Misty Water

[wigger01]

Hi all,
Was wondering if anyone could help with a problem I may have with my tank.
Recently I have noticed a lot of minute white particles in the tank making it look misty. It was ok up till 2 weeks ago when we thought we had a problem with our pump. I dismantled the pump and filter to take a look to see if there was any blockages in the pipes. During this process I took the sponges from the filter though I did not clean them or replace them as I know that they contain bacteria vital to the set up. It turnt out that the water level was low and this is what was causing the problem with the pump (should have checked that first). But since then the particles have been noticable, at first I thought that it would clear up within a few days but it has not. I have 3 clown loaches which seem to be covered in the particles and I am getting a bit worried that it may be a problem that could stress or kill my fish. The week before I looked at the filter the water was tested by my local shop and all levels were ok. The temp of the tank is 26°.
There is 12 neons, 4 mollies, 4 guppies and the 3 clown loaches in the tank which is a juwel 60 setup.

 

[rabbut]

Cloudy water is likely to be just "junk" in suspension. The Juwel systems aren't too goo at removing floating matter. The dusting on the clown loach islikely to be whitespot though. This is a protozoa infection and needs treating. I would us Waterlife Protozin (assuming you are in the UK), and upp the temp a little once you start treatment. There are treatments known as bunching agents, that would remove the floating debris.

You have quite a heavy stocking, which may be the caurse of the problem. Clown loach can grow to 12 inches, though 8 would be more common. So, inches of stocking wise (as it is taken aas the fishes adult lenght) you have 71 inches of fish, in a tank designed to take 15 This is a big issue. Heavily stocked tanks need very careful attention to run well, and are more porone to problems. I would get the whitespot treated, and teh loaches cured, then find them a new home. Once this is done, you would have 35 inches of adult fish. This is no where neer as bad, and easily manitainable. I would look at 50% weekly waterchages though, rather than the usual 20-30%

HTH
Rabbut

 

[wigger01]

just to update so far.
Yes it was whitespot.
I have done a 25% water change and I have added a dose of Interpet number 6 yesterday. This morning one of the clown loaches was dead. This evening The remaining two loaches did not look to good, they seemed to have placed their mouths at the filter intake point. I went to shop and decided to buy an air pump to try and put a bit of oxygen into the water. One of them has defintley perked up and is swimming around freely the other still looks poor and seems to stay near the top of he water all the time. Ive also noticed that its tail fin is ragged which I suspect is fin rot??
If it is fin rot can I treat that while I am treating them for whitespot? and if so what with? my local shop only seems to only sell interpet products.

 

[rabbut]

Interpet anti-whitespot is based on formaldahyde, and will treat both withespot and hold off fin rot. The anti-finrot med by interpet is also formaldayde based, so you cannot mix the two Doing so will overdose the tank, and at best will knock out the filters. At worst, it will caurse gill damage and death to your fish Finish the treatment for whitespot, then move to treating the finrot. API malafix would be useful if you can get it, as it will furter slow the infection of finrot, but not stop it.

Interpent anti-whitespot plus is based on copper and will not agree with the clowns. Check which one you have. If it is plus, stop the treatment, do a 75% waterchange, and move to the plane anti-whitespot product. Formaldahyde will knock air out of the water, so re-positioning the filter outlet to disturb the surface more, and adding and air pump will help greatly

HTH
Rabbut