..I am in DEEP crap right now...

[kevin007]

I didnt even know that it was gone to a point where...long story short..

my testing kit used up i was being lazy, aw nufin will happen my tank has always been so healthy...and one of my sterbai died of fungus (could'nt save him) so i thought..he just got hurt and stuff, nothing to do with my tank quality...saw another one of my sterbai acting not right, noticed that it was like somehting in it's body..it's either internal paracite..or..swimbladder ...now i started noticing that my other sterbai is having popeye, because of some sources, saying that 10% water change is enough per week, i beleived and i didnt find it very sucessful, even 20% is not enough, while 25% seems to be the magic number, i plan on doing a 50% water change as soon as possible, since i do not think my tank quality is too good, my fish isn't acting like they are suppose to be, after keeping one species of fish for a long time, you will know if their behaviour is normal or abnormal. I am really frustrated, i was hoping my sterbais would breed again, now i'm down to 2 healthy adult cories I do not have enough buckets to fill 22 gallons of water (i leave my water out for 24hrs before going in the tank).
I have also have a fluval 4+ which i did a little upgrading myself I have added 2 more carbon pads and a polyester ..cotton so now i have 5 layers of filters, i want my tank to be as clean as possible.

Fish in tanks are:

1 discus
13 harlequin rasboras
7 sterbai, 2 elegans cory
2 clown loaches (going away soon)
4 zebra danio (dont ask about them)
2 guppies
2 angel fish
4 sparkling gourami

did i overstock? is that the reason? i added the rasboras recently

What do you think i should do to fix the problem, no water tests kit at the moment and i am very angry that my favourite fish are dying

 

[newfishies]

how big is the tank?

 

[kevin007]

how big is the tank?

55 gallons

 

[Inchworm]

Hi kevin007

If your corys have "fungus," it's probably bacterial in origin. It's likely too, that your other problems are the same.

There is no way to test for high levels of bacteria in an otherwise healthy tank. All you can do is keep up regular tank cleaning and water changes and avoid overfeeding, overcrowding, temperature fluctuations, and other things that put undue stress on the fish.

I'm sorry to learn about your sterbai. I know you were proud of them, and hoped to raise some soon. Do you plan to replace them?

 

[fufanu360]

well.... u must take much better care of your tank to have discus in it... also ur supposed to have a min. of 4 discus to be together

 

[kevin007]

Hi kevin007

If your corys have "fungus," it's probably bacterial in origin. It's likely too, that your other problems are the same.

There is no way to test for high levels of bacteria in an otherwise healthy tank. All you can do is keep up regular tank cleaning and water changes and avoid overfeeding, overcrowding, temperature fluctuations, and other things that put undue stress on the fish.

I'm sorry to learn about your sterbai. I know you were proud of them, and hoped to raise some soon. Do you plan to replace them?

I will replace them for sure, this time, i'm...lazy and will just buy adult ones from the start..i still have 1 adult female...and 2 little ones (my sig).

My discus, i started out just to see if i was capable to keeping them, turns out, i was able to do it but then, my tank wasnt stable, i wanted to keep things stable before i add more discus...and obviously, my tank is not stable right now, i would gladly buy more discus $13ea, but since my discus is still small, if i add mroe discus they wont fight..yet..

 

[fishman 1]

When you do a water change the exact percentage of water is not that essencial.
Whether 20% or 25% it is mainly guess work as lots of people forget about the water displacement due to the gravel and the decor (rocks and bog wood etc).

I take it you use a tap water conditioner rather than just letting the water stand over night to take out the clorine and cloramin?

You cannot blame over stocking on the deaths even if there are more fish than you are supposidly should teep in a tank of your size.

Have you done any gravel cleaning? Is there excessive waste in the bottom of the tank? Am i over feeding? Are my water changes regular enough? These are questions that may well provide some of the answers.

As regards the the filter adaptations- Is it an internal mechanical filter? If so adding extra pads may adversly affect the filters performance as it will reduce the flow of the filter and may even damage the unit. If you are concerned over filteration it may be more advisable to add another power filter, or even if it is an air powered box filter full of the ceramic pipe media for the bacterial growth to break down the nitrites. Either may be advisable.

I would suggest you do a water change of what you can manage with the buckets you have and then another change the day after to give the tank a 40%ish change. If the fish have pop eye I fear the worst is inevitable. I would also recommend you remove you filter modification so the filter can perform. Also reduce your feeding for a few days. It may be a good idea to get a new test kit if you depend on it so much when you can.

 

[kevin007]

When you do a water change the exact percentage of water is not that essencial.
Whether 20% or 25% it is mainly guess work as lots of people forget about the water displacement due to the gravel and the decor (rocks and bog wood etc).

I take it you use a tap water conditioner rather than just letting the water stand over night to take out the clorine and cloramin?

You cannot blame over stocking on the deaths even if there are more fish than you are supposidly should teep in a tank of your size.

Have you done any gravel cleaning? Is there excessive waste in the bottom of the tank? Am i over feeding? Are my water changes regular enough? These are questions that may well provide some of the answers.

As regards the the filter adaptations- Is it an internal mechanical filter? If so adding extra pads may adversly affect the filters performance as it will reduce the flow of the filter and may even damage the unit. If you are concerned over filteration it may be more advisable to add another power filter, or even if it is an air powered box filter full of the ceramic pipe media for the bacterial growth to break down the nitrites. Either may be advisable.

I would suggest you do a water change of what you can manage with the buckets you have and then another change the day after to give the tank a 40%ish change. If the fish have pop eye I fear the worst is inevitable. I would also recommend you remove you filter modification so the filter can perform. Also reduce your feeding for a few days. It may be a good idea to get a new test kit if you depend on it so much when you can.

Yea i use aqua plus...and i got 25% water changes per week(every sunday ..aka today), i am not blaming on the over stocking, i dont even thing i am anyways, i'm just tryin to find out the problem, u gravel clean everything i change the water, is that a problem? am i takin out too many useful bacteria? i really dont know, as for over feeding i'm pretty sure i dont, i feed once a day, not very much also. As for the filter, well i'm just testing it out, i put my hand in the output of my filter (fluval 4+) and the current is pretty strong, even by looking the bubbles from my bubble wall you can tell that it is the current that is making it leaning to one side, but the out put if focused on the back of the tank, the front has not much current so my fish can swim.

 

[Inchworm]

Hi kevin007

I'm glad to learn that you are not giving up, even though this is not your first round of troubles.

Fishman 1 has given you good advice and if you follow it, you should find your fish do better. But most important, you must get over being lazy. It's just not a good enough excuse to let your fish (or other pets) get sick and die.

If you keep live creatures, you must expect to do the work needed to keep them healthy and fit. If you just plan to set aside a little time each day to feed and check them out, and a little more once each week to do your cleaning and water changes, you will do fine. They are alive and completely dependent on you for their well being. Please do not let them down again.

 

[smithrc]

I'd reccomend a filter upgrade for deffinate.

Our fluval 4+ is nowhere near enough for our 50 gal - so its now got a 304 external now as well.

You'll also find that the extra layers of media will have an adverse effect on the filtering as it'll decrease the flow rate dramatically.

this will lead to poor water quality and then to deaths....

Remember, There is no such thing as over filtering.

 

[cometcattle]

I'd reccomend a filter upgrade for deffinate.

Our fluval 4+ is nowhere near enough for our 50 gal - so its now got a 304 external now as well.

You'll also find that the extra layers of media will have an adverse effect on the filtering as it'll decrease the flow rate dramatically.

this will lead to poor water quality and then to deaths....

Remember, There is no such thing as over filtering.

I agree.

I have an Emperor 400 and an Aquaclear 500 on my 55g.

 

[kevin007]

since then i have maintained my tank better and one of my cories with popeye....looks to be..healing..or i might be seeing things and look like there are eggs in her tummy

 

[Inchworm]

Hi kevin007

I'm glad to learn that your corys are doing better.

I think that in a short while you will have to agree that the extra work it takes to keep your tank in tip top condition will pay off, not only in happier and healthier fish, but by giving you the satisfaction of having done the job well. Your tank will be beautiful too.

 

[kevin007]

Hi kevin007

I'm glad to learn that your corys are doing better.

I think that in a short while you will have to agree that the extra work it takes to keep your tank in tip top condition will pay off, not only in happier and healthier fish, but by giving you the satisfaction of having done the job well. Your tank will be beautiful too.

yes i agree, i like healthy fish swimmin in my tank, not fish that are sick and my rasboras and all of the other fish are healthy now, i just want to fix this cory up, i thought that it was weird that the pop eye just healed? i didnt even use any meds, i just took beter maintainence and this cory is not one of my adult cories, one of the "juvenile" ones, but..she is around 1.2 inch, is it possible that she will lay eggs? and if she dos lay the eggs, will the eggs have any damage due to popeye?

 

[kevin007]

hmm further inspection looks like her eyes really did healed abit and i would be really happy is she laid eggs if so the problem is that i dont have any tank to put the eggs in and keep the eggs arated?, can it be with my baby guppies? , my other tank of baby cories are full

EDIT: or could the egg...be..some kinda desiese? she is not moving very much just like my other female sterbai with eggs...