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

[fry_forever!]

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.

Thanks everyone! Will try to get a new bucket, because that bucket is really old and gross. Plus, my friend has used that same bucket for her tank a few times, and her fish are thriving! I used to use it to clean my 20 gallon way back when, and my fish were doing great then as well!

1. There are only a couple fish floating around with their fins clamped, but then they stop, and then they start, stop, start. It's like one minute they're perfectly healthy, and the next they are clinging to life. I tested again, and there was no ammonia in my tank, nor nitrites, and the nitrates have gone down to 20ppm. That's probably going to change soon, though, because that stupid medication I used killed some of my beneficial bacteria. Now my tank is having a bacterial bloom, and it's all cloudy. (At least, I think it's a bacterial bloom...)

2. Mostly my mollies are dying... I just can't seem to keep those guys alive! Also, a few of my guppies are dying, though most of them are a year old already, and are second or third generation. My platies and corys are thriving, actually, and seem to be doing even better than usual, other than the rubbing against the ground, and the fact that they never have babies....

3. I change my 20-25% of my water once a week.

4. Yes, I have a gravel vacuum. I siphon my tanks weekly during each water change. (That's what takes the water out...)

Sorry, don't know much about those gill mites, but I DO know that the second time I used the product, it basically killed most of my fish on-spot, and I had to do an emergency 20% water change, without the siphon, because it was 11:00p.m, and I was exhausted. I also put new carbon into my filter, and added an airstone. Once I added the airstone, my fish started automatically doing better, don't know why they did that quickly. But I hope the extra dissolved oxygen can get rid of the ich once and for all!.......?

Here are the pictures of the airstone in action, and how cloudy my tank is....

(above) My tank is normally crystal clear, but it has turned cloudy once again... *sigh*

(above) Is this enough oxygen to get rid of ich?

(above)
Can cheap airstones make a tank cloudy? Or is it just because I had a loss of beneficial bacteria after I put the airstone in? (because of the disease treater.)

(CLICK ON PICS TO MAKE BIGGER)

Thanks again!

 

[Colin_T]

It doesn’t sound like the bucket is the problem but it you are going to replace it, try to get a white one rather than a coloured one. Red & blue buckets often cause problems as the dye or one of the chemicals in the coloured buckets can sometimes cause problems when water is left to sit in it for a while. It doesn’t happen often but white buckets are generally safer.

Clamped fins and rubbing against objects or the substrate can be poor water quality or a disease like costia, whitespot, or a bacterial infection. However, whitespot (Ich) will appear as little white dots on the body and fins. If there aren’t any white spots, then it is probably something like costia or trichodina, both of which are treated the same way and generally respond to the same medications used for whitespot.

Your water sounds fine so it is more likely to be a disease.

If the water is going milky white in colour then it is a bacterial bloom caused by rotting food and fish waste that isn’t being broken down by the filter bacteria. Reduce the feeding to once a day or once every couple of days and do some water changes. The less food going into the tank, the cleaner the water will remain. The fish won’t starve and if they are sick, they won’t eat much anyway. Once the problem has been fixed and the filters have recovered, you can increase the feeding again.

Mollies and guppies are prone to health issues and diseases because of inbreeding. However, if you can get healthy stock they usually do well.

If fish die immediately (or soon) after being treated it is usually caused by overdosing/ poisoning from too much medication in the water, or a lack of oxygen. Some medications reduce the oxygen levels in the water and the fish can suffocate. Having an airstone bubbling away in the tank will usually help prevent the oxygen level dropping too low.

Increasing the oxygen levels (by increasing surface turbulence with an airstone or similar) won’t affect fish diseases and won’t treat them. But it will help the fish by maximising the oxygen available to them. Diseases like white spot, costia, etc need to be treated with something like “Waterlife Protozin” or “Wardleys Promethyasul”. There are plenty of other medications that will also treat the disease. The ich medication you have should do the job as well. Just continue treatment for a couple of weeks so all the parasites are killed.

If you have carbon in the filter then it should be removed before treatment otherwise it will absorb the medication and the disease won’t be treated.

Cheap airstones won’t make the water cloudy. It will be caused by the medication knocking the filter bacteria about.

 

[fry_forever!]

It doesn’t sound like the bucket is the problem but it you are going to replace it, try to get a white one rather than a coloured one. Red & blue buckets often cause problems as the dye or one of the chemicals in the coloured buckets can sometimes cause problems when water is left to sit in it for a while. It doesn’t happen often but white buckets are generally safer.

Clamped fins and rubbing against objects or the substrate can be poor water quality or a disease like costia, whitespot, or a bacterial infection. However, whitespot (Ich) will appear as little white dots on the body and fins. If there aren’t any white spots, then it is probably something like costia or trichodina, both of which are treated the same way and generally respond to the same medications used for whitespot.

Your water sounds fine so it is more likely to be a disease.

If the water is going milky white in colour then it is a bacterial bloom caused by rotting food and fish waste that isn’t being broken down by the filter bacteria. Reduce the feeding to once a day or once every couple of days and do some water changes. The less food going into the tank, the cleaner the water will remain. The fish won’t starve and if they are sick, they won’t eat much anyway. Once the problem has been fixed and the filters have recovered, you can increase the feeding again.

Mollies and guppies are prone to health issues and diseases because of inbreeding. However, if you can get healthy stock they usually do well.

If fish die immediately (or soon) after being treated it is usually caused by overdosing/ poisoning from too much medication in the water, or a lack of oxygen. Some medications reduce the oxygen levels in the water and the fish can suffocate. Having an airstone bubbling away in the tank will usually help prevent the oxygen level dropping too low.

Increasing the oxygen levels (by increasing surface turbulence with an airstone or similar) won’t affect fish diseases and won’t treat them. But it will help the fish by maximising the oxygen available to them. Diseases like white spot, costia, etc need to be treated with something like “Waterlife Protozin” or “Wardleys Promethyasul”. There are plenty of other medications that will also treat the disease. The ich medication you have should do the job as well. Just continue treatment for a couple of weeks so all the parasites are killed.

If you have carbon in the filter then it should be removed before treatment otherwise it will absorb the medication and the disease won’t be treated.

Cheap airstones won’t make the water cloudy. It will be caused by the medication knocking the filter bacteria about.

Thank you very much! Will keep that in mind! I am still so stressed out -- trying not to give up!

 

[fry_forever!]

It doesn’t sound like the bucket is the problem but it you are going to replace it, try to get a white one rather than a coloured one. Red & blue buckets often cause problems as the dye or one of the chemicals in the coloured buckets can sometimes cause problems when water is left to sit in it for a while. It doesn’t happen often but white buckets are generally safer.

Clamped fins and rubbing against objects or the substrate can be poor water quality or a disease like costia, whitespot, or a bacterial infection. However, whitespot (Ich) will appear as little white dots on the body and fins. If there aren’t any white spots, then it is probably something like costia or trichodina, both of which are treated the same way and generally respond to the same medications used for whitespot.

Your water sounds fine so it is more likely to be a disease.

If the water is going milky white in colour then it is a bacterial bloom caused by rotting food and fish waste that isn’t being broken down by the filter bacteria. Reduce the feeding to once a day or once every couple of days and do some water changes. The less food going into the tank, the cleaner the water will remain. The fish won’t starve and if they are sick, they won’t eat much anyway. Once the problem has been fixed and the filters have recovered, you can increase the feeding again.

Mollies and guppies are prone to health issues and diseases because of inbreeding. However, if you can get healthy stock they usually do well.

If fish die immediately (or soon) after being treated it is usually caused by overdosing/ poisoning from too much medication in the water, or a lack of oxygen. Some medications reduce the oxygen levels in the water and the fish can suffocate. Having an airstone bubbling away in the tank will usually help prevent the oxygen level dropping too low.

Increasing the oxygen levels (by increasing surface turbulence with an airstone or similar) won’t affect fish diseases and won’t treat them. But it will help the fish by maximising the oxygen available to them. Diseases like white spot, costia, etc need to be treated with something like “Waterlife Protozin” or “Wardleys Promethyasul”. There are plenty of other medications that will also treat the disease. The ich medication you have should do the job as well. Just continue treatment for a couple of weeks so all the parasites are killed.

If you have carbon in the filter then it should be removed before treatment otherwise it will absorb the medication and the disease won’t be treated.

Cheap airstones won’t make the water cloudy. It will be caused by the medication knocking the filter bacteria about.

Thank you very much! Will keep that in mind! I am still so stressed out -- trying not to give up!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!! The ich is GONE!!!!


How did I treat it?

I put my temp up to 87F, increased aeration to max, and put in two tablets of Jungle Labs Parasite Clear!!!!!!!!!!
I still have to treat a bit longer, just in case, but my fish are acting NORMAL again!!!!

Thanks for telling me to not give up everyone!!!

Did I just jinx it...?

 

[Colin_T]

chances are you haven't cured it just yet. The Ich parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) the spots fall off the fish and the parasite multiplies inside a cyst while it is in the gravel or on plants.
3) the cysts rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

You must continue treating them for a week or so after the spots have gone. If you stop treating too early, the disease can come back and kill the already weakened fish.

 

[fry_forever!]

chances are you haven't cured it just yet. The Ich parasite has 3 stages to its lifecycle.
1) the white spots on the fish
2) the spots fall off the fish and the parasite multiplies inside a cyst while it is in the gravel or on plants.
3) the cysts rupture open releasing thousands of new parasites to re-infect the fish.
The parasite can only be killed during the 3rd stage when they are free swimming and before they attach to a fish.

You must continue treating them for a week or so after the spots have gone. If you stop treating too early, the disease can come back and kill the already weakened fish.

Yeah I know. I'm still treating, and they still have a bit, I know, but it's basically GONE!!!!! YAYYAYAYAY!!!