

I know exacly how you feel - am having bad luck at the min (see my post "A Run of Bad Luck"), it does get you down, but I am sticking with it, and doing everything I can to regain the once healthy tank I had!

Keep at and good luck

 

[fry_forever!]

can you give us some info on the fish when they look healthy and when they are dieing/ dead? (ie: are they floating aorund, sinking to the bottom, clamped fins, cloudy eyes, grey film over the body, etc). A picture of the fish would also help.

how often do you feed the fish?
how do you clean the filter/s and how often do you clean them?
do you use a dechlorinating agent to remove chlorine/ chloramine in the tap water, and do you dechlorinate the water before adding it to the tank?
do you have a fish only bucket for water changes or do you grab any bucket from the laundry?
have you added anything to the tank, plants, fish or chemcials/ medications?
do you have anything on your hands before you work in the tanks, ie: moisturising cream, grease, oil, paint, etc?
do you use any hair spray, perfume, deodorant, paint or smoke in the room with the fish?

Thank you so much, everyone! You have made my day!
But I'm going to answer these questions that Colin_T asked me...
1. Twice a day, and only as much as they can eat in about 30 seconds - 2 minutes. My corys clean up all the leftovers, too.
2. I clean my filters now once a month, after learning that they can clog. I clean them with my aquarium water and an unused toothbrush.
3.Yes, I use Aqua Plus water conditioner, after every tank cleaning. I also use waste control and cycle, but have been using that ever since I got my first tank. (Which was about 5 years ago.)
4. Yes, I have a "fish only bucket" basically, but it's kept in my smokey garage, (someone smokes in my family -- not me though.) but I rinse it out with hot, hot water before using it.
5.I just added some "Life-bearer" medication to treat the ich, even though it apparently only treats gill flukes, fish mites, and kills some beneficial bacteria...? (Didn't realize that until I read the ad on a website ) Added a molly and two sword females last week.
6. Sometimes I do, (baby lotion) but I don't really stick my hands in the tank, and I don't use the lotion all the time.
7. No way, and never!

Thanks again for all the help! I won't give up, but it's really hard... I still have to focus on my homework and stuff, and with fish being like part of my family to me, it really hurts to lose one - especially a few...

I know, it's pretty pathetic, but you guys really don't know how much you have helped me out!
Thanks again!

 

[wendywc]

Sorry to hear. Don't lose hope!

In my experience, if I ever had a disease or problem with the tank, the worst thing to do was to do a water change --- it seemed to be an added shock to the tank to do a water change, instead of a beneficial thing. Leaving the water alone and just adding treatment works for me.

When you do a water change, do you check if the new water is approximately the same temperature as the tank's water? That and using Prime are my big two things when I change the water.

 

[loraxchick]

maybe old tank syndrome in your case?

i just had a crash in a tank and it SUCKS! dont give up...just keep on chugging along.

better luck in the NEAR future...i know how frustrating it is.

 

[Colin_T]

1) Can you give us some info on the fish when they look healthy and when they are dieing/ dead? (ie: are they floating around, sinking to the bottom, clamped fins, cloudy eyes, grey film over the body, etc). A picture of the fish would also help.

If you are losing fish you shouldn’t add any more until the problem has been solved. Otherwise you will just be wasting your money. If everything has been good for a month or so, then you can start adding new fish. Until then I would wait until we resolve the problem before you invest in new stock.

2) Exactly what fish do you have and which ones are dieing?

Cigarette smoke around the fish bucket is unlikely to cause a problem. However, there could be other contaminants getting into the bucket if it is kept in the garage. Is there a car kept in the garage, what about chemicals, paints, solvents, etc? Anything that has horrible smells/odours could be a problem as some plastics absorb fumes and can release them when soaked with water.
I would find a new home for the bucket or wash it with warm soapy water before using it. Preferably find a new home where it won’t be exposed to car exhaust or anything like that.
The reason I would use warm water rather than hot water to wash out the bucket is because plastics often release chemicals when they get really hot. If you use hot water then it could be causing the plastic to release small amounts of chemical that is getting into the tank. It’s unlikely to be this but could be a possibility.

3) How often do you do water changes and how much water do you change?

4) Do you gravel clean the tank substrate? If not then this could be a contributing factor. Gravel cleaners are reasonably cheap to buy or you can make your own from a length of hose and a plastic cool drink bottle. They should be used each time you do a water change.

Try not to feed the fish if you have moisturising cream on your hands as it can get onto the food or coverglass (if you have coverglass) and this could be contributing to the problem.

Regarding the "Life-bearer" medication to treat the ich, even though it apparently only treats gill flukes, fish mites, and kills some beneficial bacteria...?
This question is not related to your problem but do you have any more info on this product? I only ask because you mention “fish mites” and I have never heard of them.

 

[snowflake311]

I think someone said it. You have ich right? I bet money that all the problems stared with the first time you saw ich. I bet you did not treat the whole tank for 14 days did you? Did you treat the ich and stop once you saw the spots were gone?

With ich you have to treat the whole tank for no less then a week. The more fish you have the longer it takes to rid the tank of it. I have had ich in my tank from a new fish I never put in the holding tank. I treated my tank for 14 days never seen any more ich. My fish are all fine.

You sound like you are doing things right. You just never fixed the ich problem the first time.

 

[vinylman]

You can certainly save money by not buying 'cycle' and 'waste control' (I take it that's a product name?).

 

[youngfisher]

Maybe the fish got used to the way the water was? And now there not used to it?