Newbie Needing Help And Advice Please!

[waterdrop]

Arrgh! Another fishless/fish-in flip-flop mistake! Drives you crazy, always wishing the goal was right there in the profile or something so you saw it on the post. But -sorry-, my mistake, shouldn't have been trying to go so fast, should have looked back at the beginning of the thread to figure out whether it was fishless or fish-in!

~~wd~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Arrgh! Another fishless/fish-in flip-flop mistake! Drives you crazy, always wishing the goal was right there in the profile or something so you saw it on the post. But -sorry-, my mistake, shouldn't have been trying to go so fast, should have looked back at the beginning of the thread to figure out whether it was fishless or fish-in!

~~wd~~

ha ha don't stress it WD, I do it all the time. you wouldn't believe how many times i have to delete and re-write posts when i realise i'm just being an idiot and talking completely at cross purposes to the poster.

OK, so B13, something you can do to help me and waterdrop (and the others) and our ever struggling memories.

Each day when you post up your water stats and let us know how you're getting on if you can do it in this format or something similar then it makes it loads easier for us to remember what's going on.

Day X - Fish-in Cycle 83litre tank

08:00am (time of test)

pH -
Ammonia -
Nitrite -
Nitrate -

50% water change carried out

09:00am (time of test)

pH -
Ammonia -
Nitrite -
Nitrate -

Then today's questions, what you've done etc etc.

That make sense?!

 

[B13]

Hi there!!

Sorry, today has been an absolute bloody MARE!!! Seriously...

2 coolies died: one in 'mysterious circumstances' (...and got half-eaten...) and the other decided to investigate the inner workings of the pump and promptly earned himself the fish version of a Darwin Award (must get some fine mesh to put over all the holes)

Then there was all the snow and traffic chaos... ...which I was in. I finally got to work at 2:30pm... So it's gonna be one hell of a late night for me tonight!

Aaargh!!

Aaaaaaanyway, I took the 2 plecs and also the coolie with the strange white patches back to the shop and no matter HOW hard I tried to get it into the staff's thick heads that the fish looked like that when I got them on Saturday, they kept saying, "It's your tank!" Speaking of the tank, there now appears to be a white 'mould' growing in patches on the inside of the glass...

Yes, the water conditions are not helping my poor fish, but if the fish I bought on Saturday were diseased to start with, the whole situation is a whole heap bloomin' worse!!

(rant over!!)


So they tested the water using the same not-very-useful test kit that they sold me, gave me some bacteria stuff in a bottle to bung in my filter (*hits head on desk*) agreed that I was mis-sold the fish (i.e. too much too soon), agreed that StressZyme is next to useless and told me to do a 20% water change and add some medicine for white spot (*continues with the desk head-hitting*

So I did a 30% water change, slung in the medication, crossed my fingers and legged it out the door.


...


Can you tell I'm having a bad day?




Unfortunately, I'm not going to have time to do anything tomorrow morning because I have to leave home at 7am to - funnily enough - go to London Zoo on business. I'm also gonna have a chat to their chaps there. Gawd knows what time I'll be getting back home tomorrow night because after I see the folks at ZSL, I think have to go see another client.... But I'm aiming to do the 50% water change on Friday and do the tests before and after and report back!! (Will the white spot medication influence the readings?)

(P.S. Sorry if I sound horribly rushed, I've got a major client coming in in about five minute's time and I've got a whole heap of work to get through!!! Eek!!)

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Phew certainly sounds hectic.

personally i would not medicate without a confirmed diagnosis and i think it's lazy or downright inappropriate to be telling you to medicate without knowing that's whats wrong. have you actually seen any white spots on the fish at all?

also some fish, generally catfish and loaches, are sensitive to white spot medication and you need to use half doses and even that is risky sometimes.

can we have a little re cap. what fish do you have alive in the tank now and what are your latest water stats (whenever you get a chance to test it amongst your busy schedule!!)?

 

[waterdrop]

Small thing: the white stuff on the inside of the glass will probably just be biofilm (it usually looks like thin grayish-white sheets that sometimes pull loose at the edges and wave a bit in the water.) If so, its harmless and normal. Or sometimes, if its brighter white spots that are speckled on the glass and brighter white then its just a mold and will either go away on its own or get cleaned off by you later and is also harmless.

Otherwise, on the major stuff, agree with MW.

~~waterdrop~~
ps. sounds like a classic LFS that don't know much about the stuff we discuss here.
pps. you guys had -snow- yesterday?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yeah, none round by me but the UK had snow yesterday.

 

[waterdrop]

That settles it then, the white stuff on the inside of the glass is just snow.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Miss Wiggle]

 

[Schmill]

We had snow here, and I was wondering what the film was that's gradually formed over everything in my cycling tank.
Now I now
Snow Bio-Film, and it's nothing to worry about

Thanks - lol

 

[B13]

personally i would not medicate without a confirmed diagnosis and i think it's lazy or downright inappropriate to be telling you to medicate without knowing that's whats wrong. have you actually seen any white spots on the fish at all?

This is what also[p/i] bugged me. I know what White Spot looks like from when my Dad kept tropical fish. My fish - I will bet any money you like - don't have anything that looks like White Spot. If Velvet looks 'furry', then what my plecs have, looks like Velvet, but it's not hairy (if that makes sense!)

I even took the bloomin' fish back to the store and kept saying, "It doesn't look like White Spot..."

Now I think about it, the guy even said that the greyness on the plecs was probably purely a response to stress caused by the chemical 'over-load'...

Hmmm...


Two guesses where I'm NOT going to go back to...

also some fish, generally catfish and loaches, are sensitive to white spot medication and you need to use half doses and even that is risky sometimes.

Oh bugger... guess what I have? Catfish and loaches...

*screams*

OK, so no meds for them tomorrow esp. as I keep reading that off-the-shelf meds are ruddy useless...

What they will get is a 50% water change first thing... I don't have to start work until 10:30, so I've got enough time to get my feet soaked before I set off...


(I'm beginning to be very glad that I bought a battery powered siphon pump...)

can we have a little re cap. what fish do you have alive in the tank now and what are your latest water stats (whenever you get a chance to test it amongst your busy schedule!!)?

Ok, in my tank, I have:

3 Coolie Loaches
2 Sailfin Catfish
2 Siamese Flying Foxes
6 Zebra Danios

I'll post up the water stats (pre- and post- water change in the morning...)

That settles it then, the white stuff on the inside of the glass is just snow.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Yep, it snowed in m'tank!!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

Look forward to seeing the stats

just keep up the water changes and monitoring.

put it this way, if we found out conclusively that the fish were unwell when you got them from the shop because the shop don't have the slightest clue how to care for fish then i would not be in the least bit surprised!

 

[B13]

Well, the fact that I was told that the catfish only grew to 6cms kinda gave it away... Esp. as I was thinking, "I'm sure these ones grow to 20 inches..."

...and that the Flying Foxes like to live in a shoal when I read that they don't (My two get along fine tho'... there's enough room and hiding places to give 'em both enough space. )

...and was also told to put TEN food pellets in the tank at night... (they get one)



Next time, can someone remind me to listen to my instincts??



(Nick16 has recommended a good, well-established lfs in Dorking. I'm gonna take a trip over there and have a look round... )


Question: The shop gave me something called "Safe Start" (to pour onto a filter foam) that claims to contain live bacteria - has anyone got any info/thoughts on this stuff?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

yes i have plenty of thoughts on safestart, however most of them are not suitable for a family forum

i would advise you to trust your instincts!!

good luck with the better lfs

 

[Nick16]

Well, the fact that I was told that the catfish only grew to 6cms kinda gave it away... Esp. as I was thinking, "I'm sure these ones grow to 20 inches..."

...and that the Flying Foxes like to live in a shoal when I read that they don't (My two get along fine tho'... there's enough room and hiding places to give 'em both enough space. )

...and was also told to put TEN food pellets in the tank at night... (they get one)



Next time, can someone remind me to listen to my instincts??



(Nick16 has recommended a good, well-established lfs in Dorking. I'm gonna take a trip over there and have a look round... )


Question: The shop gave me something called "Safe Start" (to pour onto a filter foam) that claims to contain live bacteria - has anyone got any info/thoughts on this stuff?

i have safe start B13, imo it isnt terribly great but its worth a shot if all else fails. have you binned the stress zyme and the test kit? i will be happy to have them!! if they are test strips, thats what i use, and i know they arent great, but i have never had a problem with my water as im religios with the water changes! the lfs in dorking is good, and they know their stuff, you can probe them for answers but always check what they say, becuase after all they are not there to make friends.

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, we should coin a new word, snakedirt, for bottled bacteria, assuming the term "snake oil" means something to you in the UK.

~~waterdrop~~