Here's the details, looking for advice on where to go from here. Not completely new to fish keeping, but new as far as thinking I know what I'm doing. I had aquariums as a teenager, now I'm nearly 40. I spent probably 6 months researching what I wanted to do, and different fish before I finally filled my tank and got started.
I did not do a fishless cycle, I did use a cycle chemical and started with a shoal of 8 long finned zebra danios. After about 2 weeks I added a shoal of 7 cherry barbs, I ended up with 4 males and 3 females, which was a problem, as the males were relentless chasing the females after a while. After another couple of weeks I introduced a shoal of 6 harlequin rasbora's.
I went with this tank load for a month or month and a half and then, in the space of a couple of weeks, added 3 clown loaches, 3 boesmani rainbow fish, 1 rainbow shark.
Things were going well, everyone getting along, everyone seemed healthy. I was having some algae issues, and my 10 year old son had a pleco in his 10 gallon aquarium that had grown to about 3 inches or so. He could never keep any fish alive in the tank with it however. I added the pleco to my tank trying to get him to take care of some of the algae.
Finally, I went to Petsmart and added 3 female cherry barbs. All of the other fish were from a reputable local fish store.
I got married two weeks ago, went on a 5 day honeymoon, had my nephew take care of the fish, came home and my rainbows looked terrible, all 3 with ich bad. He did overfeed them. I did a 1/2 water change and started medicating.
I ended up losing all 3 rainbows, all the barbs, and the 3 loaches.
It's been a week, I'm no longer medicating, the remaining fish all look fine. Here's my educated guesses at what happened:
1)The pleco carried ich to my tank
2)The barbs from Petsmart carried it to my tank
3)The overfeeding increased the ammonia and gave the fish ich.
Either way, it's been a week, ther emaining fish look fine, I'm not sure what to do now. Get rid of the pleco? Do I need to do a complete water change now? I"m scared to introduce any more fish to my tank until I know it's healthy. Can Ich live on my plastic plants and caves? I increased the water temp. to 78 degrees. I'm just looking for help and advice. I really loved the way my tank was looking and the setup I had. Outside of the ammonia reading .5, the rest of the water readings were all within line. My fish load may have been a little heavy, but the loaches were very small at this point, and my goal was to get a larger 2nd aquarium in 6-9 months and moving them over and getting some bala sharks.
This tank was a 46 gal. bowfront.
Help.
I did not do a fishless cycle, I did use a cycle chemical and started with a shoal of 8 long finned zebra danios. After about 2 weeks I added a shoal of 7 cherry barbs, I ended up with 4 males and 3 females, which was a problem, as the males were relentless chasing the females after a while. After another couple of weeks I introduced a shoal of 6 harlequin rasbora's.
I went with this tank load for a month or month and a half and then, in the space of a couple of weeks, added 3 clown loaches, 3 boesmani rainbow fish, 1 rainbow shark.
Things were going well, everyone getting along, everyone seemed healthy. I was having some algae issues, and my 10 year old son had a pleco in his 10 gallon aquarium that had grown to about 3 inches or so. He could never keep any fish alive in the tank with it however. I added the pleco to my tank trying to get him to take care of some of the algae.
Finally, I went to Petsmart and added 3 female cherry barbs. All of the other fish were from a reputable local fish store.
I got married two weeks ago, went on a 5 day honeymoon, had my nephew take care of the fish, came home and my rainbows looked terrible, all 3 with ich bad. He did overfeed them. I did a 1/2 water change and started medicating.
I ended up losing all 3 rainbows, all the barbs, and the 3 loaches.
It's been a week, I'm no longer medicating, the remaining fish all look fine. Here's my educated guesses at what happened:
1)The pleco carried ich to my tank
2)The barbs from Petsmart carried it to my tank
3)The overfeeding increased the ammonia and gave the fish ich.
Either way, it's been a week, ther emaining fish look fine, I'm not sure what to do now. Get rid of the pleco? Do I need to do a complete water change now? I"m scared to introduce any more fish to my tank until I know it's healthy. Can Ich live on my plastic plants and caves? I increased the water temp. to 78 degrees. I'm just looking for help and advice. I really loved the way my tank was looking and the setup I had. Outside of the ammonia reading .5, the rest of the water readings were all within line. My fish load may have been a little heavy, but the loaches were very small at this point, and my goal was to get a larger 2nd aquarium in 6-9 months and moving them over and getting some bala sharks.
This tank was a 46 gal. bowfront.
Help.
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