Inherited Fish Dying Fast...help (first Post)

[chris_junior41]

Hey all,

I am a starter here! With my first post, (im sure the first of many) lol

I really hope you guys and gals can help out.

My uncle passed away recently, and had this nice tank with fish in there, The tank is around 1.1metres wide, assuming its like 40 gallons in there. Had 7 fish in there, 3 parrot fish, i think there was (i think its called) tetra, couple of like gold ones, and like a liht bluey metallic one.

But we had to get the fish out of his house sharpish, (long story, but the other woman in the house tried taking all his stuff, so had to swipe it out quickly before she changed the locks) decided to take to mine, so got some warm water, but into a bucket, put the fish in there, emptied the tank, cleaned the rocks/filter etc, and gravel. took the tank home, filled it up with warm tap water, allowed the tank to settle a while, (1hrish) waited for temperature to settle then put the filters, rocks, then put the fish in. They seemed fine for the first, lets say week, i noticed one of the parrot fish acting strange, then struggled to swim, kept going towards the top, but it seems it didnt want to go up, so each time, either went next to the heater, or lodged itself as though it was tired, sometimes swam towards the bubble thing swollowing bubbles. Fish then started to stop eating. parrot fish died, then lots of the fish started swimming towards the top surface. and now dying. Two died two days ago, another parrot fish died today. Im left with 2 fish, parrot and old tetra, i really dont want these to die, these are like rememberence of my uncle and my mum is getting quite upset.

water evaporates quite quickly in the tank, its about 5-6ft away from the radiator which may have to do with it. I bought a new table so that the tank can be moved downstairs, more action there, more light, better eye kept on them. Not sure whether its a good time to move them now being just two of them. They all seem quite pale.

Shall i do a water change? treatment? no tests have been run on the water. Since the fish have not been eating, the food has been resting at the bottom...

Please.. any advice? Thanks

Chris

 

[stang1]

Might be best testimg your water.
Oh and

 

[l.michelle]

Take a sample of the water to your fish store. While there, pick up some water conditioner, straight tap water isn't good, there are lots of chemicals in it.

I don't know about tetras or parrot fish, but ask the guy at the fishstore, or wait on here and see if someone answers who knows, because the temperature in the tank may have been low.

Sorry to hear about your uncle and the fish.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

ok i think i know what's happened.

how did you clean out the filter? if you washed it in tap water (or anything other than water taken from the tank) you've probably killed off the bacteria colony that lives in there and keeps the tank alive and happy.

this basically means the tank's had to start over building up a new colony, this is called cycling. while the tank is cycling the levels of ammonia and nitrite will be very high, these are toxic to fish. generally speaking now people will do a fishless cycle on they're tank before adding any fish so that they are not exposed to the harmful levels of ammonia and nitrite.

have a good read of that topic, it should give you a better idea of how the filter and bacteria support life in the tank.

the sad things is I know you were trying to do the right thing, but in cleaning the tank you've probably caused a big problem. but OK lesson learnt now I'm sure, lets move on to how you can fix this now.

firstly you need a test kit, if your uncle had one great (although check the expiry date), if not go buy one or take a sample of your water to the local fish shop and ask them to test it. test your water for ph, ammonia, nitrite or nitrate, the results should be

ph - around 7
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - less than 40

make sure you write down the results and post them, and be careful not to get nitrIte and nitrAte mixed up, could make a big difference to us being able to help you.

the best thing you could do is get a 'ready made' bacteria colony from someone else's filter and put it into yours, this should end the cycle almost immediately and get water conditions back to normal. if you know anyone with a fishtank near you ask them to give you one of the sponges from they're filter or any other filter media. this should be kept wet at all times and be put into your filter within 12 hrs of being removed from theirs, sooner if possible. If you don't know anyone near you check out this thread there's a list of members willing to give people near them mature filter media, pm someone in your area.

until you manage to track some down you need to change about 30% of the water from the tank every day to keep the levels of amonia and nitrite down. so remove 30% of the water from the aquarium, fill buckets with water straight from the tap (doesn't matter if it's cold) add dechlorinator (very very important) and add it to the tank. have a look through your uncles fish stuff for a gravel vac, or a siphon, this will remove the water from teh tank and also clean up the uneaten food and waste from the bottom of the tank as leaving this lying around won't be helping.

if you can't get hold of any mature media you'll just have to sit the cycle out and keep your fingers crossed you don't loose any more. you'll need to test the water every day, and do about 40% water changes every day until your readings are consistently as I said above.

it sounds like they've died from swimbladder problems, which are a result of poor water conditions, caused by the tank cycling. it's not contagious as such so any fish that aren't ill now won't catch it from other fish, however if the poor water conditions aren't rectified quickly they may also fall ill.

hope that's not too much info to bombard you with at once. give me a shout if your confused about anything.

good luck, i've got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[andyt_uk]

ok i think i know what's happened.

well miss wiggle took the words straight from my finger tips
dont worry about what has happened, there are some instant cycle products on the market, ask your fish store some people will argue they dont work, false promises etc... IMHO in your situation its far better than nothing it will help take some of the stress away from the fish.
monitor your water
cross your fingers
good luck
let us know how you get on

 

[chris_junior41]

well what can i say! thank you for the advice!

I have popped to the fish store, got loads of little bits and bobs, stress coat, stress something or other, melaflix and something to clean the gravel. Apparently the guy said to clean the filter, but to clean it in the tank, dont use tap water. is that right? the water was soooo cloudy, he said to add the treatment etc. but to replace some, not all of the water.

I cleaned the filter using an algae pad, cleaned the filter in the water, cleaned the gravel.

Thing is, couple of issues now, in that, when moving the tank, didnt have a choice but to put the fish in a bucket (in its own water) and took the opportunity to empty the tank and replace some of the water, but after reading this, dont think that was a good idea now! so im worried.

I have bought a new air block, which is giving out sooo much more than the other, other one was doing the occasional bubble!

The other issue is (more worrying) is that i put the filters down, and my mum (without me knowing) cleaned the sponges!!!! what do I do now?!

well the tank has moved, drops are in, they are swimming now, moving a lot more, but parrot chasing the tetra, which maybe playful. at least they are moving!

problem is, the water seems cloudy still and not sure how long it will take to clear. do i leave the filter on? because one is blowing, and the other im not sure, think its sucking, not very much though, but not sure if thats the way its meant to be.

Suppose tonight is going to be tough, and the next few nights.

Thanks soooo much for the advice and taking the time to write your advice!

PLease, any more advice is moreee than welcomed! im fighting to keep these alive!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

well what can i say! thank you for the advice!

I have popped to the fish store, got loads of little bits and bobs, stress coat, stress something or other, melaflix and something to clean the gravel. Apparently the guy said to clean the filter, but to clean it in the tank, dont use tap water. is that right? the water was soooo cloudy, he said to add the treatment etc. but to replace some, not all of the water.

I cleaned the filter using an algae pad, cleaned the filter in the water, cleaned the gravel.

Thing is, couple of issues now, in that, when moving the tank, didnt have a choice but to put the fish in a bucket (in its own water) and took the opportunity to empty the tank and replace some of the water, but after reading this, dont think that was a good idea now! so im worried.

I have bought a new air block, which is giving out sooo much more than the other, other one was doing the occasional bubble!

The other issue is (more worrying) is that i put the filters down, and my mum (without me knowing) cleaned the sponges!!!! what do I do now?!

well the tank has moved, drops are in, they are swimming now, moving a lot more, but parrot chasing the tetra, which maybe playful. at least they are moving!

problem is, the water seems cloudy still and not sure how long it will take to clear. do i leave the filter on? because one is blowing, and the other im not sure, think its sucking, not very much though, but not sure if thats the way its meant to be.

Suppose tonight is going to be tough, and the next few nights.

Thanks soooo much for the advice and taking the time to write your advice!

PLease, any more advice is moreee than welcomed! im fighting to keep these alive!

ok firstly, take a deep breath and calm down. there's a lot on info you need to get your head around here so you need to go at it calmly so you take it all in

don't clean the filter again, it really doesn't need it, the guy at the fish shop gave you bad advice there i'm afraid. unfortunately the wages that fish stores pay means a lot of enthusiasts can't afford to work there, so you end up with a lot of teenagers or just complete morons there who will tell you anything just to sell you what they want to.

when cleaning the filter you should remove a bucket of water from the tank, turn off the filter, rinse out sponges and anything else just using this water from the tank, then throw the water away and fill the tank up with new dechlorinated (look at the stress stuff you bought, some of this will be dechlorinator) water. However filters only need cleaning when the flow starts to drop from them, and your only getting any blockages and muck out of them, you don't wanna scrub them off as the tap water will kill off the bacteria that's keeping your tank healthy. Until your tank has stabilised which may be a week or two, do not clean the filter, explain this all to your mum too so she doesn't do it. Print this off and tape it to the filter if nescessary!! lol

did you get a test kit or get your water tested?

it's good you've got a gravel vac, get the uneaten food cleared up from the tank floor.

don't add any melafix just yet, your trying to build up bacteria in your tank, melafix is an antibacterial medicine and will therefore be doing exactly the opposite of what you want to happen. it's a very good med and well worth buying and keeping in the cupboard, but it's not gonna help your situation at this moment in time.

do you know what filter it is, make and model? have a look on the casing it should say, if not then get a pic and post it, we can maybe identify it and then suss out if it's working. if it's sucking in and blowing out some water that's a good start, make sure all the water in the tank is being circulated, if it's a bit stagnant somewhere then you have a problem.

replacing the water in the tank is fine, hope you added dechlorinator to the new stuff, if not, meh, not the end of the world but make sure you always do with water changes from now on. tap water contains chlorine which is harmful to fishes. the bacteria that keeps the tank healthy lives in the filter not in the water so replacing all the tank water is fine. so don't worry over that.

the water becoming cloudy is actually a good sign, this is part of the cycling process, it's due to the levels of ammonia and nitrite in your tank, this is bad for the fish but it's something that you'll just have to go through.

the fish being more active is a great sign so your obviously doing something right. just coming to ask for advice is a big step in the right direction so your doing really well.

did you look through the link i posted to look for someone with some more mature filter media who lives near you, this is still the single most positive thing you can do for the tank, it will rectify your problems in a matter of days rather than the weeks it could take. it would also mean you can start treating for the illness straight away, as it is you have to wait maybe a week or so.

so cut a long story short, what you need to do

1 - tell your mum not to touch the filter, print this off for her to read or something if she doesn't believe you, the worst thing you can do is clean it again.

2 - get a test kit or a sample of the water and take it to the lfs, test for and post your results for ph, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate

3 - look through the link for someone with a fishtank near you, pm them, send a link to this post so they know the situation, and arrange to meet up and get some filter media from them, when you've got it, keep it wet (in tank water only, not tap water) get it home and put it into your filter, this MUST be done within 12 hrs of it being removed from they're filter.

4 - do daily water changes, remove 20% of the water from the tank, use the gravel vac and pick up any uneaten food/debris from the floor of the tank, add stress coat to the tap water before you put it into your tank, there's a guide on the side of the bottle for how to work out the dose.

5 - keep testing your water every day, when your results match the 'ideals' i posted earlier then post back and let us know how your fish are doing and what your water test results are, we can then let you know if there's anything else you need to do and what your maintenance routien should be from now on.

hope that all helps!

 

[chris_junior41]

That must have taken AGES to write!! Cheers! I will get to start on the 1-5. Looked this morning at the tank, cleared up alot, fish have more colour, but im sure still not in the clear yet as they are still not eating. Think the parrot fish had a quick nibble. I have noticed one of them snail things in there, should I take it out or leave it?
Will get the tester tonight and post results. Thanks again! Will keep you posted!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

That must have taken AGES to write!! Cheers! I will get to start on the 1-5. Looked this morning at the tank, cleared up alot, fish have more colour, but im sure still not in the clear yet as they are still not eating. Think the parrot fish had a quick nibble. I have noticed one of them snail things in there, should I take it out or leave it?
Will get the tester tonight and post results. Thanks again! Will keep you posted!

ha ha it's OK, i've got a really quick typing speed so it doesn't take long, but also i get paid for it..... skiving at work tut tut

glad it seems to be progressing well. it's easy to see if fish are ok or not, colour, activity and eating, your three main signs.

depends what sort of snail, if you can get a pic we'll let you know what it is and weather it's good for the tank or not.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

how are you getting on chris?

 

[xostrawberryox]

Now I know if im gonna leave my fishtanks in my will i will also leave instructions of how to move and maintain it! You're doing a good job Chris, keep it up! x