New Fish Keeper

[Nicola Turner]

Hi all. I'm new to tropical fish!! Got 4 platies. All OK for 2 weeks. Week 3 we introduced 2 Neons. Both died within 2 days. Water checked, all OK. Got 2 new Honey Gourami. All OK for 4 days. 2 platies now dead and the other 2 look dodgy. Any ideas?? Have a picture of 1 of the platies. Looks like white marks all over it.

 

[seangee]

That looks like a serious case of Ich. The best treatment is to raise the temperature to 30C and keep it there for at least two weeks.

Are you aware of the nitrogen cycle? Please have a read about it here.

As well as raising the temperature you should immediately change 75% of your water using de-chlorinated water of approximately the same temp. Feed sparingly (a little food twice a week is enough). If you already have tests for ammonia and nitrite change 50-75% of the water every day you have a non zero reading for either of these. If you don't have the tests change every day until you can get the tests. Do not add any more fish until your ammonia and nitrite readings are both zero and stay that way for at least a week.

While that is going on you should find out the hardness of your water. We are interested in GH, both the number and the unit of measure. This info may be provided on your water suppliers website, but you could ask a fish store to test it for you. The reason for the question is platies need to be in hard water and will die in soft water. Gouramis and neons need soft water and will be sickly in hard water.

But for now you should focus on saving the fish you have - that is one for the future. Good luck.

 

[Retired Viking]

I agree with seangee , that info is right. I would read about the nitrogen cycle. I am just getting back into the hobby after a long time. Back when I had 6 tanks you just let the water sit for a week to get rid of the chlorine and that was about it. Back then water changes were rare. Good luck